The sun smiled on us for our big celebration, with over eighty former campers, staff, residents, and their families, plus volunteers from the Plainfield Township Historical Commission. The guests enjoyed guided tours around the lodge, property walkabouts, and visits to three huts. The archives were on loan from the Bay City Historical Museum and were viewed in the Craft Hut. The laughter, singing, camaraderie, and renewed friendships put smiles on all of our faces! Cousins, sisters, and friends made plans to attend together, enjoying the boat rides, dinner under a tent, and singing all day long, plus the campfire with Beanie (Barb Haggart), Shelley Harris, and Cindy Knapp Baker. Cindy led songs during dinner, Beanie organized a trivia quiz, and the nine hours of festivities passed too quickly. Girls found their names in the huts, viewed the Buddy Board inside the boat house, and shared their photo albums. The evening ended with the wishing boat ceremony–
It was a magical day!
GETTING READY !
From sunny Florida to blue skies and no humidity in Michigan, we are unpacked and ready to roll for the big 100-year celebration of Camp Maqua on the Loon Lake property. We have closed the ticket sales, but between the residents and campers/staff, there will be approximately 70 attendees enjoying a day at camp.
For those who sent in your payment, apologies for not responding, but our treasurer is still a working girl! Our event team each had their responsibilities, which included souvenirs, food, cake, tent, tables, chairs, parking, and publicity. We all have much work left to do, not only on our personal properties, but the association property, which includes the craft hut, boat house, Brownie, and beachfront. We also have the property being sprayed for mosquitoes!
The day will begin with check-in by volunteers from the Plainfield Township Historical Commission, followed by a tour of the lodge. You can walk about the property and reminisce with your friends. The Craft Hut will house the archives with two more volunteers. Boat rides, a dip in the lake if it’s warm enough, followed by dinner. A special cake will delight you, as will the sing-song and trivia game. Hopefully, the weather permits a nice campfire with guitars and more singing.
If you are local, bring a chair for the campfire, as we only have 16. Also, water will be provided, but bring your own beverages! If you are interested in the book “Camp Maqua”, it will be on sale for $20. Extra souvenirs can also be purchased if you have friends who could not attend. BRING CASH since my PayPal was compromised.
We are excited to spend the day with you. There will be many golf carts to ferry you from your cars to the lodge, and back and forth from the beach to the Brownie if needed.
Planning for the Centennial at Camp Maqua!
The end of Michigan’s season for us is always bittersweet. We head to sunny Florida, but the autumn leaves are so beautiful, especially around the boathouse and on Loon Lake. Our last boat ride before storing the boat for the winter was stunning. Calm lake, blue skies, baby loon growing, and foliage on display in all its glory.
The excitement of ending was the planning for our big 100-year anniversary next June 15, 2024. I have visions of the first campers arriving at the lodge, with the newness of each hut, meeting their counselors for the first time. But, I know campers and staff can envision your own realities and memories! Do you remember all the planning it took to prepare your trunks with the right items from the suggested list in your flyers? For the staff, there were days and weeks of planning for the activities for the summer; food acquisition, and preparation; medical and nature supplies; beachfront maintenance, etc.
Our committee managed to get all the details ready for tents, chairs, tables, food, entertainment, souvenirs, and volunteers to work the various stations on the day of the tours, walkabouts, and archival displays. But, we need your help to make this successful! The numbers need to be in by January for ordering purposes and for us to be able to plan for food. Your tickets are our guarantee that our planning will run smoothly on the day. Hopefully, 100 happy campers will not be disappointed with our efforts for a successful day.
There will be golf carts to ferry everyone from their cars to the lodge, and for those with disabilities–to and from the lakefront or Chapel Hill. The Plainfield Township Historical Commission will manage the check-in, tours in the main rooms of the lodge, and the display in the Craft Hut. The residents will be on hand to greet everyone and listen to your wonderful memories! We are as excited as campers on their first visit! Sending greetings from our families–The Starks, R., and B. Baker, Engel, Smith, West,Gorman, Clancey, Kirila, Braun, and Fidler families welcome you! (Photo credits Keegan Cooley)
Happy Summering 2023
We have had the kind of Spring in Michigan that can only be described as inconsistent, except we all know Michigan weather. Mother Nature cried with rain through early spring and now it is more like summer, with temperatures ranging from the 70s to the 90s! We arrived in mid-May from Florida to the trees leafing, but a preponderance of blooming trees, lilacs, and early blooms. The Maqua weeds had not grown too tall and the gardens look lovely. We are dealing with whitecaps, wind, and hazy smoke from the Canadian wildfires at the moment.
We thought we had a helper this year, but at the last minute, our oldest son Kyle had to cancel. He will visit later in the summer with family members. We missed his strong self, but his house remodeling took precedence. Opening the lodge is always a week-long adventure, tidying up from the winter, unpacking the items that have been tucked away, and removing the screen tarps that keep the snow off the porches. This year we tried to keep them up longer to keep the pine pollen away, but with company coming, our porch of dreams needs the views and the breezes. Pollen will gather like yellow snow on the porches.
Hut one survived another year, but not without a huge carpenter ant infestation. Goodbye to ants! We have not seen the groundhogs or bats that plagued the lodge last year, but a Maqua neighbor had a bear sighting! We are now reluctant to install the bird feeders they love and wonder how long it will take to break open the compost bin. 
The Camp Maqua Association members are busy fixing up the common property near the lake. The craft hut and Brownie need some work to ready for the 100th anniversary of the camp on this property next summer. Soon, we will announce our plans for this ticketed event, which will be sometime in June 2024. The Bay City Historical Commission has agreed to loan us some of the archives in their possession. It will have a similar format to the last two reunions with food, boat rides, and a campfire with singing.
Our summer includes a great deal of company with family and friends, but soon we are off to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary with a trip to England, Scotland, and Iceland. It is predominantly a rail trip to see old friends from my high school and college days, a wedding in Scotland for a cousin, and a quick layover as a tourist in Iceland. The next post will be after Independence Day, so enjoy your summer!
Happy New Year 2023
It was a year! Covid continued to rear its ugly head, keeping family and friends apart, but not for long. Our family, spread out between California and Florida, managed to get together. Two hurricanes ravaged our Florida property while we watched one of them on television from Michigan. Four days later, we arrived to no electricity, five acres of downed trees, some roof damage, and a small amount of water intrusion. We were thankful for good connections in the tree, roof, and building industries to help with repairs. And we were incredibly thankful for FEMA, who collected the vegetation from trimmed and lost trees and debris that lined our roadways. Stay tuned for details this summer for the 2024 Camp Maqua reunion, which is in the planning stages by our committee to celebrate 100 years on the Loon Lake property. Happy New Year!
Bats in the Belfry
We purchased the lodge in the winter of 1987, freezing like the Floridians we had become. Our children were experiencing their first snow, with all the activities we enjoyed growing up–skiing, snowmobiling, ice-skating, tobogganing and creating snowmen. It was an eventful vacation that culminated in our new summer home.
The ceiling was still just open beams, with only a shingled roof to protect the inside of the vacuous space that once housed campers dining. Bits of black shingle dust would gather on the floor over the winters when we left the place locked and packed. Cleaning would take days to get it ready for our summer fun.
One of my husband’s six sisters had just married in Ohio the following summer, and all those who could drive north for an extension of the festivities climbed into cars and headed up the highway. The green metal bunkbeds that graced the huts were left in the loft that had been built by the previous owners. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a great room, a kitchen and two porches were designed on the east and west sides, divided by a wall. Between bunk beds and sleeping bags and four bedrooms, we managed to squeeze in a very large family for the night.
We thought we had all the young ones settled in, but suddenly heard screams from the loft. A BAT!! There is nothing worse than hysterical young girls, so we attempted to calm them down and find the critter, while we handed them all badminton racquets from the sports benches on the ping-pong porch. Covering their heads with their bedding, they waited for the all clear as their hero managed to corral it out the front door. I don’t think anyone slept that night, for fear of its return:)
Years pass, but bat stories never stopped. There were bats pressed against screen windows by drunk Irish boys, who managed to get the bat to safety. There was the surprise bat that interrupted a daytime ping-pong game and was accidentally volleyed with the paddle. A nephew, in his tidy-whiteys threw a sock in the air with a tennis ball inside, while standing on a camp dining table. Tossing it in the air, he hoped for it to follow it to the floor and be caught with a towel. Failure. Blankets thrown from the loft caught one. Many were lured to the porch, with double screen doors open wide for fast exit.
Years ago we had installed a cedar ceiling to dress up the open beams and to cut down on the roof debris. We were sure that would take care of the bat problem and for years it did. This week made the second episode since their installation that we have had to suit up for battle. (Having heard that if a bat touches you, rabie shots are in order.) The windows had been closed in our bedroom, so when I felt a breeze on my arm that lay outside the sheets, I lifted my sleepy head in the early dawn to see a bat flying around the room. BAT!!! I screamed, as we covered our heads with bedding. When my husband finally pulled on clothing and saw it fly down the hallway, we closed the doors and he managed to get it out to the porch and back into nature.
Three times in one week, bats interrupted our life. Flying over our guests during a Euchre game, my husband finally solved the puzzle of their entry point. The next day he caulked every seam in every board that had space on the front porch and the loft. Of course, still paranoid, we are sleeping with doors closed until our exterminator arrives to remove the well-intentioned bat houses placed on either side of the lodge, smoke out and trap the bat nest near the loft window and seal up their nest. I will be so relieved, even though I know they are great mosquito eaters.
The photos show the crazy get-up of a woman not wanting the bat to touch any part of her; the badminton racquets handed out to visiting guest for protection, just in case, and the one man caulking team. The metal bat sculpture is a whimsical reminder of past adventures with the hope there will be no more incidents.