100 Years: Nawakwa’s First Camp Seasons

In this edition we’ll cover events taking place at Camp Nawakwa and the Palisades Interstate Park during 1927 and 1928.

The May 1927 Trail Marker includes: “CAMP NOTES: Since there are a good many members of the club that attend camp who have not learned to like snakes, the Camp Committee has made the following ruling:

No snakes of any kind may be brought on the camp property by any member or guest of a member.  Members will be held responsible for guests bringing snakes into camp.”

From the November 1927 Trail Marker: “WANTED: A VICTROLA    The camp victrola has at last refused to carry on.  On the cold winter evenings to come, a little music would be most acceptable.  Any member donating or obtaining the donation of a victrola would find their act appreciated.”

As for the big change in Harriman State Park camps that year, “some camps introduced archery.”

The July 1928 Trail Marker: “A WORD TO THE WISE – Bathing Suits Should Not Be Worn In Main Room of Camp, Lodge Or On the Porch.  Serious and justified complaint has recently been made by a number of members who object, and rightly, to the wearing of bathing suits around the main lodge and on its porch.  One person recently had the bad taste to appear at the luncheon in a bathing suit.”

Ever wonder when the tradition of introducing Applicants during the Saturday evening meal was first introduced?  The November 1928 Trail Marker: “CAMP HOSTS TO INTRODUCE APPLICANTS EACH WEEKEND – In accordance with a suggestion made at the last meeting of the Council, the Camp Committee will ask all hosts at Camp Nawakwa in the future to introduce to the members present all applicants in camp.  This is to be done during the Saturday evening meal by calling upon the applicants to stand and be recognized.  The aim of this proposal is to make applicants known to members and to officially welcome the applicants to the camp.”

The Schedule of Summer Outings 1928 – “NAWAKWA SEASON BOOMING – A number of improvements have been made and others are planned by the Camp Committee.  The boats have had the club emblem painted on each bow, copper screens have been put on the windows of the main cabin and are to be put on the two winter cabins to make them mosquito proof.  A diving board will be put into place on the dock and the canoe dock is to be rebuilt.”

This same year, “The dam and core wall of Lake Sebago was completed, impounding a lake of 500 acres with seven miles of shore line; 42,000 cubic yards of each and rock place at core wall, 1,000 feet of core wall fill riprapped and planted; steel and concrete bridge, 190 feet long, erected over spillway.  The foreman’s cabin and one ice house with 200-ton capacity was completed. (1)

In 1927 the Trailside Museum was officially established at Bear Mountain State Park. (3)

Further south in the Palisades Interstate Park, John D. Rockefeller Jr. proposed to extend the park to where would later be the George Washington Bridge.  “Between 1928 and 1931 he orchestrated a massive land-buying program.  The Commission could not consider expanding parkland in New Jersey.  It was just too expensive for them.  But, it was not too expensive for JDR Jr., and he spent $21,158,475 dollars accomplishing the task.  He kept his land buying a secret from the Commission and the press.  If buyers found out that a rich philanthropist wanted their land, prices would skyrocket.  The New York Sun reported that a ten-mile strip of land in the Palisades was purchased, and though they suspected conservation as the motive, the purchaser was unknown.  In July 1933, JDR Jr. announced his intention to donate the 652 acres of land to the Commission.” (2)

Footnotes:

1. Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the Commissioners of the Palisades Interstate Park, January 31, 1927
2. Nature’s Parkway: Landscape and Philanthropy at the Palisades Interstate Park, 1900 – 1930
3. Trailsidezoo.org

Ellen King

Archivist