In August of 1929, an article entitled “Maqua Leader Swims Length of Loon Lake” appeared in a local paper. “Kathryn Gudscheinsky, a Camp Maqua counselor, swam two miles in fifty-one minutes to the opposite shore, but the high waves made the journey longer for her return. Without a pause on that shore, she made it back in one hour and fourteen minutes.”
Edna Young, who remembered her one-piece wool bathing suit in 1932 at camp, swam the entire length of the lake at age twelve “camp to camp”. As a junior counselor, she taught swimming and said many of the girls used to swim the lake, but very carefully. “I always wanted to swim and I knew how to swim and had great instructors. I got my junior lifesaving certification through the Red Cross program, ” said Edna.
Camper Marsha Immerman (1947-53) remembered the older girls swimming across the lake, accompanied by a rowboat. Still worrying about the weeds in the middle of the lake and the leeches, she managed to swim the length despite her fears.
“I learned to swim at the high school and I could walk there, so I was a good swimmer and I was always proud of that,” said Carolyn Stanton (1947). “I couldn’t see because I was nearsighted, but I didn’t need to see to swim. I think I got glasses around the sixth grade because I remember I was the tallest girl in the class and I had to sit in the front row to see the board. I never got any leeches on me, but I do remember I swam across the lake with another girl and a counselor rowing beside me.”
Swimming was one of Penny Mitchell’s loves and she learned the year before going to camp in 1951. Her family had a cottage on Tobico Beach near Bay City. “The year I was old enough to swim across the lake, which was probably about sixth grade, I could not wait. You had to be a decent swimmer, so that you wouldn’t drown when you swam across. The rowboats went ahead of you and they were very careful. I just thought it was the coolest thing. But, then I came down with strep throat and they sent me off to Dutton to have my throat painted with mercurochrome and I swam anyway.”
Swimming to the other side of the dock was a huge goal Jennifer Fenton achieved during her time at camp in the seventies, since she almost drowned when she was seven. Three plus, two plus and four plus ratings were given to the depths with two inside the dock, three on the other side and four at the jumping spot. If you were a good swimmer, you could swim across the lake to the boys camp with a boat beside you, which she did!
Jane Linder (1956), Sally Harris (late forties) and Mary Stegall (1933-41) all swam the lake either with a counselor beside them alone or with a friend. Jane said it was a fifty-minute swim for her, which coincided with the time of the 1929 camper.
How many of you were able to swim the length of the lake?