NEW IN THE CREATIVE LAB.thats what we call our little camp workshop where we are always making new things that we love with brands that we love.In the last couple of months since the Magnolia episode aired, weve been approached by brands (big and small) to make things together. Things are heating up in our little lab – and were equal parts excited (and tired!) to announce new products, lines, and capsule collections that will be hitting shelves this year. But before we start rolling them out- wanted to share one smaller under-the-radar colllab from the fall. The CAMP FIELD NOTES pocket journal. If you meet us, you know we love @FieldNotes – we partnered up with @ClaytonandCrume for a special edition holder for campers.ABOUT:Handmade Natural Leather Pocket Journal for grand ideas & to-do lists. Fits snugly in a back pants pocket, and doubles well as a passport holder.For those who love to stay organized, take notes, and travel. One Field Notes Memo Book (3.5″X5.5″) journal tucked inside (made for us by our friends at @FieldNotes)Premium @horweenleather full-grain leather and robust stitching for many years of service, guaranteed. The final touch : A hand-stamped Wandawega logo.Proudly handcrafted in Louisville, Kentucky.Dimensions: 3.75″ X 6″ X .75″ABOUT Clayton & Crume :(As they share it)We founded Clayton & Crume on a simple idea, we believe all leather goods should last a lifetime. Raised in the heart of bourbon country, we grew to value what was storied, tested and enduring. The traditions of our upbringing taught us the value of honest, hard work and the pride thats earned by creating something with your own two hands.We show up to work with an agenda of serving our customers well and making products that will live to tell the story of those who invest in them. It is our mission to create goods that, like a barrel of good Kentucky bourbon, only get better with time.
February 23, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
THIS IS FOR THE FOODIES:Happy to report that our Provisions Program is coming back this coming season. Anybody whos been here will warn you that we dont have an in-house chef. (Nobody has, or ever will deliver a cheese flight with wine pairings to you in your tent). But weve always wanted to find a way to offer our fav local foods to campers. Our new Camp Culinary partnership, curated, crated and delivered to your cabin.One of our favorite neighbors just up the road is THE ELEGANT FARMER. (We always send guests there to get their provisions). They started in 1946 as a family dairy farm, selling fruits & vegetables.now known for their Farm Bakery & Kitchen, Deli & Produce,and pick-your-own apples. Theyre celebrated for their specialties: Cider Baked Ham, Fruit Applesauces & Crisps, full bakery with Fruit Breads, Gourmet Sauces & Blue Ribbon Cheeses.But most famous for their Best Apple Pie in America (says@bobbyflay@wallstreet.journal, Gourmet Magazine and @foodnetwork They have an inspirational story for so many of us because theyre proof that doing something right can make you an overnight success. (That and 70 consecutiveyears of doing something right). Theyre still open every day year round, because thats what farmers do. We love their humble roots as a grocery store that still stocks all the local award winning specialty food from regional makers.You can shop from our camp newspaper, ring them up to place your order for the Wandawega Picnic before you arrive, and your apple crates are delivered for you:Featuring 30 of thebest, regional award winning meats, cheeses, bakery goods and snacks for campers. (Pics here of some the local favs that are included).@elegantfarmerpies 2nd pic : @evantsheehan and @alexwallbaum of @breakfast.for.din
February 22, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
This is for our fellow crafters.COMING TO THE CRAFT CABIN THIS SEASONEvery scout camp in America for the past century has a craft cabin A right of passage for girls and boys, you would enter camp a novice, and leave an expert basket-making-loom-weaving-pottery-painting-jewelry-crafting scout ninja. We spend months researching the most popular crafts made at summer camps since 1920. We started sourcing deadstock craft kits, custom made craft kits, and impossible-to-find craft kits we excited to share some new kit additions for 2023, including a series of paint by number kits featuring the mushrooms that grow in our wooded acres. (A few pics our new programming director Danielle has found over the past year- Lets go foraging on the forest floor – for Bleeding Fairy Helmet Mushrooms (berry-capped fungi) Fly Agaric Mushrooms white-speckled, red-capped fungi (with their distinctive frills – found growing among curling fern fronds)Well be rolling out new kits, crafts and activities as part of our new offering. IDEAS WELCOME!Also, If you are looking, you can find me in the craft cabin this season with a bottomless craft of coffee & baileys this entire season. Or foraging for fungi.
February 21, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
Weve spent this last weekend alternating between snow play and hibernating in front of the fireplace (with endless mugs of spiked lattes) digging through old photos of the family that ran this place in the 40s and 50s (a few pics here of three generations of the family outside the lodge that were sitting in now).Thinking about how they ran this place back then. How did they make it work with just their small family doing it all? Were they happy? How did they measure their happiness & success?We refuse to measure success by the industry standard of maximizing butts in beds. Or how many (always more lucrative ) weddings we can cram in. Every year we do fewer of the latter- were down to accepting a small handful a year now.We hope to continue to shift the way we do business.This coming season, were honored to use so many of our few & short high season weekends to host more of what were here for:A celebration of life A camp for an underserved community of city kids A takeover for an LGBTQ retreatA artists in residency (series!)A not for profit group who support the arts And so many week day sponsored events to support causes that we care about (auction group for schools & civil service groups).Excited to find new ways for more people to experience camp in a different way. I get the feeling that the prior owners would appreciate that. Honor this place and all their hard work – keep it standing, keep it alive with the things that matter more and most.We hope they would.
February 20, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
BUILDING SOMETHING This has been our most productive off season in years. (Weve expanded our little team a good bit to help to knock out a long -standing wishlist ) RECREATED the 1920s Pergola REPLACED the Church altar ADDED the Sauna (honoring Baltic customs & the refugees here in the 60s) REBUILT Camp store workshop COMMISSIONED Amish mobile shed shops INSTALLED new & refinished floors in 3 buildings CONSTRUCTED a Wood & charcoal Camper Supplies shed RENOVATED the lodge Restroom CREATED a new Supply office BUILT out the Music Box (& Scooby lodge exit door) CONTRACTED a new custom mess hall (from 3rd-gen Local tent maker) REPLACING 2 roofs (going up onto the GSA scout log cabins)And so many more re-s. Repainted half the rooms, remulched the trails, rebuilt craft cabin shutters, rebuilt retaining walls, replaced mud patios with stone ones. And restored so many things- including our faith in what were building here.It feels good to know that every dollar and hour we invest in this place helps towards the bigger goal: Have more to offer- to give back.We try not to measure success by the industry standard of maximizing butts in beds -but opportunities to be a place where people remember. Every year we make a list of what we want to build.This year feels different, because were trying to build something thats more enduring.But It feels the Golden Gate Bridge. (You start at one end painting it- and As soon as you get to the other end have to start over again)Taking stock of what were building.Counting our blessings for the teams (past, present and future) who have been helping us build to that something biggerWell be introducing you to a few of our new team members in the coming weeks- and announcing new products, projects, programs and people.
February 19, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
Where the staircase ends.Just before we closed for the season, @bhwoodworks created a new hangout space for the Rustic Camping Cluster. We have a kettle bowl in the middle of the back acres (our canvas A-Frames create a ring at the top of the ridge above). Brad transformed a pile of salvaged dock sections (from an old scout camp) and turned them into a cookout / campfire pit at the base of the bowl.Then he cut a staircase out of the hillside leading to the nature watching stand. Then cut these trails to connect zones through the woods (we just added re-mulched a couple of acres of trails).Thank you, Brad
February 18, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
NECESSITIES FOR THE CAMP ENTHUSIAST.( and FOR THE ILL PREPARED ).our newest guest amenity opening this spring We took the top things campers ask for and opened up a little self-serve shop in the welcome cabin.found a 120 year old cabinet that came out of a dry goods store & filled it with all the things you cant find in a modern drugstore. (Scroll for the clip to see whats its stocked with)Our favorite signpainter Ches of @RightWaySigns hand-lettered it for us. We unearthed an antique paper bag rack, so we had to make custom bags to fill it.We have a million-and-one almost comical details – including typos stashed in these 9 feet of shelves & drawers (or at least 100, since thats the number of different products this thing is holding) but heres the topline – helping campers help themselves. HELP! IVE GOT A :HangoverRipped swimsuitMean sunburnPunctured raftBee stingWood SplinterFlesh woundx&#@ Tick?Postcard to writeMissing toothpaste Bent fishhookBeer bottle to openSevered fishing lineStrange rash?Hair emergencyTampon shortageRope swing burnBrat indigestionCorncob in molarMosquito stalkerPoncho emergencySoap shortageHotdog stomachache Hot dateStores burnBad hair dayStinky fish in cooler (aka: air freshener) (Zoom into shot 3 for all things weve been scouring for in every bodega, obscure corner store, dead stock hardware store, and factory supply to source)Were in the final stages of stocking, pricing, labeling – cant wait to open it up for guests this season!Welcome Cabin shot: @evantsheehan
February 17, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
Treehouses arent just for the littles.(Got some new followers here, so were trying to remember to share some of the old backstories for stuff around here).The true story behind our treehouse pushes us to make book about it (published by @penguinrandomhouse) – its called The Forever TreeWe made it to tell the story of the volunteer group of grown ups who donated their time to build something bigger than themselves.These are those builders / designers & volunteers:@bladonconner @tylerjordanpeterson @shaun_oa @finney____finney @teichelman1973 and others.ABOUT: fresh twist on Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree based on a real tree in Wisconsin that became something more, this is a timeless story about loss and renewal at home and in nature. – Publishers Weekly We may be known mainly as a camp for grownups- but treehouses dont age discriminate. So the next time youre here climbing around the treehouse look up in the library rafters, youll always find a copy tucked into the stacks.More THANKS TO the MAKERS :-co-penned by our pal @donnalukascp -Illustrated by @nicolaslater-Photos of charliegirl (also on the jacket) by @jessica.eileen.drogosz-BTS shots: the grandfather tree before it died. – and My brother Sam cutting its limbs off. -Timelapse sketch created by our friends at @ogilvy485 to accompany a talk we gave at @apple on creativity a couple years back
February 16, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
HELP US PICK Which one to make ??>>Scroll >> 3 different concept sketches by @joshuaminnich for the next campstore product Canoe? Leaf? Monogram?Were making something old/new/old:The Wandawega Market Bag: A throwback to the original canvas newspaper bags from the era when Camp was built in the 20s.Made the same as they were back then: heavy canvas, one silkscreened color, simple wide canvas shoulder strap, built to haul. Were making these for our fellow gatherers. Flea markets. Farmers markets. Swap meets & makers markets.All the markets.Were gonna make like a pack mule with ours when the @elkhornantiquefleamarket opens this spring …* photos from the National Archives on the history of newsboys in America
February 15, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
If you see this guy today, wish him a happy birthday! Dad/David/Tater its been over 25 years since we celebrated our first Valentines Day- Birthday-Combo- (last pic) Heres to 25 more!
February 14, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt
