A violent storm struck as youth-camp owner Louis Lamborn and a group of campers cruised Lake Ontario, seriously unnerving his young crew.
So when their 56-foot Elco Flat Top yacht reached Lake Champlain on that summer cruise in 1936 and a similar forecast threatened the journey, he was determined to avoid a repeat of their harrowing adventure.
"He looked at his charts and he found Deep Bay," said Mary Simmers, whose parents worked at Lamborn's camps, called Red Cloud for boys and Red Wing for girls, on Silver Lake near Brackney, Pa., just south of Binghamton. "While he weathers the storm, he goes to shore and sees the place is for sale."
Development had been encroaching on Lamborn's Pennsylvania camps, and they were leased rather than owned. So he had been looking for a better location. When he saw Long Point, in spite of the fact he was reportedly run off by a caretaker with a rifle, he decided providence was calling.
A World War I-era military camp on the Point au Roche property in the Town of Beekmantown provided long, barracks-type buildings. A number of efforts to develop summer camps and programs there had been unsuccessful, some foiled by the Great Depression.
"The whole place was wide open on Long Point," Simmers said.
That October, Lamborn closed the deal. Counselors and senior campers, including Simmers's father, spent the next two summers chopping up and relocating the old military buildings with horses and getting the place ready.
In 1938, Red Cloud and Red Wing were complete and open for business at their new location, able to accommodate 125 campers each. Eighteen cabins had been established for boys and 18 for girls.
Tennis courts, archery and rifle ranges, canoes, sailboats, an outdoor chapel, swimming facilities, horse stables, ballfields, dining halls and recreational buildings were readied. There were several large boats for overnight trips, including two Elcos, a Chris Craft and some old Navy lifeboats — enough watercraft to put the whole camp afloat.
"They came from all over," Simmers said of the campers, whose ranks soon expanded to 300-plus.
She, herself, spent four unforgettable summers swimming, riding, sailing, canoeing, hiking, playing tennis, creating crafts, learning nature and Indian lore, and participating in all kinds of games and sports in the early 1960s.
"They had just about every type of activity you could imagine," Simmers said, adding that it would be cost prohibitive for anyone to offer such a selection today. "They kept us very busy."
But for many young campers, the best part was being completely immersed in nature.
"When the wind speaks to the leaves, the Indian hears — and understands," read a sign at the entrance to Middle Point.
THE JOYS OF CAMP
While the camps closed after the 1964 season due to declining enrollment caused by competition, insurance problems, rising costs and events in the lives of the owners, the recollection of those who passed through the gates never dimmed. Every year, scores of former campers reunite for a long weekend at what is now Point au Roche State Park.
The first reunion was in 1990, and 30 to 35 people attended. Although some naturally gravitated back each summer and showed up unexpectedly, finding others was a challenge, especially the girls whose names had changed with marriage. But the organizers persisted and their efforts were rewarded, as now about 70 people show up each year.
"It used to take us eight hours to get up to camp," recalled Stephanie Demore, formerly of Massachusetts but who now lives in Plattsburgh. "It was an all-day affair. We'd get gallon jugs of root beer in Middlebury (Vt.). We'd have a picnic in the marble quarries."
But the trip up was nothing compared to the joys of camp itself. Lamborn would bring horses up by train each summer from the McDonough School in Baltimore, where he was headmaster.
"It was like a parade coming through town and people came out to watch them," Simmers recalled. "My father taught history at the McDonough School and ran the riding program."
Still "horse crazy," she remembered spending as much time as she could at the barn where the camp's 40 horses were stabled.
There were things that meant even more to Demore than the activities.
"One of the biggest things all the campers remember is the credo, the values we learned."
A nondenominational service was held weekly at an outdoor chapel on a hillside overlooking Deep Bay, with music provided by a pump organ that was transported for the occasion. Former campers have rebuilt the chapel, though half its original size, and it can be seen on the trail along the east side of Deep Bay at Point au Roche State Park.
TREASURED TRADITIONS
This year, the reunion will be held July 23 through 25.
"Friday is usually our work-detail day, just like we had at camp," Demore said.
On Friday night, there's a dinner at nearby Cafe Mooney Bay. In addition to free time, choir practice is held Saturday to re-create the experience at chapel. The pump organ is brought back for a curtain call.
"They need a lot of practice,'' joked former camper Marty Weikart of Pennsylvania.
Box lunches are enjoyed at the old campsites. Activities are held at the park's lecture hall, formerly known as the Town Hall, where Saturday night dances were held, and campers listened to Johnny Mathis and Buddy Holly. Bike rides, canoe paddles and walks are enjoyed that day, and at night there is a huge dinner with steak and chicken. It used to be catered, but now "we make all the food," Simmers said.
And no camp experience would be complete without Saturday's grand finale, a huge bonfire and camp songs.
Sunday morning is chapel.
"We still all wear white," Simmers said, joking that they look like a cult to the boaters who anchor offshore. "They hear the voices and they hear the organ and the heads start popping out of the boats."
In the heyday of the camps, days began with reveille and ended in the evening with the soulful sounding of taps. The flag was raised and lowered, and a huge totem pole towered over the recreational facilities.
Three periods of activities were held in the morning and three in the afternoon. A fence that separated boys and girls worked with varying degrees of success. Moonlight canoe rides led to summer romances, and some serious relationships developed, even marriages.
"Boys are always bad," Demore joked, listing various pranks. "They were always raiding. We got them back a few times."
At the end of camp, awards were given out. A horse show and Olympic Day were among the concluding events.
Simmers said the lessons learned at camp have benefited her throughout her life.
"I was a firefighter," she said, adding that in her rookie class she had to use hooks, bars and a ladder to climb four or five stories as part of her training. "I did what I learned at camp. You just do it, and you do it quick. I went first. It taught you to do things you never thought you could."
Demore said it taught her toughness, self-confidence and responsibility and instilled leadership, especially important for women.
"It was an amazing camp for people to still be coming back so many years later," she said.
Weikart added that the bond created among campers has never faded, even after the heartbreaking closure and the passing of 30 or 40 years.
"I didn't appreciate it until I looked back," he said. "When we came back here, it was like we'd known each other all our lives."
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