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

Our home sweet homeused to be full of horse sh*t. It was a stable for the teams that pulled wagons of granite blocks that paved Grand Avenue avenue in the 1880s. Later it was a truck barn for @gonnellabakingco . Then a ramshackle photographers studio. The front courtyards brick wall still has horse tack in it from 140 years ago.I wish we still had our old woody here – we packed that thing to nearly collapsing the leaf springs running it to camp for years. Weve rarely shared pics in nearly 18 years, since most folks just follow here for camp stuff. (And we havent assumed that anybody cares to see pics of our house projects anyway?) Even though it doesnt look like it, this place has a history – and has grown as sentimental to us as camp.It took us nearly 3 years to finish.>> scroll for some befores >>(Our budget was just about what it would have taken to buy a condo) so we had to move in Davids parents basement. (In his high school bedroom) to put every penny into building.We dont have an attic, a basement or much of a backyard. The budget ran out before we could the lay floors on the first floor – so we just embraced the concrete- and still are, its well worn now and has grown on us. A former neighbor once told us that it looks like a dentists office Some said it doesnt fit the rest of the neighborhood. But every year there are also some folks who come by – architecture students taking photos for a class assignment, somebody who found it in a book, or just people peering through the brickweave – who like it, too. Part of the reason we love our home is because it didnt come easy. And its even more sentimental to us now because we stayed so close to the friends who made it happen. This coming summer, well host the 9th annual @studiogang company creative retreat at Wandawega. Last shot of Jeanne sharing a drone shot from a past retreat).David and I always said were gonna grow old here. Were well on our way.Photography@greggsegal for @dwellmagazine, @archrecordmag @thayerandco for @anthologymag /@porscheusa (ad)@ryanplett for @wsjviewfinders /Steve Hall of #hedrichblessing for @nytimes privacy screens

February 13, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt

Looking forward to this- comes out next month!The film and book from@refueled.magazine shot by @stevenvisneauphotography comes out March 2023SURF Camp Wandawega. An Artist in Residency with Chris Brown

February 12, 2023 • Published by Tereasa Surratt