Sunday, November 10, 2013

Camp Strongheart - Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin

Postmarked July 1942,  Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

Couldn't find out much about Camp Strongheart except that they were a boys camp featured in Life Magazine in 1956...and that they owned a nice 1940 Ford Woody!


15 comments:

  1. Hi Steve,

    My husband's family started Camp Strongheart for Boys in 1924. You can just barely see his grandfather in the driver's seat in the photo. Sanford Herzog was into anything that had a motor - he raced boats with Louis Chevrolet, he drove one of the first Eliason snowmobiles in Wisconsin, he owned many beautiful Chris Crafts etc. Oh, if we had it all now, eh? A few years ago I found a site devoted to the restoring of one of the camp's Voyager canoes……maybe we'll find that Ford Woody someday.
    Thank you for sharing.

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    1. I worked at Camp Strongheart 3 or 4 summers from about 1954 to maybe 1957? I was a counselor with the little kids, and I was hired by Lloyd Shafer who had just bought the camp from the Herzogs. Karl and his wife were the money, Lloyd was the camper, he came out of the Boy Scout tradition I think, I had just become an Eagle Scout, and I knew nothing. It was a wonderful place. I remember when I was in Law School at University of Chicago, I called Lloyd and we (girlfriend and me) went up there in the dead of winter for a great week in the snow. As I recall, it seems to me that Lloyd and Karl did not get along; I know the Cincinnati group were displeased with the change from the Herzog's. All I knew that it was lots of fun, freedom, and a great place to work. Art , fayerart@gmail.com.

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    2. Everyone in my family got a camp strong heart napkin mounted on our wall with a brief history of the camp. It was in my family. I'm sure I'm related to your family. I'm a Shafer

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  2. That's so great to have that kind of family history!..."If we all had it now..." How many times I've thought that after my mother telling her family's pre-depression stories. Your comments have made my day! - Thanks! If you'd like a high-definition scan of the postcard let me know and I can email it to you!

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  3. Steve,

    Oh, these folks had a wonderfully varied and fascinating history and investigating leads online has become a great way to learn about local history, as well. The photos are a bonus. Yes, as the unofficial family archivist, I'd love a hi-def copy.

    Thanks again, Dorr

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    1. Rather than post your email address for the world to see, here is mine. I'll send you a copy of the postcard ASAP!

      slt1954@gmail.com

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  4. I had the pleasure of attending Camp Strongheart during the summers of 1957 and 1958. That is where I learned to speak English fluently, it was my father's idea to send me and my brothers there from Cuba to learn English. It was the best way to learn a language. We used to raise the Cuban flag under the U.S.A. flag every morning. I have great, happy memories from those summers. Does anyone know where nurse Shaw might be? Vicente.J. Herrero

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    1. Thanks for the background! Always nice when I get to see someone have a moment with a postcard. This is one of my favorite cards.

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    2. Responding to your post, I was a camper and then a counselor at Camp Strongheart in the 1950's; one of my cabin-mates was Ricardo Herrero Rodruigues (sp?). I do remember Nurse Dorothy Shaw and her husband, Karl.

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    3. I read your message with interest; we must have been cabin-mates, since I also shared a cabin with Ricardo in that era. If you would like to touch base, you can reach out to me at wvstrauss@strausstroy.com

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  5. Fun to trip over this. I went to Camp Strongheart 1949-52 from age 6-8. We were able to spend the whole 8 week summer there, which allowed us time to get over home-sickness and into the fun, enough not to want to leave. All kinds of great memories from all the activities; sports yes, but also fishing, hiking, camping out, all of it. And the Herzog family was great. Especially for the little kids, Mrs. H would frighten us with Indian stories and adventures at night and then we'd have to find our way back to the cabin to hide under the blankets:)

    A few other memories.....it was only a few years after War's end and they had a surplus landing craft that they took us across the lake in, to pick blueberries and raspberries....total fun. Mid-summer had a parents' weekend visit, I guess to assure them we were still alive....most of us would have preferred them to stay home, but for two days the quality of the food served was considerably improved!

    I guess I could write a book, but probably not a lot different from all the stories of all the camps of that era. Just outdoor fun and game....no phones, no electronics, not even TV.

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  6. I would love to read more stories about this camp. My family and I love staying here all summer long and I love hearing the history.

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  7. My younger brother and I attended Camp Strongheart in the summer of 1962 (?) I'm guessing. We both did a 4 week session. Lloyd Schaeffer was the camp director. He was a friend of my Mothers family as he gsd worked as a counselor for my grandfather at a camp he ran for WK Kellogg at Pine Lake, MI. I was from SW Michigan in a small town. We went to Chicago and got on a chartered train filled with kids going to many camps..sort of like the Harry Potter train. I remember the cabins had no electricity. There were a lot of "big city kids" which was a change for a kid from a rural town. I remember there was a girls camp close by.. camp towering pines or somethinglike that. I remember some sort of mixer with tbem. I also remember catching huge muskilunge a muskie in the lake. In retrospect, it was a preparation for both my brother & I for boarding school in Massachusetts which followed fairly soon. It's a great memory. I do remember math tutoring too. I hated tbat.

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    1. I wonder if was Camp Clearwater for girls. That camp is still operating today. It is right across the lake from what used to be Camp Strongheart (it is now an RV resort)

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  8. My cousin Jim attended. I believe it closed after the 1959 session. He and his brother then went Camp Ojibwa.

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