From the Lookout: Memories of Peninsula State Park’s Summer Camp for Girls

by Kathleen Harris

For every summer from 1916 to 1948, Camp Meenahga, on the picturesque shoreline of Lake Michigan in Door County’s Peninsula State Park, hosted young girls and women from across the United States and Canada. From July to September each year, campers slept in canvas tents, told stories beside a massive stone fireplace, swam, canoed, sailed, hiked, rode horses, and watched the sunset from the Lookout, a gazebo with a spectacular view of the waters of Green Bay.
 
With big ideas, little money, and no experience, Alice Orr Clark and Frances Louise “Kidy” Mabley founded Meenahga as a place for young women to refine their manners, enjoy outdoor leisure activities, and learn woodcraft. From the Lookout is an account of these experiences, a history of Camp Meenahga informed by what campers, counselors, and others left behind, including letters home, notes from Clark and Mabley, and many pages from the camp yearbook and newsletter Pack and Paddle . 

Brimming with nostalgia, From the Lookout brings to life the sights, sounds, and smells of an idyllic summer retreat, one that long after it closed lived on as a place of respite in the memories of those who knew and loved it best.
 

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 23, 2020

About the author

Kathleen Harris served as year-round naturalist at Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin for twenty-five years. Before that, she worked as an educator at the Ridges Sanctuary in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, and as a county naturalist in Iowa. She has two grown sons, Brendan and Cole. When she’s not ambling Door County trails, she enjoys exploring the wooded brook that tumbles across her own five-acre property with Penny, her rescue Vizsla.

Reviews

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterfully written trip back to the 1910's-40s that will make you long to be a camper at Meenahga yourself. Idyllic summers in the park come to life in this poignant, reminiscent collection of memories- a perfect lakeside read!

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone interested in the history of Door County and Peninsula State Park. Well written and researched. Looking forward to another book by Kathleen Harris.

[Emily Koester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Take a step back into a sliver of Wisconsin history with "From the Lookout: Memories of Peninsula State Park's Summer Camp for Girls" by Kathleen Harris. Harris revisits the rich history of Camp Meenahga, operating every summer in Door County's Peninsula State Park from 1916 to 1948.

Besides covering all the happy happenings and positive learning of those involved with the camp, the book addresses the troubles late in the camp's life. While reading I felt like I was a participant in the camp, with how well Harris describes everything and includes comments by past campers.

Throughout the book are segments from the camp's yearbook, including writings by campers. Harris provides the historical facts while the excerpts from campers enlighten the reader with everyday life of the girls who attended the camp. Photos from camp days are also included.

Camp supporter Albert E. Doolittle, mentioned throughout the book, has ties to Vilas County, including managing the Trout Lake Fish Hatchery while owning and operating Rocky Reef Resort. 
Harris ends with a complete roster of all the campers, counselors, staff and others who attended or worked at the camp.

“We (Camp Meenahga co-founders Alice Orr Clark and Frances Louise Mabley) are trying to teach our girls to THINK. Each girl has her place, her individuality, and as such she must learn to take her part in the great whole. She must realize her responsibility, first to herself and then to others; what he must contribute, and what she must get out of … community life.” -Clark wrote in a 1935 Camp Meenahga brochure.

[Sherry Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful book describing the history of a camp started by two women in 1916 and ending in 1948. The camp was located in Peninsula Park in Doir County.

[Zoe Purcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had such a good time at this spot I can’t wait to go back. I love to know girls have always been giggling and swimming there :)

[Jim Gallen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"From the Lookout" is the delightful tale of Camp Meenahga in Door County, Wisconsin's Peninsula State Park that entertained and formed girls from 1916 to 1948.  Founded by women from St.Louis, Missouri and situated on the shores of Green Bay, the camp catered mainly to girls from affluent Midwestern families.  Drawn from "Pack and Paddle", the Camp Yearbooks and other documents, author Kathleen Harris has woven anecdotes into a narrative sure to entertain and inform.

Approximately 1,300 girls attended Camp Meenahga during its run which encompassed two world wars, one Great Depression and countless personal triumphs and tragedies.  Each reader can choose the stories that relate their experience and touch the heart.  Camp experience started in chartered Pullman cars that brought campers to Sturgeon Bay, triggering my memories of train travel.  The 1926 note that "One of the girls took a Kodak picture of" Eagle Bluff Lighthouse compares and contrasts our experience with that of a century ago.  The several poems quoted bespeak of budding literateurs among the campers.  Among my favorites is:

"You wake up in the morning
And the sky is cold and gray,
Your counselor is shouting, 'Come on, be on your way.'
The morning breeze is chilly
And the water's caked with ice;
You really can't help thinking
That your bed is warm and nice.
And you shiver and you quiver
As down to the Bay you slip.
Oh! it's nice to get up in the morning
For that early morning dip!"

Though situated on an idyllic Bayshore, Meenahga did not exist in a vacuum.  Brothers and friends went off to the Great War while campers raised money for French orphans.  Former campers and staff joined the WAACS and served in Campbell, Kentucky and as an imprisoned Angel of Bataan as campers observed German prisoners of war and construction of naval vessels and knitted afghans for the Red Cross.

As a life-long resident of the St. Louis area and frequent visitor to Door County, I found many points of connection in this brief book.  References to St. Louis events and locations of which I am familiar in Door County added personal touches to this work.  

Pictures of camp and campers are valuable supplements to the text.  I perused the list of known campers and staff for familiar names.  I recognized several families and knew one camper.  See if you do.

I recommend "From the Lookout" for any fan of Door County and readers who appreciate social history of the twentieth century or just want a light but rewarding read.

I received a free copy of this book without an obligation to post a review.

[Susan Leaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was particularly interesting to me because Door County and Peninsula State Park are some of my most treasured places in the world. I have spent a few weeks and many long weekends vacationing in Door County since I was 6 years old, and I’m currently 78. For years , every summer my extended family and I divided up the weeks of each summer and the spring and fall weekends sharing and living in Door County on one of our cabin cruiser boats. However, before reading this book, I never knew Camp Meenahga for girls had ever existed. It was established in 1916 by two amazing women who, out of necessity to support their families and with a strong sense of vision, came together and used their hard work and their creativity to create a wonderful, nurturing experience for thousands of girls. They were far ahead of their time, and it was somewhat of a miracle that they were able to realize this dream of theirs and succeed in running this camp in a time when women had almost no independence or rights of their own. They were expected to be totally dependent on a man to survive; yet these two courageous and gutsy women not only survived, but thrived in the beautiful environment of Door County where they nurtured and helped shape the young lives of so many girls. Camp Meenahga,, which they created ,survived for 33 years and finally closed after the summer of 1948 when I was only a year old. I am grateful to Kathleen Harris, the author of this book, and others from Door County for making sure that this amazing experiment and life changing experience for all those who attended, has not been lost, but instead has been recorded in this fascinating book. What a gift Alice Orr Clark and Francis Louise Mabley gave to so many young women over those 33 years.