Off to Camp Maqua

Families Who Felt Like Camp Was Theirs—The William Evans Family

Published on by Kathy Baker

Delphine Evans was hired as the director for Camp Maqua for the summer of 1976 and was in the unique postion of directing with her two children Melinda and Billy living on the premises. Her husband William, a lawyer with the state, managed to drive up on weekends and help out with camp duties, while doing his own legal work in between. Delphine wrote;

“After accepting the position, we agreed that my children could go to camp with me and that instead of hiring 3 kitchen aides, I would hire
four and they would rotate between working in kitchen and watching the children.  (I would reimburse the “Y” for the salary of one of the kitchen aides)”

“The kids and I lived in the lodge and that seemed to work quite well.  I could be part of the evening activities and the after hours staff gatherings without worrying about the kids.  I remember the staff as being a hard working cohesive group with no major conflicts or issues-rare among camp staffs!”

“My first session at camp has been one of the most enjoyable ones I have ever spent as a director. Who will ever forget our 1950’s party and all the great costumes? Then the fourth of July brought us parades, campfires and Chris as the Maqua monster. All the campers up here were happy and excited about camp and I really hope to see all of you next week, or if not, then back next summer”, wrote Delphine in the “Loon”.

Billy and Melinda were interviewed the summer they stayed at camp and were featured in a copy of the “Loon” in 1976, presumably to Mary Toburen, who was the assistant at that time. What a wonderful summer the two siblings must have had, enjoying camp with the other kids!

Under the heading “Infirmary” Melinda dictated, “ First we came and moved in and then we went to see what the waterfront looked like. Next we looked at the lodge and everything else at camp. Then we had to go home again with Daddy. When we came back the staff was already here and the campers were going to be coming soon. Our first day we went swimming and got into area two. After the campers came, we started doing lots of things—like arts and crafts and playing all different kinds of games. The four kitchen aides are our babysitters and we have lots of fun every day. I think that camp is really good.”

Billy’s interview was just as delightful—“First we came up, then we looked around camp and we decided to go to the lodge. Then we went home for five days before coming back. On Sunday, the campers came and we played games. The next day camp started. We started doing all kinds of stuff, like arts and crafts and swimming. We had a big bonfire on the fourth of July. The people left to go canoeing and biking. We get to sing songs and have toasts at every meal. Our babysitters are Mary, Mo, Judy and Sue. They are K.A.’s.”

 

 

 

 

Families Who Felt Camp Was Theirs–The Emmett Williams Family

Published on by Kathy Baker

 

In 1957 Emmet and Florence Williams made the decision to search for a summer place within a reasonable distance from their Detroit home. They discovered their dream property that year, close to two national forests and an easy three-hour drive for their two daughters Denise and Sharon, who were two and five at the time.

The shell of the summer house was already built, with knotty pine inside, just waiting for installation. Ira Schofield had developed the property, known as Palisades Park, on Hillsdale Avenue, bordering Loon Lake. Emmet, his father and uncle built the first rustic home with a water heater under the sink. Florence remembered boiling water for hot baths.

The last of the knotty pine was taken down in 1986, and the old stove was removed when the family needed extra space. Emmet retired in 1986 and the renovation on the original home was completed in 1987 with heat, insulation, larger closets and an extra bath.

“We loved it,” said Florence. “My husband worked nights and my parents lived in Ohio. We spent three weekends up north and one weekend a month in Ohio. We had no car and no phone.”

Florence recalled the fence between their property and the camp, which stood about 6-7 feet and was of natural wood. The fence stood on the property line and was installed when the camp worried that boys would move in next door to the girls camp. “We could not see over the fence, but from our dock daughters Sharon and Denise learned to swim different strokes, kayak and canoe just from watching the instructors at camp!”

“There were five stations and two L-shaped docks with two rafts. Sharon and I would watch the girls with their instructors in the canoes or playing Marco Polo from our dock,” said Denise.

The Williams’ family could always hear the singing from the campers and counselors as they ate or sat around the campfire, but on rainy days songs could be heard with stomping feet and clapping hands with the children’s voices from the lodge. “We always enjoyed all the activities from our home and it was never too loud or annoying,” said Florence. “It always appeared to be a very well-run camp until the late seventies and it just wasn’t the same with the boys there.”

“The boys would come over from Camp Mahn-go-tah-see on a giant Viking ship, calling to the girls,” she laughed. “The counselors would act nonchalant, but they probably wished for them to leave.”

One day Denise was babysitting at her home and she spotted a huge albino skunk eating baby food out of a jar in the yard that had been left out. There had been reports that the same skunk had been spotted in camp by counselors and campers alike. Denise loved living next to Maqua, but she loved it more when they left and she could ride the horses up to Chapel Hill and walk around the property. “We knew every path like the back of our hands,” she said. “Mr. Watson, who took care of the property used to call us “My girl” and we called him “My man”.

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Families That Felt Camp Was Theirs–The Watson Family

Published on by Kathy Baker

INTERVIEW WITH STEWART WATSON

Stewart, Marney and Eleanor Watson felt like Camp Maqua was “Camp Watson” when the campers all went home for the summer.  “We stayed away in the summer, but when camp was closed, we could use all the buildings and property. Our main focus was the land between the lodge and Dutton,” said Stewart. “We had access to the rowboats for fishing and knew where to catch the pike. Many of the other buildings were in need of repair. We would roam the property, fish—even in winter with a shanty up, and one day I even shot a partridge from the porch on the west side, which wasn’t screened at that time. I had five kids within eleven years and my sister Eleanor had five and Marney had one, so we considered it our own camp.”

William and Alma, or “Ma and Pa Watson” moved to Hale from Bay City in the spring of 1952. William had saved all his dimes for a trip to California in 1951, and upon their return spotted the ad in the Bay City Times for caretakers for the camp. He had worked building P.T. boats in the shipyards as a finished carpenter for contractors and a “jack of all trades”—a perfect fit for whatever needed to be done at camp.

In the winter the Watsons lived mainly in the kitchen with a wood stove to keep them warm. During the camping season they lived in a twelve by twelve cabin past the infirmary. Stewart said you could see daylight through the slats of the cabin. The kids used to use the back two bedrooms on the east side, facing the lake, as their hunting cabin in the winter. “We were so cold! We would pile so many blankets on top of us that you could hardly see us,” he laughed. (The caretaker’s cabin or cook’s cabin is now located on the Gorman property.)

When the Watsons came to Maqua, the lodge was not level. It sagged so much that Mr. Watson jacked the entire building and strengthened the foundation. He was also responsible for the new road that came into the camp. The old road was on Putnam Road, but around the curve, and entrance was in the thickly wooded area on the right as you head to Long Lake. The original road followed the old railway tracks at the back of the property. Pa Watson planted White Pine trees along the new road coming into camp, and one of the same trees from those planting years still stands in the yard on Hillsdale Rd. where the Watson’s eventually built when the camp closed. Stewart and his wife Charlotte lived there for many years.

Stewart helped his father with the general maintenance at camp and around the summer of 1954 or 1955, Stewart built the Michigan fieldstone drinking fountain that still stands. He embedded three copper pennies in the top of the four-sided fountain, which stood for “Three Coins In The Fountain” after the movie of the same name, which was playing at the time of the construction.

Stewart graduated from Central High School in 1943, in the 12B session, which meant he had a January graduation. He recalled going back to school to get his report card and there was a session going on in the study room. “I followed the line that went in that door,” he said,” and they were taking a test. So, I sat down and took it, not knowing what it was for. I forgot about the test, and on August 8, 1943 I received a letter congratulating me for my 98/100 score. I had just been accepted into the USAF and it told me to report to Camp Custer. I had enlisted and did not even know it! Well, it was fine, since I had always wanted to fly. When I got out I went back to school on the G.I. Bill and had five years of college.”

“That last year I was in college there were four girls sitting at a table and we joined them. While I was sitting there, one of the girls introduced me to her friend that had just walked in the door. Charlotte and I have been married sixty two years.” (She has since passed away since this interview.)

Stewart had always gone to camps as a child. He and his two sisters attended Rainbow Lake Bible Camp near Stanton, Mich. Eventually, he would help start the Spring Hill Youth and Family Camp in Evart, which grew from 600-1,000 acres. He worked as President of the Board for five years and for eight years he was in charge of all the upkeep on the grounds. Having been involved in camps his whole life and as his father’s right hand man in his twenties, Stewart walked in the footsteps of his father until the camp closed.

His main career was with Dow Corning and Dow Chemical as an illustrator, creating all the audio visual aids, medical and patent drawings, including silicone breast implants, etc. Five years before he retired, he was “farmed out” to local artists, which was the beginning of the computer years. He retired in 1951.

What do you recall of the Watson family?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Others Who Rented Camp

Published on by Kathy Baker

A group of men and women were to go to camp June 11, 1934, to clean and open Maqua, according to minutes and ledgers of the camp committee. Following the opening, “The Cigar Factory Girls” were to spend a weekend vacation at camp with a lifeguard on June 18. Camp was to open on June 27, but the counselors and other staff were up there ahead of opening day on June 23 of that summer.

“The committee agreed to allow fifteen business girls to attend Camp Maqua as a weekend trip with a charge of twenty-five cents per girl”, noted the minutes from May 22, 1936. By February 1937, the camp committee discussed keeping the camp open for families after season.

Minutes stated the camp was used for a conference from Michigan Sate University in 1941. By 1957, the camp committee was pondering how to rent the camp to school groups off-season when the lodge and cabins were not winterized.

By 1958 the Bay City Council of Churches and the Sterling High School Band utilized the camp. The band was charged $225 and they had to provide their own Red Cross certified lifeguard and prepare their own meals. It was mentioned in 1959 that the profits were increased by renting to these extra groups, and the structures did not “lie dormant” with no-one using them, so it was in the best interest financially to figure out the best plan.

The camp committee agreed on June 20, 1962 to run a blind ad in the Bay City Times stating that the camp could be rented by responsible parties for groups during the month of August. Various churches used the camp for their retreats in the early sixties, as well as the Oscoda High School band, and the Young Adult Group (the Y-Teens) with payment around $380. There were also mentions of exchange students participating in camp activities though the Council of Churches in the later sixties.

The Camp Maqua committee met on January 15, 1964 and one of the main topics concerned “Family Camp”, which started August 15-24 and was limited to ten families. The fee structure was $50 for adults 17 and older; $30 for children 5-16 inclusive; and $10 for children 4 and under. The camp investigated the type of insurance required for this type of camping and medicals were required. At the end of this camp experience, a letter arrived to the camp committee from Wayne State University in August regarding the creation of a family camp at Maqua.

Other mentions of rental were in 1971, when the Live-Y’ers used the camp and Peace River Lutheran Chruch from Rhodes, Michigan used the property and facilities for $400 and $10 per cabin. The committee restricted the use of boats and campers were restricted to the field, most likely in part to liability with water safety.

The entries found in some of the archival scrapbooks at the Great Lakes Bay Region YWCA in Bay City held pages of articles referring to the Girl Reserves and Business and Emplyoyed girls who would rent Camp Maqua off-season, as well as many other organizations.

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Traditions On The Way–

Published on by Kathy Baker

IMG_2020 When Beth Phillip’s parents drove her to camp in their pick-up truck (1972-78), there was a certain point where she would get so excited, because she felt like she was almost there. As they neared US 23 there was a pink tent and that was the landmark she waited to see!

“My Mom and Grandma would always drive me up there for sessions and my Dad would always pick me up and drive up to meet my Mom at our cottage near Harrisville,” said Jenifer Penzien (1969-71) of their yearly summer ritual.

For Maggie Young  (1962), it was an adventure. “Even travelling in my Dad’s 1961 Corvair was an adventure. It ended up being my first car.”

“My family was not wealthy, and we didn’t even have a television until 1956,” said Ellen Hydorn (1954) whose aunt shared her vacation home in Tawas with the family,” but the rest of the girls I went up with were all fairly wealthy. I remember my Dad drove me up in the old Cadillac.”

Carol Requadt’s brother was in Camp Iroquois on Sand Lake in 1945 and when both camping sessions were over, their parents would pick them up and head to their rental cottage, which was also in Tawas. She was not alone in that double pick up, as many of the campers had brothers attending nearby camps.

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Hop On The Bus!

Published on by Kathy Baker

eh-bus-1920s-wm-johnson

“Camp Goers Too Busy To Worry About Weather” read the headline from a local Bay City newspaper pasted into the archival scrapbook. “Grade School Registered At Maqua Today: 25 Travel By Bus” was the second headline.

“Too agog about going to camp to care about the gray weather, and too busy lugging crowded bags to bother about rain coats, twenty-five youngsters of grade school age were at the YWCA this morning to board the bus that took them to Loon Lake. Munching candy, and starting to sing before they were even out of town, the crowd made a merry invasion of Camp Maqua for the first camping period of the season”, read the piece from June 26, 1935.

“The girls usually arrived on a bus that left from the YWCA in Bay City”, wrote 1920’s camper Margaret Dahlem in a letter in 1988, “but one rich girl arrived on a white motorcycle.”

There were more ways to arrive in style, as her friend Harriet Crumb could attest to one summer as she stood on the lawn of the lodge. She also rode the bus through Pinconning, Standish, Twining, Turner and Whittemore and into Hale, singing camp songs the entire time and loved the attention she received from the locals as they arrived in town.

“Initially, we were all loaded onto a bus, which belonged to the Y,” recalled Beverly Schlatter (1944-1949), “in front of the old “Y” building. We would meet all our friends there, with our footlockers or trunks packed with clothes or bedding for two weeks. My Dad unloaded the footlocker from the car to the bus and all the parents waved to us. As the bus pulled away, the older girls who had been to camp before, started singing the Maqua camp songs and that’s how we learned them.”

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