Camp Michaux Reunion
Saturday June 19, 2004.

Hosted by: Gary Fisher (Squirrel)  [email protected]

1960-1970 Camp Staff at the Reunion
Russ Weer - Garry Fisher- Donna (Cohick) Weer - David Schoonover - Dave & Sue Robinson - Cheryl (Schoonover) Tritt

Also present was Lisa John, who at the time was a state park ranger working on a brochure and walking trail of the camp.  
The park office had a great collection of photographs from the CCC and POW eras but I believe they have been transferred to the PA State Archives. 

We were able to locate the base of the CCC flag pole which is an "arrow" pointing true north with a lightning rod grounding cable still visible.  It can be found directly above the fountain in the middle of the parallel row of pine trees.  The shadow of the CCC flagpole in the center photo marks it's location.  Note the path that runs to the log cabin that would later become the POW guard house.  The paths were all rerouted for the POW camp.  The path was relocated to run to the other log cabin by the upper gate off Michaux Road.  This is were the trail of pine trees now stands.  Study the pictures of the CCC and POW camp above to see the differences.

The photo of the fountain was taken from the CCC flag pole looking south.
The photo of the CCC flag pole was taken from the fountain looking north.

The fountain in this picture seems to have a lower wall that it does today.  It must have be rebuilt at some later date..
I have the entire collection of these and many personal photos provided by the people at the reunion available on a CD. Just send me your name and address!

Remains of the Buildings
The weather was dry enough to locate several piles of lumber at the end of the lower service road near where the path crosses Tom's Run on the south west corner of the camp grounds.  Just past this area is a clearing that is believed to be one of the "frontier camp" tent camping areas.

2006 Camp Michaux Walk
November 18, 2006
Lee Schaeffer

            John Paul Bland's Morning Group              Dave Smith's Afternoon Group               

After a weeks of rain, today’s weather forecast looked favorable enough to risk the 350 mile round trip for another Camp Michaux Walk sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society.  This year in addition to Dave Smith we had the pleasure of having John Paul Bland as a leader.

John is the author of the new book "Secret War at Home."   The book was officially introduced this past Wednesday to a large crowd at the CCHS in Carisle. I’ve only had a short time to skim the contents but it looks like a fascinating read. The footnotes and bibliography indicate that he has done a tremendous amount of research. While devoted primarily to the POW era, the book will be of interest to the church campers because it shows how the camp evolved from the CCC and POW occupations into the church camp.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the book contained seven slides from 1959 to 1961 and two paintings that I copied at the UCC Hartman Center camp. The pictures lost something in the conversion to black and white half-tones.  However, you can see them in color on the my Web pages or in high resolution on my CD of camp photographs.
If you order a copy of the book, my pictures can be found on the following pages: 

• 13BR - Old Barn 1961
• 48L    - Painting Taken At Hartman Center
• 75T    - Camp Sign 1961     
• 75B    - Cars as campers left camp in 1961
• 76BL - Swimming pool 1961
• 77T    - Rec Hall 1961
• 77C    - Volleyball Court 59/60    
• 76BL - Vesper Hill 59/60
• 80L    - Painting Hartman Center

The Walks were divided into two groups with Dave and John as the leaders. I arrived just in time for the 10 AM walk and joined Dave to get his perspective primarily on the POW era. After a quick lunch, I joined Dave for his 1 PM walk. I would guess there were over 50 people in attendance for the two walks.

Every year, Dave has more material and a deeper understanding of the history. One myth dispelled this year was that near the end of the war the Japanese prisoners were held in the small compound between Michaux Road and the Old Barn. The army constructed a fence through the middle of the camp from approximately the Steps To Nowhere down to the Staff Mess Hall. Several barracks were constructed on the western side of the prisoner’s compound. The two barracks by the Pavilion were retained by the church camp. The buildings in the are of the New Swimming Pool were probably in poor shape and torn down before the church camp opened.

One recent discovery was the concrete block and an iron post hole that secured the gate to the prisoners compound. It can bee seen to the left of the CCC Fountain.

   
Pine trees in front of the chapel in 1957? post card.   The pine tree in 2006.                  

   
Yucca Plants in POW Painting and in fall of 2006

It is interesting to note that two of the most obvious remains are the sewage treatment plant and the ramp to the incinerator just south of the Mess Hall. The origins of the Star by the CCC Fountain is still a mystery but because it uses the same blue slag as the Fountain leads one to believe that it was from the CCC days.

We have been led to believe that the official closure of the church camp was in 1972 when the lease was terminated. However there were two former campers on the walk who were positive that they were at UCC camps in 1974 and 1975. As usual each visit to the camp raises more questions to be researched.

Every time I have revisited visited the camp I have had a "quest" to fulfill. One the first visit, the goal was just to locate the camp! The last visit’s goal was to explore the Lower Camp Road and locate the remains of the buildings and the area where the Pioneer Camp tents were erected.   By this visit my list had narrowed to a few final items:

Lumber under the Dinning Hall Loading Dock at the end of the main camp road.

Another was to explore under the Mess Hall loading dock. On the side away from the Main Camp Road and you can see a cache of the hall’s building materials. 

I also finally found the Michaux Nostalgia GeoCash created by 'Possum'.  My Garmin GPS had me looking under the wrong rock on previous visits!

After the afternoon walk concluded, I went on my final longstanding quest to locate the remains of Vesper Hill.  The path the campers took between the Old Barn and the 'Lone Pine' is heavily overgrown but this was a perfect fall day to search for a better route.

Porch of the Gardner Farm House north of where the parking lot meets the Appalachian trail.
There are names written on top of the cement columns.

Past the parking area on Bunker Hill Road is the intersection with the Appalachian Trail.  Map key #3.   Just past the "blaze" mark for the trail, there is a path up the hill to the porch foundations of the Gardner Farm House. Walk around the foundation, past a large pine tree and climb a little to the right..

      
                                                             Vesper Hill 1960                             Vesper Hill in 2006 showing The Old Barn hidden behind the trees   

A forest of tall trees stood above Vesper Hill. But today, it is difficult to tell the old growth trees from the new ones that have reclaimed the land. When you look to the south west, you can just make out the Old Barn.  Behind the biggest tree in the picture above.

About 50 yards up the hill are log bench posts scattered in the underbrush...

...and finally the remains of one lone bench the bulldozer spared.

At the end of my quest, the sun was setting over "Big Hill" in the distance, my camera’s memory card was full and the batteries were dead.  A good time to go home…

My next quest is to find the remains of the two camp water tanks.  One is located in the area of the bird sanctuary and the other may be on the north side of Michaux Road above the camp.

Feedback to the Web Master

   "Just to let you know Lee I will soon be sending you a bunch of group pictures from when I was a camper in the 60's  and a staff person in '71 & '72. I absolutely love your site...thanks so much for keeping Camp Michaux alive!"
Ed Bricker Sept., 2009 
Ed sent me about 30 Meg of camper pictures, Thanks!

Greetings!
     I like many of the others, have stumbled across this site while researching the Appalachian Trail's route through the area. I attended the Dover United Church of Christ.  I don't know what caused me to do a search on Camp Michaux at this point in time, but I was looking at Calendonia State Park, then Michaux State Forest. I am so glad I did find you.

    I was a camper there in the middle Sixties, I am thinking 1965 or 66, staying in the barracks up the hill and then a two or three years later ( 67 or 68) in the "pioneer" area under canvas.  I don't remember a lot of details about the barracks, other than being fascinated by some of the names and such carved into the superstructure of the building, eating in the mess hall, with as some else mentioned, the "bottomless" milk dispensers. I also remember one craft in particular, where we embedded flowers in what I guess was an acrylic plastic of some sort in a paper tray.   I too remember the singing, vespers, and preparing small gathering areas in the woods, complete with rock lined walkways and dirt swept clean by tree branches. The Pioneer camping was different. I remember the names of two of the young adults that were our chaperones, Bill Metzger and girl named Connie. That year we dug a pit and roasted a whole suckling pig for the meal on Thursday, if memory serves me correctly. I also remember our band of campers walking through the woods one day and an individual stepped on a downed tree trunk instead of over it and stirred up a huge air force of hornets which promptly attacked everyone in our group. Then came the walk back to the infirmary with numerous stings, all of us "hurting puppies".

     It's a darn shame that the Churches let this site go. I've been to the Hartman Center and occasionally pass by there on trips to northern PA. It didn't have half the character that Michaux had. I will make it back to Michaux before I die just to see what I can recognize and remember. I do have a question. I remember a rectangular one story building, east of camp cover in tar paper with a couple of windows and a door next to a gravel road. That interesting thing was that someone had used a stencil of a "playboy" bunny head and painted a white "bunny" next to the door. Does anyone remember ever seeing such a thing in their travels around camp?

To answer this question, the barrack was named "Trail Lodge", it housed the male staff. It was located in front of the old barn wall along the AT. The life guards, and work crew stayed there. In the center of the barrack was the "common" room, with single crew quarters off both sides.   --    Gary Fisher, staff 68, 69
     
Jonathan P. Bigony  -  Bowie, MD   Sept 2009

Dear Lee,
Gary Fisher sent me your letter to him dated 11/22/06 regarding the old swimming hole and other features of Camp  Michaux He thought since I am considerably older than he that I might have some recollections. So here goes.

Your surmise about the picture of the "old swimming hole" is correct. As I recall, the churches enlarged the pool, put  in a sand bottom, sluiceways to channel in the water, concrete walls and a diving board sometime in the very early  1950's. The sluiceways formed a "Y" with Tom's Run about 100 yards upstream from the pool. One sluice channeled the Run and emptied back in to the stream bed below the spillway of the dam. The other sluice entered the pool at the side opposite the dam up toward the road. There were slots in the walls of the base of the "Y" so boards could be put in to control how much water went up each arm .You can see these sluices in the photo of the "new' pool.

I can remember going to Michaux with my Dad when he was director of camping for the Mercersburg Synod of the E & R church in the late 40's and early 50's. I seem to recall the old pool . By the time I was a camper in 1953, I believe we used the "new" pool. This is all from memory which is subject to failure as I get older but those are my impressions. There might be a way to check all this out. At the time, capital improvements to Michaux were not part of the operating budget for the camp and were paid for by the judicatories involved. If the records still exist, they might be found by contacting either the Carlisle Presbytery or Penn Central Conference of the UCC (at that time Mercersburg Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church) to see if they have any record of capital expenditures in that time period.

I don't recall the pump house in the location it appears in the postcard picture. There was a pump house to the left of the "new" pool as you faced it from the dining hall. It was between the pool and the incinerator and new office building. As far as I can remember, it had an inlet in the pool and was used only for pumping water through the fire fighting system. The building housed a pump with a 6 cylinder car motor that I can remember Bill Hockley firing up when we did fire drills. We accused him of goosing the pressure up on the pump to see how many of us crew members he could knock over as we held the fire hose. By the way, we used to enjoy those fire drills as it gave us a chance to take the old fire engine out for a spin. Sometimes we got halfway to Caledonia since we wanted to make sure the battery got a good charge. And of course we had to make sure the siren still worked.

About the water supply, you are correct about it being at the upper dam on Tom's Creek. When I was there, there was an intake structure on the left hand side of the creek as you face the dam about 30 or 40 feet upstream from the dam. As I recall it, it was just a square concrete box about 2 or 3 feet on a side with openings in it to let the water in. I don't know when it was built. As I said, I don't remember where the pump house was since I was not involved with that part of the operation of the camp but I do remember the intake. It is quite possible the water supply pump was in the building with the fire pump and I just didn't pay any attention to it. As far as the tanks go, at the time I was working there from 1958 to 1970 there was only one water tank that I know of. It was located on the uphill side of Michaux
Road about 20 or so feet above the road. On the aerial map of the camp on your Website, it was about where the "p" in camp is in the title of the map.

I still enjoy visiting your web site to see if there is anything newt. Thank you for taking on this labor of love.
Sincerely,
  Dave Robinson    -  New Windsor, MD  November   2006

Hello Lee!
     My name is Cindy Hockley, and I am the daughter of Wilmer and Connie Hockley. My father was the Superintendent of Camp Michaux from approximately 1953 to 1973, when the lease was dropped. My family, including my older brother, Raymond, lived in a house on-site, year round. I spent the first six years of my life at Camp Michaux.

     Some memories are fuzzy, and some are quite vivid. We had a bell along the sidewalk leading to our front door, and my Mom would lift me up every day to ring it at noon, for my Dad to come in for lunch. Dad maintained the grounds and buildings, and worked from dawn to dusk. I can remember feeding birds right out of the palm of my hand, and I can still see the black snakes slithering up the trunks of the trees that lined our yard. Summertime was the best time, and I remember helping Dad around the pool, and meeting kids of all ages. The camp was alive with people in the summer. Winter was a different story, as it was just my family and a few folks living in cabins who stayed to endure the chill.

     This past weekend, I drove up Michaux Road and walked all over the place, trying to reconstruct from a child's memory the way it was so long ago. Luckily, we have pictures and slides still in the family that help to keep that part of our lives distinct. My brother is much better at remembering the layout and the buildings, as he grew into adulthood living at Camp Michaux.

     After spending about two hours reminiscing and stumbling upon broken concrete, exposed water lines, and traces of sidewalks amidst the thick overgrowth of weeds and brush, I found the foundation of what I believe was the dining hall. At that moment, I felt better, knowing that there had indeed been bustling life there at one time, and I could almost smell the smoke of the campfires, hear the faint laughter of kids splashing in the pool and the melodious sound of the piano from the chapel dancing on the breeze. (I have a faint memory of sitting outside the chapel, the sunlight shining on my face, listening to someone (my Mother, perhaps ?) playing a piano.

     I have been distracted now for over 24-hours, and decided to surf the web for anything to do with Michaux Forest. To my overwhelming disbelief and joy, I found your web page. After perusing through the e-mails and pictures, I felt compelled to send you this e-mail. Did you ever meet my family? Did you ever speak to my father? Unfortunately, my father passed away in December 1995, and therefore cannot bring my memories into focus for me anymore. But, I am certain his spirit permeates that mountain and the little clearing that once was Camp Michaux.

     The Hockley's date back to the late 1700's in Pine Grove Furnace, and my father was born in a house no longer standing near the Furnace Stack at Fuller Lake. He was 48 years old in 1973 when we moved away, after giving much blood, sweat, and tears in a labor of love as the groundskeeper for the little church camp that gave so many people like yourself fond memories of summertime youth.

     I apologize for the melancholy tone of my e-mail, but your pictures and web page have meant a great deal to me today, for they have re-affirmed a brief time in my childhood that I will always carry with me. I have always somehow felt cheated that I did not grow up there as my brother did, and as many of the campers did, spending summer after summer among friends. I go back as much as I can, but time and neglect are making the place nearly indistinguishable. Thank you for your memories. I have truly enjoyed the trip back in time.
   Sincerely, Cindy Hockley, Sept. 1, 2003

--------------------

     I want to tell you that I've been visiting, and revisiting your site about Camp Michaux... very well done and a definitely worth a look by anyone who ever had anything to do with Camp Michaux.

     Allow me to tell you how Camp Michaux became a part of my life. I'm one of a few nephews to Wilmer (Bill) & Constance (Connie) Hockley.   See letter above. Of course, that makes me a cousin to their 2 children Raymond (Andy) and Cindy. Connie is my Mother's sister. Bill, as you know, was the Caretaker/Groundskeeper at the camp and as mentioned on the web site, he and his family lived there year round in what used to be the old Infirmary/Hospital. In our family, Bill was also called Mort, and growing up it was always Uncle Mort and Aunt Connie... but I'm not sure where that came from.

And now a wee bit about me... Camp Michaux was very near and dear to me for many reasons. Mainly, that place created wonderful childhood/young adulthood memories that we all have and cherish as we get older. I spent many days/weeks over a period of many years at the Camp starting in the late 50's through the entire decade of the 60's and into the early 70's. As I neared graduation (I graduated High School in 1971) I sadly must say I spent less and less time there. In hindsight, that wouldn't have happened, but... being a teenager, I was into other things and my visits became fewer and fewer and further in-between. After graduation, I worked for a year and then joined the United States Navy. We were still in Vietnam and had I not joined the Navy, I would have been drafted into the Army. I spent the next 8 years serving and most of that was overseas in the Orient. When I finally got out of the Navy in 1980, the Camp had long been closed and the Hockley's had moved "out in the valley" to Walnut Bottom.

Some of the best times of my youth was spent at Camp Michaux, and it's heartbreaking to think about what was there and what is there now. That place will forever hold very fond memories for me. In my minds eye, I can still see the Camp as it was in it's glory days, and I can easily echo the thoughts of others as we ALL  remember the smells and the sights. I'm equally certain that anyone who ever been at the Camp and spent any time there can easily conjure up many good and fond memories of that place. We had countless family get-togethers and picnics there and spent numerous holidays there as well. It sure was a wonderful place and great time in our lives. I'd love to be able to turn the clock back and live through a few weeks there like it was back in the 1950's-60's... wouldn't that be wonderful! I just wish life was as simple now as it was then.

I've been back there off and on over the years (it's been a long time since the last visit) just like others who have migrated back there. The place seems to draw one near, regardless when you were there last or if you have never been back. It's sad to have viewed it during the heyday's, since I can easily and vividly remember so very well what it was like away back when, and look at it after it was closed down. But at the same time, I also feel lucky that I did see it when things were in full swing and thriving.

Our families were together there often, but 4 of us kids spent much time there together (me, Andy, and 2 other cousin's - Charles & Ronald Kunkleman). The Kunkleman's were Judy's boys and Judy was another sister of my Mother and Connie. So, after seeing your web site, the memory floodgates opened wide and it got the juices flowing again. I contact my Cousin's and the 4 of us are going back this Spring (2006) and we are going to make a day of it. I figured we ALL hold memories and we can key off one another's memories and that will make it easier for our minds eye to paint the pictures we will surely be remembering. Each and everyone of us is looking forward to this trip. In general, I know it will be a bittersweet journey for me and the Kunkleman's, but in particular it will be bittersweet for Andy who spent his entire youth there. I think it will return all of us to a "kinder, gentler time" if only for a few hours. I'm well aware that nothing, absolutely nothing is ever the same. One thing that is constant is change, and when we visit anyplace, the next day it has changed just a wee bit. Of course, that snowballs as the years go by. The Camp is no different. I think it's nice if one can reach back and visit childhood places where so much fun was had.

I've been scanning and retouching old photo's that I got from Aunt Connie and I want to do "then 'n' now" comparisons in pictures of the Camp and surrounding areas. I know Aunt Connie has many pictures that the regular campers/staff don't have because they lived there year round. I have a bunch of winter pictures that I came across and the Camp was beautiful even under a few feet of snow! My main interest is in photos that had buildings and open areas because that way I have a points of reference to take the "now" pictures from.

This will take me awhile to get this all together, but I'm going to do it. With that said, feel free to publish this on your web site with the others that have left comments. I was impressed and moved by the article and comments that my Cousin Cindy Hockley wrote back in 2003. She was a real young girl away-back-then, but even then, Camp Michaux left it's mark on her too. And that is, without a doubt, what Camp Michaux did to anyone who ever went there... it left it's mark and found a permanent home in each of our memories.

Best regards... Gunner (Mike Gross)  Feb 2006
P.S. Thanks again for all the work you have done on the web site. I hope it continues to grow and grow.

We did get over to Camp Michaux on April 1, 2006. I went back myself on the 10th as there were a few other pictures I wanted to take after I had a chance to get home from the first visit and think about what I had just seen. Unfortunately for us, Andy did not make the trip as he was ill. It was a huge disappointment for the rest of us, as his memory from living there so long is much better than any of ours. He certainly wants to go back, so we are already working on a return trip that will include him. Andy is really key to the whole thing and he can definitely cross the T's and dot the I's on everything there.

However, even without Andy, we really did do pretty good. Between my 2 Cousin's and myself we pieced together most of the Camp as we remembered it and I have been working on those photo's for weeks. I did show some of them to Andy and, like I figured he would, he immediately filled in all the details that we couldn't.  Looking at the pictures really got him "charged-up" and as soon as he gets a decent day when he is feeling well we are going back again. Once you make the journey back there, it becomes a "moth to the flame" thing as it draws you back, even though that journey is a bittersweet one. I have been constantly looking at the photos (old and new) over the past few weeks and it really brings it home the sadness that we had viewing the place now, and remembering what it was like then. I really appreciate the disk you sent as it has been very helpful in me piecing many things together. One thing for sure, it will not be too many more years before the mountain will have completely reclaimed most if not all of the Camp. In fact, if anyone goes there that was never there, they would not have a clue what had been there.

Gunner (Mike Gross)  April 2006

"If you can read this, you can thank a teacher. . . but FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY, if you live in the U.S. and are reading it in English, you really SHOULD make it a point to THANK a Vet."

 
    I spent many happy summers at this church camp in the early sixties to mid sixties. I even spent a summer there as a counselor for the children who came there in the summer of 1970. I remember working with a wonderful guy, Rick Smiley that summer of 1970 and always wonder how he turned out.

    I too have a tee shirt and the banner! I still even have the song book. Yes, I fondly remember singing "The Ash Grove", "Henry the 8th I am, I am", and "Them bones gonna rise again".   I remember morning vespers - sitting under the trees listening to the birds sing and reflecting. I remember singing after every meal, hiking on the blue trail, walking next to the stream "Toms Run", learning to swim in the pool, playing four square and volleyball, and buying candy in the camp store!   I remember skit night and somebody always getting drenched with a bucket of water.

    I have pix of me standing there with my bunk buddies at the pool and in the dining hall. I have the collection of camp pictures of the whole weekly groups taken on the stone steps in the upper camp!

    Thanks for the info and the memories! It's like seems like ages ago to this "35 years teaching special education students" going to retire soon lady!   Thanks again!   You brought back wonderful memories and yes, a few tears about its sad ending. I truly enjoyed the site and what people wrote.
Becky - 2009
--------------------

Many fond memories of Camp Michaux.
     I was a camper there July 19-31, 1948;   July 18-30, 1949 and July1950. 
These were the Senior High Camps from the E&R churches.
     I have the camp photos of the campers who attended with many "autographs". 
The truth be told, I met my future wife there in 1949...and after putting up with me for over 51 years....we still talk about "Camp".
    If anyone is interested, I would be pleased to send these photos.
They are long, rolled up kind; 28"x 8" for two of them. The other is 7"x10".
     It would be interesting to find anyone who attended Camp Michaux at that time. Please feel free to publish this and put our email address out there.

Edward L. Smith & Eva Eissmann Smith
Thomasville, NC   -  November 2006
E-mail:  terp59-at-northstate.net    (Replace the "-at-" with an @)

 

Lee,
     It was very nice to meet you at the Camp Michaux walk last Saturday. My sister and I enjoyed it very much, though it was quite sad to see that all of the buildings are gone, the entire camp is overgrown, and the pools are nothing like they were.  John Bland's presentation of the POW history was very interesting, too.

     If you recall, my sister went to Michaux for eight years from 1956 through 1963, and I attended for three years, 1960, 1962, and 1963. I don't know if you saw the song book that she had along or not. Since then we raided my mother's house and we found song books from the other seven years she was there and three with my name on them. She also
located pictures that were taken at the junior camps she attended of all of the campers, like the ones I showed you of two of the years I was there.

     I am attaching scans of all of those pictures (see above), scans of the postcards we had along on the 18th and also scans of the front and back of a Red Cross swimming card that she got while at Michaux. The rear of the card has some signatures of people who approved it.

Thanks for your wonderful web site.
We've really enjoyed the memories that it has brought back.
C. B  November 2007

 

    Just checked back on your Camp Michaux site and see that there are a couple new messages from folks whose memories you have stirred!  I hadn't checked back on the site for some months and was afraid it would be "gone". So glad you still have it up and running.  Your site is fabulous and it was nice to see lots of familiar names and even faces on the various pictures.

    I worked on the staff during the summer of 1961. Among the other workers were Sally McElwain, Alice Rippon, DeDe Albright, Sharon Stabnau, Kip Bollinger, Russ Weer, the assistant cooks Kendy and Laurie, the lifeguards Fran and Craig, our boss, Mr. Baker, his right-hand man, Mr. Miller (and their children), Mrs. Kopenhaver (the nurse I believe), and I'd try to remember more of them, but I'm afraid I'll miss someone's name!

     I have my scrapbook and picture album from that summer and they are treasured items even now.   If you recall, I sent for your CD of pictures and my heart broke at how so much of the camp has "disappeared". I've read that given long enough Mother Nature reclaims her own and it's proof that she does.

   Thanks again for stirring up all those fond memories. Obviously some of the crew enjoyed their work enough to return again after 1961 because I saw some familiar faces in other group photos.   I hadn't checked back on the site for some months and was afraid it would

   I would be very pleased if you would include part of my message and my e-mail, so that if any of the former staff reads it, maybe they would contact me. 
sandybeach61 -at- earthlink.net   (Replace the "-at-" with an @)
Once the gals married and moved around, I lost track of them -- all except Alice. She and I have kept in touch over the years.

    It was a great place and a summer full of memories for me.
    Great site --- keep up the good work.
    Sandy Thomas Fisher
    Waynesboro, PA    March 2006

  

     

 1.)   I enjoyed the memories on your site. I was a camper in the early 1950s (Steelton, PA Presbyterian Church) (Rev. John and wife Ruth Talbot) for several summers and then came back in the late 50s as a camp counselor for two summers before heading off to college (Mansfield University) and then teaching and coaching for 40 years. I loved the experiences of Camp Michaux, the friends, etc.   I still have the camp pictures of my groups when I was a camper and also of the counselors when I was a counselor. I also have a camp newspaper that was published one of the weeks I was a camper there. It was called the "Bugler". Camp Michaux was one of the truly good and inspirational experiences of my life.

2.)   What a coincidence! Yesterday my wife and I drove up to Camp Michaux to explore. (because of your Website, of course). It was the first visit for me in 47 years. The weather was great and we had a really good time. I found my way around quite easily. One never forgets. When we got home I found your CD in the mail waiting for me loaded with more pictures and history. On top of that, I found 2 pictures of me in your collection. In the "\Reunion\" folder, image 4118 (above) and I'm' #5 in the group of counselors third from the left with the crewcut.  In the camp picture, image 4122, I'm in the last row middle with the same crewcut.  So, yesterday was a double treat. It was "Camp Michaux Day" all around. I was a history teacher for 39 years and was the local historian for my towns of Steelton and Highspire, PA.so as well as having been at Camp Michaux for 4 years (2 as a camper and 2 as a counselor) this is all right down my alley. Thank you so much for the CD!!!
    Yours in history  - John Beck  April 2005

"Hi from Oregon!  I stayed in both Zwingli and Calvin Annex, the girls' barracks. The boys were housed in Calvin. Zwingli in the barracks to the right of the rec hall on your map. Calvin is the building directly across the road from Zwingli, and Calvin Annex is the smaller building to the left of Calvin. " Regards, M. H.

   I have just been let in on your great Camp Michaux site and have just begun to read it. It is great. I would like to comment on your section describing the location of various landmarks. In it, you surmise that the upper dam on Tom's run was the water reservoir. This is correct. At one time the water intake for the camp was very visible.
     I have a long history with Michaux beginning as a camper in the late 1940's. In fact, my dad is the Albert C. Robinson listed as director of Camping for the UCC church. Beginning in 1959 I was on the permanent staff of the camp as a work crew member and later as crew leader. In 1966 or 67 I took over from Gil Williar as camp manager with responsibility for hiring staff and running the camp. I had a lot of good help from a lot of people, most notably Russ Weer who was the assistant manager. A lot of the people mentioned in your site were hired by Russ and me, including Gary Fisher, Andy Rebert and Cheryl Schoonover. I was succeeded in 1971 by Carl Henry
    As I find time, I'll try to see what I have in the way of memorabilia and will send it as I find it. Again, it's a great site and I am enjoying reading it.
     I just got to the section asking about identifying the barracks of the church camp. Here goes:
As you entered the camp from Route 233 on the Michaux Road, the first  building you came to was a guard building on the left. This was just  before you crossed over Tom's Run. As you entered the camp an turned left on the hard road, the buildings were as follows: on the right was Michaux Lodge (marked intelligence building in one of the maps) which was used by the directors and staff of the lower camp as housing and gathering area. This was the only winterized building in the camp and it burned down I think sometime in the 60's but I'm not sure when.
     To the south of this building was the Caretaker's house where Wilber Hockley and his family lived. The next building on the right of the main road was Calvin, a boys dorm. The POW marker alluded to was in front of this building Next was the boys bath house which was slightly set back from Calvin and then came Calvin Annex which was half the size of the other barracks and was used for both boys and girls depending on the need. Next was the fountain which was slightly set back from the road and then there was a small building we called the Secretaries shack because the camp secretary kept her stuff there. Behind the shack was the footers of a guard tower. Then there was an open area and then the dining hall you mention.
     Across from Calvin on the left of the road was Zwingli, a girls dorm. Next, and slightly set back was the girl's bath house with a small room on the right end as you faced it that at one time was the nurse's station. It ceased to be used as such when the new office was built across from the dining hall. The next building on the left was the lower rec. hall which also housed the camp store and behind this was the basketball court. The next building on the left was the old administration building and it was used as such until the new office was built. At some time after that it was torn down. After the old administration building was the new office, then the incinerator then the fire pumping station then the pond.  The above buildings comprised what was known as the lower camp.
     Returning to the intersection of Michaux Road, if you turned right you were in the maintenance area. On the left were the gas pump and several garages. On the right was the maintenance shop. This road went on out to Vesper Hill and became the Appalachian Trail.
     If you go up Michaux road to the upper service road, the building on the right in front of the stone barn wall was Trail Lodge where the male permanent staff lived and beyond that at the base of Vesper Hill was Deer Lodge which was mostly unused although for a while it was home for Clark Eckenrode who was an assistant caretaker.
     As you turn left on the upper service road, the first log cabin was Hutch and housed the kitchen girls and at one time the camp manager. The next log cabin was Honeymoon and was where the cooks lived. Next was the upper rec. hall (this is listed as the dining hall on one of the maps.) What at one time would have been the kitchen was turned into the manager's quarters and the screened porch was part of those quarters.
   Next there were 4 barrack going down the hill. The top one was the crafts building, the second was Witherspoon, the third one was Knox and the bottom on was the chapel. Knox and Witherspoon were girls dorms (depended on which camp was in session). Next (to the east) was the Pavilion with the Bath House below it. Then came the Steps To Nowhere and then two barracks, 52 and below that 51. The service road then turned left and circled around to meet the main road at the dining hall.
     Not all the building listed above were all there at the same time as some were torn down. They were there in the late 50's and early 60's. The usage I describe are as they were used by the church camp.

        Dave Robinson    -  New Windsor, MD  May, 2004

             
Junior Camp Staff 1954 - J. G Burke, Dave Robinson & Janet Greentree Photo
Row 1 L to R: Bunny Curran, Teenie ?, Rev Alcorn, Lois Kopelman, Jane ?
Row 2: Mrs. Miller, ---, Marlene ?, Betty Jane ?
Row 3; Sissy Smith, Rev Roy Snyder, Rev. Smith, Craig Smith, ---
Row 4: Dick Peret (from my church), Rev. Kenneth Snyder, Little John Bucher, Chuck Stein,

Permanent staff (work crew) 1959
Back row: Mr. Dick Adams, manager, Dave Robinson, Bob McCullough, Dean Young,
Dick(Tiny) Moyer, Jerry Derr, Jeff Smelser, Woody Wiley, Elly Long, Betty Kearns, Mrs. Cesna
Middle row: Jean Uhl, Marlene Kisner, Judy Spenser,Bev McElwain, Gail Shell, Joan Caelo,
Sandy Adams, Gail Charles, Sue Oster (now Robinson), Sharon Young (now McCullough),Mary
Lou Wood, Mrs. Adams with Kay Kopenhaver behind, Jean Copenhaver
Front row: Davy Uhl, Mark Uhl, George Uhl, Sue Kopenhaver, Jo Ellen Kopenhaver

Permanent (work) Staff 1963
Front Row, L to R: Andy Hockley, Kay Kopenhaver, Jo Ellen Kopenhaver, Sue Kopenhaver
Row 2: Mrs. Finkey, Jean Kopenhaver, Mrs. Baker, George Baker, Manager, ---,---
Row 3: Karen Albright, ___, Dee Dee Albright, ---, ---, Sally Mcelwain,---, Kathy Bange
Row 4: ---, Sue Oster,--- Ruth Weer, Russ Weer
Row 5: Dave Line, ---, Bert Baldwin, Bill Hockley, Charley Schaeffer, ---

Permanent (work) Staff 1964
Front Row 1 L to R: Eddie Williar, Terri Williar, Mark Williar
Row 2: Helen Shullenberger, Helen McAdoo, Ruth Weer, Ann Roelke, Francine Stenger, Pat Williar
Row 3: Mrs. Finkey,Janet Compton, Donna Cohick (now Weer), Karen Albright, Sue Oster(Robinson), Dee Dee Albright
Row 4: Mrs. Keefer, Charley Schaeffer, Russ Weer, Dave Robinson
Row 5: Tom Johns, John Hosteter, Scott Evans
Row 6: Gil Williar, Manager

Permanent (work) staff 1965
Front Row 1 L to R: Eddie Williar, Terri Williar, Mark Williar
Row 2: Helen Shullenberger, Donna Cohick (Weer), ---
Row 3: Paula Stenger, ---, Josie McCarter(Robinson), ---, Ruth Weer
Row 4: Pat Williar, Gil Williar, Manager, Sue Robinson, Francine Stenger
Row 5: Mrs. Keefer, Mrs. Finkey, Dave Robinson, ---
Row 6: John Hosteter, Scott Evans, Tom Johns, Bob Robinson, Russ Weer
Note two more of the couples on this picture were later married.  Mmy wife and I were married at this time.

Permanent (work) Staff 1968
Front Row 1:---, Barb Thrush, Carla Thrush, Meredith Schoonover (deceased - cousin of David)
Row 2: Sue Robinson, David Schoonover, Barb Thrush, ---, Josie McCarter (Robinson)
Row 3: Dave Robinson, Manager, ---, Mrs. Thrush, ---, Jean Hoffheins, Bob Robinson
Row 4: Tom Robinson, ---, ---
Row 5: Caleb ?,
Row 6: Ken Cohick, Bill Hockley, Gary Fisher, Clark Eckenrode, Russ Weer, Assistant

1969 Staff and the "Valley Pride Bread Truck"
It was a retired "Valley Pride" bread truck.  "Valley Pride" was a bakery located in Shippensburg, PA.   They would donate a truck for use at the camp during the summer.  - G. Fisher

1970 Staff

1971 Staff and the "Valley Pride Bread Truck" - Ed Bricker Photo

1972 Staff in the Pavilion -  Ed Brickner Photo

 

      After spending an evening reading through all the information on the Camp Michaux web page, I had to write you a note.
      I grew up in Carlisle & the camp was our Presbyterian Church camp. I am not certain about how many years that I went, but it would have been in the mid and late '50's. It is a special place to me still. In recent years when I come home from North Carolina to visit family in Carlisle, my mother will ask me, "well, when are you going to go?" What she knew is that I had to make a trip to visit the camp and Laural Lake to wander around.
     My family spent a lot of time in the Michaux State Forest in the summers when we were growing up. Many years ago my grandfather had built a small one-room, log cabin on the stream between Fuller and Laural Lakes. When summer came our family moved there to spend the summer, and my dad commuted to work from there. There was no electricity or running water at our cabin and all the food was cooked over an open fire. It is amazing to think about all the great family time we had there during the summers.
     What led me to your site is finding a link to the article written by Helen McAdoo. She was my sister. She wrote the essay for a contest while she was a student at Carlisle High School and won the contest that year. She was killed in a car accident in 1968.
     Helen, another sister, my brother, and I all went to the camp in the '50's and early '60's. I even spent part of one summer there in 1967 as a counselor. I had just graduated from West Point and had two months of summer leave before I reported to active duty. Going there seemed to be a good thing to do for part of that time.
     Thanks for gathering & sharing the information on the camp. As with everyone else, the place was very special to me. I was very disappointed when I returned one year and found that they had torn the buildings down.  The same thing happened to our family's cabin. In spite of the buildings being gone, I love to revisit both places and try to do it at least once a year.
     Best Regards,
     David McAdoo   Kernersville, NC  April 27, 2004

I do have one picture taken just west of the camp along Tom's Run.  It happens to be one of the native orchids that I found there on some of my summer visits. The flower is called the "Purple Fringed Orchid."

       

     My brother sent me this Website on Camp Michaux. My sister Helen Louise McAdoo was the high school girl from Carlisle, PA who wrote the history of the camp for her senior class essay. 
     The summer after her senior year she went to the Synod camp for the Presbyterian church there and was elected moderator of the state of PA. It was there during that week that she met Rev James (Mike) Ferguson who came to Carlisle to be the senior pastor of our church for 35 years.
     Going to Camp Michaux was a highlight of our childhood. We made many friends from neighboring towns and would meet them at local football games, etc. I kept in touch with many of these people for years. I was on the  staff one summer ('65) and was a camp counselor another summer. Many, many fond memories.
B. McAdoo H.   April 28, 2004

     Hi there. I really enjoyed visiting your Camp Michaux Website. I found it late one night after the melody of "The Ash Grove" suddenly popped into my head and wouldn't leave. I had to dig out my old copy of the Camp Michaux "Rejoice and Sing" songbook with the "The Ash Grove" on the back cover.
     I was at the junior high camps from 1960-62 (from Mechanicsburg Presbyterian Church) and often wonder what happened to my camping buddies: Miriam "Peewee" Fairman, Elaine Coombs, and Lee Fenicle. Only a few camp snapshots survived my parents' empty nest clear-out and our own cross-country move to Oregon a few years ago.
     The last time I visited Michaux was in the spring of 1970, when I was saddened to find the director's house had apparently burned down and I could see no traces of Zwingli, Calvin, and Calvin Annex barracks or the rec hall, site of endless games of four-square. I had fantastic camp experiences at Michaux and I hate to see that it's gone.
    Thanks for keeping the memories fresh!
   Regards, M. H. -  Oregon

    I was a camper during the late 50's and early 60's. I served on staff at the end of summer in 1968 for the Synod Camp. Good Web site. I live about 20 minutes from the camp. I remember the old "Valley Pride" bread truck used for delivery of stuff to the campers. Sure would be nice to be able to contact the old staff members who formed pretty close bonds, but not close enough to keep in contact.
    My sister and others from the Presbyterian churches in Newville, Shippensburg and Carlisle worked there also. We had reunions until the lodge burned, but don't remember when that was. Russ Weer seems to think that the old rec hall photos ended up with the state museum commission, but details indicate otherwise. Raymond Hockley, caretakers son, went to Big Spring and probably graduated in 1967 or 1968, as he was ahead of me in school. It would be good to interview him for missing details.
D. S   April 14,  2004

Follow up to this letter:
     I noticed the other day that you had added some more e-mails on the Michaux site. The one above really caught my eye!  
      Russ Weer and Dave Robinson were two of my bosses while I was worked there, 68 and 69. I was able to stay for one reunion at the "lodge" before it burned. I remember, it was during Christmas holiday and was it ever cold. We all put ice skates on and skated up the "run" behind the old dam, threw the woods. I also remember the POW "face" on the stone wall in the dam. The water level would be right under the nose of the face. But its fallen long ago.
     If any of the old staff from 68,69,70 would like to get together and see old friends. Andy Rebert (life guard 69, 70) and Gary Fisher (staff 68, 69) will be at Camp Michaux, June 19, 2004. We will meet at the old CCC fountain in the middle of camp. (7:00pm).
Gary Fisher April 21, 2004

     My brother (D.S. above) forwarded your Michaux site to me - and I've had a ball just pulling out all those old memories from my brain. I'm afraid there is a lot that I've gotten - but Camp Michaux has always held a special place in my heart. I attended camp in the summer of '59 (I think) as an elementary student - then again in '65 as a Sr. High camper.
     The real fun came when I joined the permanent staff in '66 - with Gilman Williar as the camp manager. My first job was as a "lowly" kitchen girl - but in the next two summers I worked as an assistant cook. My brother emailed you previously and mentioned the Valley Pride bread truck. According to the cook of '66, it was the "Walley Pride" truck.
     We used that truck to take meals to campers who had hiked to Poles Steeple. The usual meal for that was barbecue and baked beans, and we had these big square roasting pans that held them both. The trick was to get the food up the trail without spilling it. In addition I still have some memory of the other evening menus:

• Pork (which we carefully sliced ourselves), sauerkraut and mashed potatoes (instant)
• Roast beef (which we sliced), gravy, mashed potatoes instant) and corn
• Baked chicken, peas ...
• Meat loaf
• Ham, sweet potatoes (which everyone hated) and green beans.

     You've got to remember that we served those same meals, week in, week out, all summer long. Then there were the milk coolers (one on each side of the dining room) - where campers could have as much milk as they wanted. The guy assigned to kitchen staff had to lift those heavy milk cans up into the cooler for dispensing.
     The dining room was divided in half (with a swinging door between) - and there were generally two different groups in for a week of camp.
     We loved it best during Synod camp - when the door was propped open so that announcements and singing could be heard on both sides. Being a teenager myself at the time, it was neat to see all the cute guys who came to Synod Camp.
     The blessing offered at each meal was often: "Morning (noontime, evening) has come, the board is spread. Thanks be to God, who gives us bread. Thanks be to God." This is only a tiny bit of what I remember.

Graces
Morning is here, the board
is spread. Thanks be to God
who gives us bread.

For health and strength
and daily bread. We praise
thy name O Lord. Amen.

     I could probably write a book on some of our crazy escapades - moonlight swims, cabin raids, going to the Cumberland Drive-in Theater with the bread truck and the manager's pick-up truck, regular trips to Twirley Top for soft ice cream, etc.
     Besides all the memories of these events, I treasure the memories of Michaux's beauty and its interesting history. Michaux represents not only spiritual significance in my life - but three summers of having my first real job, living away from home and making lots of friends. Incidentally I work closely with Raymond Hockley's wife - so I may be able to get some more information from that source. Raymond is the son of the caretaker.
     I just learned about the reunion tonight - when my brother (who mentioned the Valley Pride bread truck) forwarded Gary's message to me.  It's on my calendar - and I'm already excited about seeing people I worked with back then. We used to have a winter reunion - using the Lodge. But I've really lost track of people - except the ones who are still connected to Newville (either living here or having family who is still here).
    Thanks for all your painstaking research - and for compiling such an enjoyable site.
Cheryl Tritt   April 22, 2004 

    First I'd like to say that I love your web page.  I have many fond memories Camp Michaux.  I was a camper there in 63 and 64.  I'm one of the campers in the 1963 stairway photo. I found your site via my brother (Squirrel), he's in the photo as well.
     Those two weeks were some of best times of my youth. I would've stayed all summer if I could. The crafts and hikes. The pool and the old pool / pond. I loved the overnight campout at the end of the week. I'll always remember the last night when we would float those candle "rafts" we made in crafts during the week, in the pond. Singing and watching those candles drifting across the water. What memories these.
     Those endless games of four square. I loved that game so much that I taught the kids at my school. It was a hit there as well.  I loved the food too. Even the "rubber" pancakes. They would stretch if you pulled them. We would laugh and then gobble them down.
     All this fun in an old W.W.II German prisoner of war camp. My little imagination was full of movie like scenes of prisoners marching around and trying to escape.
     I've been there once since it closed but that was at least 20 years ago. My brother worked there in the late 60s and is one of the two guys putting together the reunion this June. I've put it on my calendar and plain to be there as well. I live in Cooperstown NY and it looks like about a four hour drive. It'll be special to see what's left of it now.

All of my old photos of the camp are long gone. I'd love to have the CD.   I'd sure like to see what it used to look like.
  Thanks
   C.  S.  Cooperstown NY  April 23, 2004

  
Lee Schaeffer Photo

I found your CD very interesting and even answered questions and helped identify some pictures.

We had a picture of my sisters standing with me next to a sign which read, "Be still and know that I am the Lord". We were not sure where it was if even at Michaux, then Poof and it appeared on the path to Vesper hill and in unison Barb and I said "wow, there's that sign".
     More and more pleasant memories keep popping up. Thanks again.
Bruce Dull  Baltimore, MD - May 2004

    When I went to the Synod of the Trinity page a familiar name jumped out at me! Camp Michaux! As a youth fellowship officer at the Bethel Park Presbyterian Church, I attended a conference there. I have vague memories of the buildings, but what I remember more are the young people whom I met. They are people whom I have come across throughout my life as an educator in the Presbyterian Church at various times!
     What a delight to look over all the information you have collected and to think again of some of the leadership roots that I have in the church that were nurtured at conferences like the one at Camp Michaux. I have a vision of a group of us standing outside a white frame building and singing to the playing of a guitar by a young man from Canonsburg.
     When I went to college at Wooster, I discovered Rosalie Carson who had been at Michaux, whose father was a Presbyterian minister in Pittsburgh, was also a student there. Then about 10 years ago, Rev. Bill Keeney was in our presbytery briefly to meet with a committee and he, too, was one of the folks who was at Michaux Westminster Fellowship Leadership conference with us! Roberta Barlow, from Bethel, went with me to the conference. This must have been in about 1957. What fun to wander down the path of memory to that place from so very long ago! Thanks for the site!
     M. L. F.
     Associate for Christian Education and Congregational Programming
     Redstone Presbytery

   Thank you for all of the wonderful information on Camp Michaux. Even though I was never a camper, my dad and I spent many happy hours on the Appalachian Trail in the Pine Grove State Park area. In the late 60's, we would park at the end of the Old Shippensburg Road, where I would sometimes fish, and then hike up the AT to the Tom's Run Shelter or beyond. One of our best trips was a day hike from Pine Grove down to Caledonia which ended with a dip in the pool. We would pass by the camp which always seemed to be a beehive of activity. You could hear singing and the noise from the pool area. Campers would greet us as we passed along the trail. After reading the various e-mails, I can assume that Camp Michaux must have been a very special place for many young people.
     My father knew some of the history of the CCC and POW camps from the Appalachian Trail manuals which he imparted to me. Some barbed wire was also still visible up where the AT turned toward Tom's Run. We tried to visualize the two camps while walking along the AT. My last year at Pine Grove was probably 1971 before entering high school, but then I would need to make money during the summers in preparation for college.  
    I didn't think much of Camp Michaux until I camped in the area with my family in 1994. By coincidence we stayed in some cabins owned by a gentleman named Mowry, who lived off of PA 233 about a mile north of Pine Grove. In talking to this man, we found out he was one of the men who helped cart away much of the wood and other parts from Camp Michaux. He told us that the lumber and other hardware were free to anyone who could remove them. He used some of this lumber to build the barn on his property and some of his own cabins, so I guess I was a camper after all. He stimulated our interest in the AT and Camp Michaux. We went up to the camp, but we could find little except for the CCC fountain and the Old Barn wall because we were losing the daylight. That place was a bit eerie in the dark!!!
     In 2002 we went back during the day and were able to find a number of other landmarks. We went down the roads to the pool, the old foundations, and the new wooden bridge. Other people had obviously been looking around the area. Unfortunately along with some great memories I also brought home a good case of poison ivy. I wish I had seen your Website before we went out to the camp. In the next year or so, my dad and I will try to explore the area with the benefit of your extremely helpful maps and information. Thank you for all of your efforts in keeping the memory of this magical place alive. God bless.
  B. G. West Palm Beach, Florida.   March 17, 2004

     This Web site is such a blessing. I spent 3 years at the camp, 64-66. Went to college in Shippensburg, PA., 78 graduate. Hiked countless miles on the AT over and over on South Mountain. My grandparents lived in Gardners. I know to this day I could find the steps where the pictures were taken, the old and new pools, and the place where the tent platforms were located on the road to the creek crossing at Tom's Run. As I recall these tent platforms were down the road to the right of  the old barn wall.  At the time, it was not part of the actual AT.  They were maybe 300 yards from the barn wall. This trail or road went downhill to where Tom's Run crossed the road.
    I recall, there were German POW names on the side of a stone arch bridge near the entrance to the camp. Anyone ever mention this before?

    You've brought back a part of my past.   Bless you.
   M. P.  Castle Rock, CO  March 17, 2004

  I'm so glad I found this page. My daughter sent me the link from somewhere. I'll have to find out how she came across it. She lives in Gettysburg.
     I grew up in Annapolis and Camp Michaux was our church camp for the St. Martin's Lutheran Church in Annapolis. I attended camp there in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades in the 50s. It was always so much fun, and I have such fond memories of the camp. I had been trying to find the camp for quite awhile and a friend and I found the remains of it a couple of years ago. So sad to see it all overgrown. We never did find Vesper Hill which I would really like to see again. The maps you have here are great. Next time I visit my daughter, we shall have to go back to Camp
Michaux and see if we can find Vesper Hill this time.
     My first time hiking was on the AT at Camp Michaux. My daughter also took me hiking last year at Laurel Lake (at Pine Grove Furnace State Park) where we used to go swimming. I remembered it as soon as I saw it.

Junior Camp Staff 1954
Row 1 L to R: Bunny Curran, Teenie ?, Rev Alcorn, Lois Kopelman, Jane ?
Row 2: Mrs. Miller, ---, Marlene ?, Betty Jane ?
Row 3; Sissy Smith, Rev Roy Snyder, Rev. Smith, Craig Smith, ---
Row 4: Dick Peret (from my church), Rev. Kenneth Snyder, Little John Bucher, Chuck Stein, ---

Here's the picture I have. I believe it is from 1954 because that is the year that most of the stuff I saved was from.That's all I wrote on the back.  It was taken on the steps but look how  much bigger the steps were then and what is left at the site now. I kind of remember a building behind the steps. The pictures on your site sure brought back memories.
   I have a 1954 Camp Schedule (see above), a welcoming letter from Albert C. Robinson, Director, and the Michaux Barker (a camp newspaper type thing) and it lists all the people who were there in 1954.
     Thanks for your site. I'll have to send it to my friends who attended with me.
J. G. - Burke, VA Sept 28, 2003
          

     Thank you so much for creating and maintaining the web pages describing  Camp Michaux. I've been searching through my memory for some details about  my past and any trigger is welcome. (I was there in the early 1960s with a  group from Saint Matthews UCC in Baltimore, MD.) I've been searching for information on the camp but had been misspelling the name as "Micheaux". Once I found the Michaux State Forest on a map and discovered my error, the rest was easy. I visited the remains of the camp in early July but wasn't able to get my bearings until late in the afternoon, so I'll be making a return trip in the late fall, hopefully.
     I am very much interested in the CD you mentioned containing the old slides  and your other pictures and documents. Please let me know how I can   receive one. As far as I know I have no old pictures of the camp but I did   take some while I was there in July. I'll try to upload them to a web  server soon and will send you the links.
     By the way, earlier this year I visited the Early Television Museum in  Hilliard, OH.  I see that you have an  interest in that subject as well and I was wondering if you have visited  that museum. They have a CD available with pictures of most of the items on display.
     Thanks again.
     Bob, Baltimore, MD  Aug 29, 2003

     Although I was the chairman of the Carlisle Presbytery Camping Committee in the last years of its existence I was not in the circle of powerful decision makers in the Presbytery. What I heard at camp committee meetings was that despite the plans that were drawn up to renovate the camp the presbytery was reluctant to put money into property they did not own. Indeed they scrimped on maintenance and got complaints from the state for letting the property run down. This made the presbytery feel that the state wanted them out of there, thus making them even more reluctant to put money into the camp.
     While we were at this impasse the church camps of central PA brought some experts in to study the camps of the region. As the result of this study the United Church of Christ decided to pull out of Camp Michaux and concentrate there camping at Hartman Center near Milroy, PA. Since they sent most of the campers to Michaux, it was really untenable for us continue on our own.  Because of my many years counseling and directing at Camp Michaux I let my heart rule my head and proposed that we keep the camp open and run it alone. My proposal was defeated and the camp closed. 
     We began to purchase services from Camp Krislund and later bought into Camp Krislund which is run now by Carlisle, Huntingdon and Northumberland Presbyteries. I also graduated from college with a B. S. in Physics, but as the result of my summers counseling at Camp Michaux became a minister instead.
Sincerely yours,
     W.W.  -  June 2003

I just heard about this site today at a Mercersburg Association meeting. My dad was a counselor at Michaux, I was a camper and later on "permanent" summer staff as a counselor. Wonderful place! Lots of incredible memories . . .
    Just looking at my old camp pictures (when we all sat on those stone steps) bring them tumbling back - vesper hill (both of them) the dining hall, singing songs, the camp sites, cooking out, sleeping out, pioneer camp (and rain - of course!) I could go on and on. Apparently you have great memories, too! thanks for bringing them back!
   I was on staff at Michaux summer 1970, I think . So your mention of the western PA goodies brought back more great memories. - Kennywood, KDKA, etc. I student taught at Hempfield and lived in So. Greensburg. My church affiliation is UCC - when Michaux was our church camp it was Presbyterian and Evangelical&Reformed (before the UCC merger).
    Now I am a UCC minister, serving two UCC Homes nursing homes in Carlisle. Somewhere around here I have my Dad's white and green Michaux hat - on my bookshelf with my Bibles!
    I also have (but this I will have to hunt for) that little red booklet that had the history of the camp in. Do you have one of those? When the ground was broken for Michaux Lodge at Hartman Center (now our church camp) I was there - as I was on staff working in CE at my home church. We had the confirmation class on retreat then. Now I take the resident's of the Homes on a retreat to Michaux Lodge! My how history "repeats" itself and is so inter-related!
   Once again, thanks for the memories. Best wishes!
      Anna -  May 2003

   A pleasure to find Camp Michaux on your site.
   I was a camper there, 60 and 61, and later worked on the staff 68, and 69. I have my old camper pictures and staff pictures from 69 and one from 70. Plus pictures that I took around camp, 68 or 69. I don't have a scanner, but I would send you copies to add to the site.    I would love to see your old slide pictures. So send me your CD.
Gary also sent me the copy of Helen Louise McAdoo's History of Camp Michaux

Staff 1969

Staff 1970 Front: --- First Row, L to R: Dan Robinson, Ester ?, Emily McLaughlin, Uncle Fred ?, Fran Rinehart, Judy ?, Teri ? Row 2: Charlie ?, Pat Potter Row 3: Ellen ?, Anna ?, John ?, Dan?, Alan Potter Row 4: Ken ?, Gregg ?, Ellen Rinehart, Scott Evans, Sue ? Row 5: Jane ?, Deb ?, Dorrie ?, Kenny ? Row 6: Sue Newpher, Barb Thrush,Doc ?, Kim ?, Dave Robinson, Manager Row 7: Tom Robinson, Marsha Imhoff, Allison Palmer, Andy Rebert, Carl Henry

1963 Campers & Staff

    Hey, that’s me in one of your camper photos from Camp Michaux! What a surprise and a delight to find it.  It’s the photo of the 1963 campers and staff.  I’m the girl in the white headband, second from the right in the second row (or maybe third row) next to a girl in a sleeveless shirt on the far right. The four girls in the front row on the right were also part of my bunkroom in Zwingli that year. I was 11, almost 12 when I was there that year.  We had a great time. I remember the entire camp walking down to the general store next to what is now the AT building after a rain one night. I think only the counselors had flashlights.  We went down for ice cream, and on the way back the road was filled with small, jumping frogs that were almost impossible not to step on. Can you imagine an entire group of kids walking down a dark public road these days?  I don’t remember many, if any, cars passing.

    Our Vesper Hill was the one you call the “other Vesper Hill.”  At the time it seemed like a long march up that hill to the tree line where we had vespers. The first time I went back to Michaux as an adult, I couldn’t believe what a short distance it was! I’ve been back and around Michaux many times since, often as a start or end point of a hike on the AT.  I was always sorry when the camp closed and was dismantled. It’s a shame that such a historic spot wasn’t maintained. 

Thanks again for your site!  I really enjoy looking at all the photos and remembering those good days.

Carolyn - April 2014

Hey Lee,
    I just received the CD of pictures today. Thank you so much. I'm still trying to figure out how to view all of the pictures. I'll get it. Anyway, the last "walk" picture, #800 of the prisoner's writing on east side of Tom's Run culvert. All the years that I have been coming up, I never knew the signatures were there. Have to check that out the next time I'm in camp.
     That picture reminded me of a story that happened to me. I think it was the summer of 68. It was my turn for "KP" duty in the kitchen/dinning hall. I had just finished dumping the GI cans and running the dish washer for lunch. I walked up the "grove of pines" and had just started to cross Michaux Rd. to Trail Lodge. I looked both ways, of course, and sitting down the road at that little bridge was this black object. At first I thought it was a camper. Then without a sound, this "thing" got up and walked across the road. On all fours! It was a black mountain cat, long tail and all. I looked around for a witness but of course no one was around. The cat proceeded to disappear into the "cover" and that was the last time I saw it. This happened mid-afternoon. I'll never forget that one.
       A lot of memories at Camp Michaux. Thanks again! Sincerely,
Gary   July 2003

     WOW! I cannot thank you enough for posting this Web site. Two years ago we took our scout troop through there on an overnight hike. I only wish I had found your Web site earlier. Our imaginations ran wild trying to figure out what stood on this foundation and along that path. Armed with your information, I'll take the troop back again before the vegetation grows too thick. Thanks again for all your hard work.
   Sincerely,
   D. B., Troop 149 BSA, York, PA   June 2003

   I was filled with joy and great memories to view the Web site of the history, etc of camp Michaux. Ken Sell gave the address to me during our recent Southern Conference. Historical trip to Trapp, PA celebrating the 265th anniversary of St Luke's E&R church there
     You will be glad to know that I have many photos, much data, camp newspapers, etc of my years as director, counselor, rec. director, etc at Camp Michaux.   I worked there with the UCC contingent while I was Director of Christian Education at St. Johns UCC in Richmond Va.  St. Johns sent busloads of campers to Michaux back in the 60's since the central Atlantic conference had no camp. I worked at Michaux in the 70's
      I remember fondly the pastor of the large PCUSA in Carlisle Bob.(Scottish name) who helped at Michaux.  Also Carl Henry, the director. Where is he now? also Frosty (rev Frost from York) Ivan Mohr, etc.
     We should make a list of those former associates and their whereabouts if they still are among the living Trudy Kleindinst was a fabulous counselor among others.
     Thank you for preparing and publishing such a great web page of the camp. It is an act of love. The many happy years at Michaux still enrich our lives.
     I understand that the murals painted by the German POWs in the barracks (Zwingli I think) are on display in a building at Pine Grove Furnace. Is that correct? (Only one.)
     My son and daughter-in-law met and began their courtship at Michaux and now are living near us.
     I have Presbyterian roots too, having gone to Davidson College and Austin Presbyterian Seminary in Texas.
     Below are some of the myriad of snapshots I have of camp Michaux activates in the late 60's and middle 70's  The old officer's club rec. room had a big stove and I remember someone had written on it 'GIMMIE SOME!
     These photos of course are from the UCC camps, at which I did my camping work. We had lots of Presbyterians in the camp makeup, but the camps were done as far as I remember by the UCC's
     Hope to hear from you soon These photos have been in storage for a long time and are somewhat shriveled up like we adults get when we age.
Shalom,    Wade Hampton Shuford   Oct 22, 2002

  
    Summer 1972  -  July 16-22
Last Year the Camp was open

    It was a joy to discover your Web site on Camp Michaux. For some twenty years I have been gathering together graduates of old "Western Seminary, Pgh." - started out as class of '54, but as our class began to dwindle we have essentially made it the "Western Retreat". At this year's just ended - Dick Sigler told me about your site. What wonderful memories.
    I was active at Michaux very soon after our church leased the grounds.   I was part of the staff of several experimental "junior camps" - with "outdoor woods homes" etc - all rather common place relative to modern camping experiences. I was also very active in Westminster Fellowship (William Henry Vernon Smith!) and was involved in the planning of the Synod WF Annual Conferences at Michaux. Michaux holds an important place in my life, formative of many values and experience of many joys. Thank you for getting it up on the web page. I will check my photo and see if there aren't some interesting pictures of those years. Later, by the way, I became the national moderator of the National Council of Westminster Fellowship.
    Please advise as you add more.
          Thank you, Bob Curry Oct. 2002

   My sister and I just returned from a walk sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society through this beautiful area. We were both surprised to learn that the iron industry had once ruined this beautiful piece of property.
We were just as surprised to see that there was little left in the way of identifiable buildings and areas of our church  camp. My sisters and I attended the church camp (UCC) during the late 50's through late 60's. Today's walk was  just another reminder that nothing remains the same - except our sweet memories of youth. Thank you Cumberland   County Historical Society for taking us back to a time before our birth - through our youth - by walking these beautiful paths of today.
K. - May 2002

    This morning my son referred me to your Web site about Camp Michaux. This camp has a very special place in my heart. While a camper there in 1951 or 1952, I met a girl from Beech Creek, PA.   She came to visit me in Shamokin in 1952 and I in turn visited her in Beech Creek in 1953. On August 13, 1953, a young man came to visit her the day he was discharge from the Air Force. John Widmann and I were attracted to each other and in 1955 we married.  
     In 1972, while on a church exchange to Germany we sought to find my husband's family. We were able to find the German Widmann's through the aid of a receptionist in the Town Hall of Boeblingen, Germany. She arranged for a meeting with the Widmann relatives, and in the process we became friends.
     In 1973, Lore and Leo Groeger visited us in Chambersburg. Leo had been a prisoner of war in the US, having been captured with Rommel's Afrika Korps. We took him to the site of Camp Michaux, and he excitedly shouted "This is the place."   An article in the Chambersburg Public Opinion, December 26, 1986 relates this story, as well as contains a picture  of Camp Michaux as a prisoner of war camp.Leo is now dead, but we keep in touch with his widow (saw her last year when we were in Germany).
                                 
"I had heard there was an entire building full of empty ammo boxes when the camp was first leased by the church. The ammo boxes is what campers used for seats at the camp sites in the woods for years until the supply was depleted". -   Lawrence M.  2009
    The area of the camp where the Vesper's were held was near the entrance. If you face the entrance (as if to leave  the camp), it was on the hillside to the left.
We sat on ammunition boxes as pew seats. When I was there there  was no chapel (at least not to my present memory). The pool was not there, we swam in what you picture as the swimming hole.
     One of the advisers was a seminary student. I believe his name was Edgar Dayton (I may be incorrect).
N.  W.  August 2002

   I stumbled onto your web page over the weekend and was most interested in your information on Camp Michaux. I, too, was a delegate to the Youth Leadership Conference and remember a wonderful week there in August, 1969. The name Dick Sigler seemed very familiar, though I don't remember a lot about him. Some things I do remember:   Sleeping in the old P.O.W. barracks.  Skits under the pavilion on Saturday night.  A girl from North Warren who played guitar and sang "Leaving on a Jet Plane." Volleyball games after supper pitting Presbytery against Presbytery.
              
                        Looking NE showing upper Crafts Building and cabin.
                   The volleyball court was behind the chapel and up the hill from
                    the pool.
   I represented Second Presbyterian Church in Oil City and we didn't have a pastor at that time, so I knew virtually no one before going. I rode down with a pastor from Franklin Presbyterian Church named Claude Ponting. For some reason, he couldn't give me a ride home, so I came back with Jack Larson. (whom we kids called the "sinister minister") Jack was at the Cambridge Springs church and later went to Carlisle. I got to know him much better in the year to come through meetings of the Lake Erie Presbytery Youth Task Force.
   I got to know the girl who played guitar as well, and ended up taking her to my senior prom in May, 1970.  We both attended Clarion State College and after we graduated, we got together on occasion, she driving up to Williamsport, where I was teaching math, or I driving down to Carlisle where she got a job teaching German. On one of the Carlisle visits, we drove out to the camp, which I was surprised to find no longer existed. This was probably in 1976. Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane. 
   Sincerely, G. K.

   Great site! I was a camper in 1960 and 1962 at the age of 10 and 12. Back in 1995 I too went in search of the Camp and was thrilled to find the remnants (concrete support piers for the watchtower, the pool, the steps up to the pavilion, the overgrown depression that was the drainage ditch next to the road) yet saddened to see that the camp was no longer there. Fond memories is an understatement. I even had this vision of learning more about what had happened to the camp and working to re-open it.
    A couple years ago I searched the web for "Camp Michaux" and ultimately wound up in touch with a man at the Army facility in Carlisle.    Today, on a whim, I searched again and found your page. The one year I was there, we had counselors one of whom was Larry Kirby, a folk singer of some note in the Baltimore area, another called "Frog" and a woman named Bonnie. Also, my association with the camp was through the United Church of Christ. I'll collect what I have, see how it scans and send it on.
    Bill B.

     I am so thankful to have found your Web site on Camp Michaux. I was a camper there in 1966 and 1968. I have good memories. In 1994, I tried to find the camp, but couldn't, probably because there are only remnants. I still have both group pictures from those years.  I wonder if anyone out there was a camper in the picture and if they would just like to say "Hello" or post their memory. My email is [email protected]. Thanks.
   C. P.  Baltimore, Maryland  6/06/02

     Just a note to thank you for the page on Camp Michaux. It brought back many fond memories.  I was a member of the Market Square Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg in the late 50's and  early 60's and attended Camp Michaux three times during my youth. It was my favorite place to go in the summer! As for the POW artwork, I remember a painting in the dining hall that a German prisoner painted of the Statue of Liberty. The artist placed the shadow of Liberty's nose in such a way that it looked like Hitler's moustache !

Picture taken on "The Steps to Nowhere"

Photo of the camp staff taken during one of the years I was there.
Unfortunately, there is no date or names on the back of the photo.
Maybe you'll recognize some of them *.
(Check out the old Studebaker and the '55 Chevy in the background!)
    K. S.,   -  Safford, AZ  02/23/02

*Top Row: Joe Dahl (holding the cat), Fred Seltzer, Charlie Davis, Ted, Jerome VanNest,  Ken.
Second from Top Row:  Patricia Shoop (Aunt Pill),  Ruth,  Mary Douglas,   unknown.
Second from Bottom Row:  Jeannie Roberts,  Flora George,  unknown,   Peggy Terry.
Bottom Row: Walt Williams (eventually became a Presbyterian Minister - was at camp reunion), Colin Douglas,
Ruth Sensenig, Rev. John Sensenig (camp director).
    Regards. (Uncle) Fred Seltzer with additional names by Walt Williams

      I found your web site because my 3 sisters and I are going to go on a hike through Michaux in May 2002. This is a Cumberland Co. Historical Walks tour. We all went to UCC camp in the 60's and 70's. I must have been one of the last camp groups. My last camping year was the summer of 1970 when I was 16 years old. Of course, I met my first serious boy friend at Church Camp (didn't we all?). We actually dated for 2 years (his parents doing all the driving until he got his license - they must have liked me).
       I was going to relate my favorite memory of Camp Michaux, but I can't think of just one -- so here is a quick list of fading memories. Cabin inspection (how are those hospital corners?), running to the outhouse cabin in the middle of the night and cutting my food (couldn't take the BIG hike that year), wonderful counselors, meditation time in the morning just before breakfast, my first taste of PB&J sandwiches, SINGING after every meal (my favorite part) especially "The Ash Grove" to which I learned to sing harmony, the group picture taken on the hill, trying to look sexy in my first two-piece swim suit, meeting counselors from a foreign land, vespers, the time the boys stuffed sheets in the bell so they couldn't wake us up in the morning and taking the doors off the administration building and putting them on the roof, trying to sneak across the road to the boys cabins, the boys trying to sneak across the road to ours, letters from home (always with a piece of chewing gum enclosed)
      I could go on and on. It's hard to believe just one week each year could leave such an impact on our lives. I probably went for about 4 or 5 years (I don't really remember, I'll have to get out my group photos and check the years).   Thanks for the web site. I'll be sure to tell all my sisters.
   T.Z.    Frederick, MD  2/22/02

    I just wanted to let you know your site was a great source of information to me. My husband told me about the camp, which I knew nothing about, and we just returned from a walk in the area. We found a wall from I believe the old stone barn that is still intact and in good condition considering its age. I am looking forward to going back and exploring more of the area. Maybe we will find the fountain or other remnants of the camp that I found out about on your site. I find it sad that the camp was not maintained by the state or some government agency as I believe it to be a important piece of history. I also look forward to returning to this site for more information as it becomes available. Thank you for the great service you have provided!!! You have done a wonderful job in providing information about a important piece of history.
   H. F.

   I am a UCC minister who was a counselor at Michaux in 1948. Spent 3 weeks there. I was told there were 2000 Germans and 1000 Japanese, which seems to have been an "enhanced" figure.  Also we were told three Germans escaped and only 2 where ever found. Interesting tales.

   We sat on ammo cases for just about everything we did. The barb wire had been taken down by some of our counselors  who had been there in '47. The paintings I remember were alpine scenes on the walls of either the rec. hall or the dinning hall. They were painted on the wall board. While I was there 6 rattlesnakes in the center of the camp where "dispatched" by the caretaker who was good with a 22. Since this is going back a good bit I don't remember too much more. I suppose I have some pictures somewhere but finding them would be a job.
   N. W. 1st. UCC, Winston-Salem, NC          01/28/02

   I just discovered your wonderful material on Camp Michaux. Thanks for a great piece of work. I am writing my memoirs and was searching for information on the camp and you had it all there.
   I served as a counselor at a Presbyterian camp in 1954. I was living in New Bloomfield at the time and I guess Dick Sigler talked me into it. I also served in a couple of E. & R. camps in 1955-56.
   Thanks again for your work. I told a couple of my friends who also served there about your Web site.
   K. S.           01/28/02

Other Information About the Camp

Ellen McDaniel-Weissler [email protected]
She informed me that she is working on a book about the POW era history of the camp.  I'll post any information about her project as it becomes available. 

E-mail from GLZ at Michaux State Forest office:

In 1972 the church proposed to make major renovations to the camp and even had detailed drawings of their proposal. For some reason, unknown to me, the entire project "fell through" and the church gave up it's lease to the facility.  In 1973 the buildings were put up for competitive bid to individuals who wished to buy and remove them.  I and a fellow employee of the Michaux State Forest purchased a building and removed it during the winter of 1973. It was a garage located on the east side of the Michaux Road. We divided the lumber we removed.  In addition I salvaged an old piano that was scheduled for destruction in the camp. It still sits in my living room and my wife plays it almost daily.  A considerable amount of money has been spent on it to restore it.  Too many years in the unheated camp took it's toll on the sound board. It is a beautiful upright piano that dates to the late 19th century.   To my knowledge, a few of the buildings were removed piece by piece and rebuilt at other places. I'm fairly certain they did not go to other CCC Camps. Where they went, I don't know.   Most of the building were simply removed for the lumber they contained.

We collected a large number of the paintings before the camp was dismantled. They were in the attic of our office for several years. We offered them to the PA Historical and Museum Commission but they weren't interested.  The District Forester, Ken Swartz then gave them to a man. I don't know if I ever knew his name. He recently ( 3-4 years ago displayed them at Pine Grove Furnace State Park.  He has since died. I don't know what became of them. 

We have one of the paintings in our office.   It a picture of a fish painted on a wooden door panel.  All of the other paintings were painted on the homasote wallboard that lined the barracks.  Many of the scenes were of Germany.  Some had the old German script lettering.  I know an individual that just recently had a roster of names of Japanese Navy prisoners that were imprisoned at Camp Michaux.  The letter he has lists about 80 men, but the second page with half the names is missing.  Apparently the commander of the Camp delivered them to Baltimore where they were placed on a ship for delivery to Japan.   According to the Japanese customs at that time, it was necessary to allow the Japanese prisoners to get off the ship in shallow water to re-enter their country.   Otherwise they would have been looked upon as cowards and their culture would have mandated that they commit suicide.  The individual I know has found a great deal of information of the Camp before it was a church camp. His name is Ted Valcis.  The bell from the camp was in the possession of a Wilmer Hockley when the camp was torn down. I think he died a few years ago. Bill, as he was known, was the maintenance man at the church camp.

While at the Camp Store we met a trail hiker who relayed my request for information on to another friend who graciously sent me the following publication:

Patrick L. Metcalf, "The Pine Grove Prisoner of War Camp",
Cumberland County History, Winter 2000, Volume 17 Number 2. 
Available from:
The Cumberland County Historical Society
21 North Pitt Street
P.O. Box 626
Carlisle, PA 17013

This 12 page article contains a map of "Camp Pine Grove Furnace Prisoner of War Camp" obviously drawn from memory by Rex F. Waite and reproduced from the Shippensburg, PA, News Chronicle, June 28, 1993.   Metcalf states that Waite was "stationed at the camp."  I am guessing that Waite was an officer since the road closest to Tom's Run is listed as "Waite Rd." and enlisted men do not have roads named after them!   

A SHORT HISTORY OF CAMP MICHAUX
Text from a document obtained at the Pine Grove Furnace Park office.
Detailed history of the camp and furnace

Nestled in the ridges of the South Mountain two miles west of Pine Grove Furnace lies Camp Michaux. This church camp, was shared by the United Presbyterian Church and the United Church of Christ, has an unusual historical background, which dates from the early iron mining industry and continues through World War II.

The present site of Camp Michaux was once known as the Bunker Hill Farm and included about 250 acres of land. No one is certain how far back this early farm dates because the deed is believed to have been destroyed by confederates on their march north.

According to one theory, however, the farm existed in Revolutionary days. It is know that after the Battle of Trenton, Hessians were taken as prisoners to the Carlisle Army Post. From there, they were issued to various farmers in the area as workers. These Hessians may have erected the enormous stone barn at the Bunker Hill Farm because its construction resembles the old Hessian guardhouse at the Army Post. One side of the stone barn still stands on the Camp Michaux grounds.

About a mile northwest of camp, on the Appalachian Trail is the old tenant house of the farm. Located close to a mountain spring and a creek, the house is now used as a shelter for hikers along the trail. Behind the house among the trees lie three unmarked graves believed to be those of young children who died of small pox.

In addition to the farm proper, the farm included a large peach orchard on Big Flat and a sawmill close by. The first steam traction engine in the South Mountain was owned by the Baker family for use in this sawmill.

Sometime through the years the farm was bought by the owners of the Pine Grove Estate and became part of their vast system of farms. The iron works community at Pine Grove was similar to a feudal system in that workers were dependent on their master for food and shelter and that "farms were worked for the support of man and beast."

The farm system was so extensive that in 1878 the South Mountain Iron Company hired an expert planter and fruit culturist, J.D. North from North Carolina, to have charge of the farms and their management. A tenant farmer operated each individual farm. Under this plan, John A. Gardners was the last farmer of the Bunker Hill farm. For this reason, natives often refer to the site as the Gardner Farm.

In 1912 the South Mountain Mining and Iron Company sold out to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for $29,827. The sixty square miles of the Pine Grove Estate became a state forest reserve. The state, however, continued to cultivate the Gardner farm until 1919 when 1,000 bushels of wheat were harvested.

The once prosperous farmlands were then abandoned and left to overgrow with weeds. In 1932, the Civilian Conservation Corps, under Roosevelt's New Deal, spotted the site for one of their camps. This camp, S-51. became the first CCC camp in Pennsylvania. 

In May of 1933, the first group of boys came from Philadelphia by train to the Pine Grove station. At the beginning they lived in the railroad coaches and each day walked the two-mile distance to and from the farm. When the crew had sufficiently cleared the fields they set up their camp of tents.

These tents were only temporary housing until barracks could be built. Living in tents was unpleasant as well as dangerous. Once when lightning struck the camp, two boys were killed. The corps finally moved into barracks at Christmas that first year.

About 200 boys occupied the CCC camp at one time. Boys from eighteen to twenty-five years were eligible to enlist for a six-month period and could re-enlist up to two years.

The first work crew set out on June 1, 1933, to improve the road to the Baker sawmill. Other work assignments that first year were primarily devoted to the construction of a camp. Fields no longer needed were planted in tree plantations, and permanent buildings were built. Later years, however, were spent improving old roads, making new roads, and making general improvements in the forest reserve.

After nine years of operation, the CCC camp closed in February 1942; then the Intelligence Department of the Army took over the site and supervised the  Camp Pine Grove Prisoner of War Camp. (The official name according to #Patrick Metcaff Not only was the camp close to the Carlisle Army Post, but also it was only a two-hour drive from Washington, D.C.  Most important, though, the camp was well isolated and could be kept a secret.

At first, the camp was intended only for German naval officers, but then it was enlarged to take in some Rommel's African Corps and later, Japanese officers. A staff of 150 American personnel were stationed there. The camp held the inventor of the German buzz bomb (Metcalf disputes this information) in addition to 1,500 other prisoners.

Because the camp was kept a secret, very little information is available about the actual operation of it; however, evidence of its existence remains in the present church camp for all to see. A gallery of pictures painted by the prisoners was displayed in the recreation hall. ( I hope some record of them survives.) Several pictures showed the barbed wire fence that surrounded the camp, and the high watchtower located in the center of camp. The concrete base of this tower still remains. German words and names are embedded in concrete steps and bridges that the war prisoners constructed throughout the camp.

With the end of the war, the camp again was abandoned in approximately 1945. Then when a small group of ministers and laymen from the Presbyterian and Reformed churches were looking for a summer camp where they could train their young people, they discovered the ex-prison camp.

In 1948, Camp Michaux Incorporated got a ten-year lease from the state at $600 per year provided they maintain all buildings and grounds. A provisional agreement from the state allowed them to use the grounds during the summer of 1947 when work camps cleaned the area and repaired the buildings.

Like the state forest that surrounds the site, the camp is named after Andre Michaux who made great contributions to botany by his explorations and collections. This Frenchman, who lived from 1746 to 1802, was sent by Louis XIV to North America to gather plants for the Royal Gardens. He was also commissioned to study various trees and give advice on woods suitable for naval construction. During his eleven years in America, Michaux did extensive travel. He spent two years in the southern Appalachian Mountains collecting and naming many plants. Today's campers have a special interest in this man who loved the same woods they do.

The camp has reverted to Michaux State Forest and in approximately 1972 the buildings and appurtenances were removed. The buildings are now gone, save for the still standing end of the old barn.    However, the pristine setting has not been altered significantly.

Take some time to visit the former site and absorb through the mind's eye, days long past, and listen to the serenity of the mountains.

Other Articles and Publications

THE PRISONER OF WAR CAMPS LOCATED IN OR NEAR GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, DURING WORLD WAR II 1944-1946

From "Prisoner of War Camp at Gettysburg" Gettysburg Discussion Group

Early in 1945, another former Civilian Conservation Corps Camp, located in the Michaux State Park between Chambersburg and Carlisle, was enclosed in a stockade and newly captured German prisoners of war were transported to the camp. All of the prisoners were brought to the camp after dark on blacked-out trains to maintain the secrecy of the camp's location. The purpose of the camp at Pine Grove Furnace was to obtain information from the prisoners concerning troop movements. gun placements, submarine pen locations. Other than the army personnel and the military intelligence personnel, no outsiders were allowed in the area. Approximately 25,000 prisoners passed through the camp. As certain officers and scientists were identified, they were immediately isolated and sent to special barracks for further questioning. Some of the scientists were sent to Whit Sands, New Mexico, to work on the atomic and hydrogen bombs. Some of these men ultimately became American citizens.

After the war ended in Europe, the German prisoners who were in the camp were returned to New York City and were eventually returned to Germany. A lesser known fact is that the camp at Pine Grove Furnace was then used to house Japanese prisoners of war. On June 15, 1945, approximately two hundred Japanese were assigned to the camp. Very few of these prisoners ever became close with the army personnel. They were hard workers and assigned to any job to keep busy. They beautified the camp - painting the lanes for the paths; cutting the grass by hand; planting flowers in the compound. The Japanese were all very eager to go home, even though they could be disgraced for having surrendered. These prisoners were also interrogated and then processed to other camps, but there were significantly fewer Japanese who passed through the camp. At the end of the war in the Pacific, the remaining prisoners were sent to Seattle, Washington, to await transportation to Japan. They were all amazed to see Major Thomas there to accompany them. There were approximately 1600 Japanese on the Sea Devil for the eighteen day trip to Japan. Major Thomas was appalled to see these men loaded onto barges and then simply set ashore when they did reach land - they just climbed the banks and disappeared.

The oil paintings of Pine Grove Furnace were done by a professional artist. He, accompanied by a guard, climbed a mountain overlooking the camp and sketched the view; then upon returning to the camp proceeded to paint the picture on masonite. The other picture is the office of Major Thomas. It might be of interest to know that the only remaining evidence of the camp is the chimney seen in the picture. All of the pictures, newspaper and drawings have been donated to one of the local county society in memory of Major Laurence C. Thomas, commander of the camps at Gettysburg and Pine Grove Furnace, by his daughters, Mrs. James C. Wilson of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and A. Joan Thomas of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

German POW pays nostalgic visit
(Scroll down page)
Gettysburg Times -  Carl Brantz and his return trip to Gettysburg POW camp.

"German POWs In Westminster"
Carroll County Times Article for 27 July 1997

At Pine Grove Furnace between Gettysburg and Carlisle - German officers were kept at a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp, deep in the woods of what is now a state forest. There, after being brought under cover of night, the officers were interrogated about German military operations.

American officers reported learning details about troop morale, the location of military facilities and the effects of U.S. propaganda efforts and the Russian winters on German troops. Information was passed up the chain of command from the forest camp to the Pentagon. 

Some of the interrogations yielded intelligence with life or death importance. One prisoner explained how Germans were taught to hide small pistols inside their canteens when they were about to be captured.

Open house at Pine Grove Park recalls days as CCC and POW camps
The Carlisle Sentinel - 9/6/98

Randy Beam's father told him stories of German prisoners unloaded from trains near the place now occupied by Twirley Top drive-in in Dickinson Township. The World War II prisoners marched to "Pine Grove Prisoner of War Camp", located nearby in what's now Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

Beam, 38, of Gardners, developed a fascination with World War II that draws him back to the former prisoner of war camp, located just north of Route 233 in Cooke Township. "I've been up to the camp several times looking around," he says. "It's very interesting." Beam was among dozens who turned out Saturday for an open house devoted to the fascinating history of Camp Michaux, which also served as a base for the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps and as a church camp until the early-1970s.

Another was Carol Jones, a Cooke Township resident who lives near the former camp and spends lots of time poking around there. She's come across the old water fountain at the center of the camp, an old swimming pool and crumbling foundations. But she also discovered a shortage of information about the POW camp. "We find it's very scarce... I don't know if that's because it was top secret," she says. The POW camp operated from 1943 to 1946 on a site selected for its seclusion but also for its proximity to Carlisle Barracks and Washington, D.C. It housed 1,500 prisoners over the years. Most were Germans, including members of Rommel's elite Afrika Corps and the man credited with inventing Germany's V1 and V2 rockets (Metcalf disputes this information).  A few Japanese officers also were held there. All returned home in 1946.

In the mid-1970s, the state forestry department leveled the camp buildings. It wasn't until then that anyone realized the oil paintings that had hung on the walls for decades were the work of German prisoners.

The paintings were saved and some displayed at the park office Saturday. Information is plentiful regarding the former CCC camp that occupied the site for about 10 years beginning in the early 1930s.

Other POW Camps in Pennsylvania

German Prisoners of World War 2 - English version

News Updates From Dave Smith  
Camp Michaux Recognition and Development
Cumberland County Historical Society

On 4/17/2022 1:43 PM, David Smith wrote:
Thanks go out to Michael Zick, Andre Weltman, Diane Batt, Vince Montano and Kathryn Sterner for their help with the Camp Michaux trail work yesterday. We accomplished the most urgent items on my list. Thank you, Thank you.

Some of you mentioned that you would be interested in going up to the camp in the coming weeks to do some additional work especially since you were not available for the work day. The following items would be helpful. Most only involved small saws, shovels, loppers and hedge trimmers. Let me know of any work you are able to do so I can take it off my list.
I had 30+ attendees at the walking tour in the afternoon. Your work to improve the trails was noted and appreciated.

 Stop  2 - Farm House - clear re-emerging saplings and weeds. I am hoping at some point to clear the area west of the farmhouse where the two-story section
                 of the farmhouse stood. It would be great if we can find the original foundation.
Stop 10 - Clear both gate structure concrete bases (shovel work).
Stop 13 - Clear downed logs from site of former medical building
Stop 14 - Clear re-emerging saplings and weeds.
Stop 29 - Trail extension - clear Vesper Hill 2 of re-emerging saplings and weeds
Stop 30 - Rrail extension - clear vegetation around the site and within the water tank structure.
Stop 15 - Clear weeds and regrowth at assembly area mound just south of German mess hall.
Stop 17 - Fill hole that has opened adjacent to trail (tripping hazard). Use shovels to clear concrete pad of former pavilion. Debris can be used to fill the hole.
Stop 21 - Clear emerging regrowth at the mess hall site
Stop 23 - Use shovels to clear concrete pad at recreation area.

Hi all, Spring 2021

I did my annual walk through the camp yesterday to determine how much cleanup will need to be done.  As usual, there is a lot to do.  

I am proposing  a work day on the morning of Saturday, April 10 from 8:30 to noon.  We will need the usual tools including chain saws.

However, first I need to report that the state historical marker which was showing signs of paint deterioration was removed the the State this winter and has been completely restored.  Make sure to take a look at it when you come to the camp.  It looks great!

There are two main issues to address this year - restoring the trail system on the east side of the camp and removing fallen trees on the west side.  Here is a list of what needs to be done.  

Hope to see you on the 10th,   David

• Stop One:  Clear brush next to the marker.

• Stop Two:  Restablish the trail from Bunker Hill Road to the farm house site.  Although you can now see the farm house from stop one, we need to reestablish the trail so it coordinates with the walking tour book.  This basically means removing the trees and shrubs downed by the Royer last year and make it clear where the trail is.

• Stop Three:  The trail from Stop Two to Three is similarly obscured by the cut vegetation.  Again, we need to restablish where the trail is supposed to be.  There is a large tree down that could be removed from the trail although it is easy to walk around it.

• Stop Four:  The work we did last year to restablish the trail is in good shape.

• Barn Wall:  If someone feels energetic, it would be great to get the vegetation cut around the wall.  

• Stop Seven:  Remove brush around the sign.  The  pad site of the Interrogation Building is in good shape.

• Stop Nine:  Clear site of the Recreation Hall building.

• Stop 15 and 16:  This area needs work but an Eagle Scout Project will be taking care of the site this spring.

• Stop 16-17: - Tree down across the trail

• Stop 18-19 - Tree down across the trail

• The alterate trail to look at the bypass of Tom's Run and the far side of the original swimming area needs to be reestablished.

• Stop 20 - Tree down across trail.

• There is a large tree partially down near Stop 23.  We will need to assess if it is safe to remain in that condition. 

• I did not walk the alternate trail to the water tanks.  It may need work.

        April 16, 2018
Hi all,
Had a great work day on Saturday at Camp Michaux.  Seven volunteers came, three with chain saws.  In three hours we completed the bulk of the work I had hoped to accomplish.  In addition, the missing marker post #10 was located.  Because of the extensive work completed, there will not be a need to have a second work day next Saturday.  There are a few places that could use some additional brush clearing, but I don't think there is enough to warrant another day. 

The volunteers I made note of were John Kehrle, Vince Montano, and Art Herrold in addition to myself.  We had a new volunteer, Adin Otto, but he doesn't have an email.  I neglected to make note of two other volunteers.  If the two of you will let me know your names, I would like to make a record of it. 

Adin brought a photo post card c. 1913 that I had never seen before.  I scanned it and made enlargements of two sections of the card that show the farmhouse and the barn. 

David

           March 18, 2018
I did my Spring walk-through at Camp Michaux today.  Although some of the camp is in good shape following the herbicidal spraying that was done last year, the winter has been hard on the camp and there is more work to do this year than there has been in the past couple of years.  

Hi all,   April 2, 2016

Great work day yesterday.  The weather cooperated and Diane and Bob, Art, Andre and I got a number of things done - although I spent five hours giving tours to a group of 15 and another group of 31.  The following was accomplished:

• Fallen tree cut up and removed from the trail

• Lower latrine/shower house site re-cleared

• Farm house site re-cleared

• Overgrowth of brush on the west side of the barn removed

• Recreation hall site re-cleared

• Barracks site across from the recreation hall re-cleared

• CCC Education Building site re-cleared

• Sanitary filter area re-cleared

• Trails throughout the camp were cleared of over overhanging brush

Two sites continue to need work if time permits over the next few weeks including the German Mess Hall and the Commander's Office/Home.  They only need re-clearing (loppers and hedge trimmers).  Keeping up with the re-growth makes the job easier each Spring.

Thanks to those who volunteered yesterday. 
David Smith
Camp Michaux Recognition and Development

 March 15, 3014

Thanks again for everyone's help.
David Smith

     The Pine Grove Furnace Camp Store is a welcome retreat at the midway point of the AT to rest and dine.  Six to ten people each week complete the challenge -- to eat a half gallon of Hershey Ice Cream at one sitting!  Stop here for lunch on the porch when you visit the area. We had only two scoops of Moose Tracks 

The History of Pine Grove Furnace

     The Furnace at Pine Grove is one of the best preserved in the state.  The furnaces to the south such as those in Caledonia State Park were destroyed by Gen. Early's Confederate troops as they marched on Gettysburg.  Also see the Cornwall Iron Furnace

History from Old Industries Web Site

How my G.Grandfather won the Civil War!

^{The History of Pine Grove Furnace}

^{In 1764, George Stevenson, Robert Thornburgh, and John Arthur built the first iron furnace at Pine Grove, which they enlarged in 1770. The furnace manufactured cast iron products like, ten plate stoves, fireplace backs and iron kettles. In 1782, Michael Ege purchased the furnace, iron mine, mill and mill house. By his death in 1803, Michael was the sole owner of the Pine Grove ironworks and two other ironworks in the area.}

^{His son, Peter, became the Pine Grove Furnace iron master and from 1827 to 1829 built a stately brick English Tudor mansion, currently the A.Y.H. Hostel. In 1830, Peter added Laurel Forge to the ironworks. With six fires, runouts and trip hammer, Laurel Forge could produce 2,000 net tons of blooms a year. Laurel Forge reheated and hammered the cast iron ingots from Pine Grove Furnace to produce wrought iron, a product that could be bent in many shapes.}

^{The financial panic of 1837 bankrupted tens of thousands of Americans including Peter Ege. At a sheriff’s sale the following year, 37-year old Frederick Watts, later to be known as the father of Pennsylvania State University, and his partner, Charles B. Penrose, purchased Pine Grove Iron Works for $52,000.}

^{In 1864, the ironworks changed to a corporation. A group of investors formed the South Mountain Iron Company and brought in Jackson C. Fuller as the furnace manager. The new iron company also began construction of the South Mountain Railroad to bring raw materials to the furnace and move its iron products to market.}

^{Jackson was a life long friend of the chief investor, Jay Cooke, who is credited with almost single handedly financing the Union’s efforts in the Civil War with the concept of selling war bonds to the public. Jay Cooke found himself deep in debt and went bankrupt, causing the financial panic of 1873. It took the federal government nine years to recover from Cooke’s financial failure.}

^{In 1877, through his friend Jackson, Jay Cooke bought back the ironworks portion of the old company at sheriff’s sale under the newly created corporation called the South Mountain Mining and Iron Company. The Cumberland Valley Railroad bought the other half of the old South Mountain Railroad. Throughout the winter of 1878, the iron furnace went through a total renovation raising the stack to 36 feet with closed bell and hopper on top, a steam hoist to raise raw material to the top of the new stack and three tuyeres to force air into the furnace with the new steam blowing engine which replaced the old blowing tubs.}

^{These innovations allowed the furnace to operate on fuels other than charcoal, which was becoming harder to secure due to constant harvesting of the forests. Now the furnace could be operated on coke and when that was low, anthracite coal could be mixed with the coke. Charcoal would remain the primary fuel of the furnace, but the furnace would no longer have to shutdown when charcoal supplies were exhausted. 1883 marked the peak production year for the furnace, producing 6,000 net tons of cast iron annually, but new technologies quickly put small iron producers out of business.}

^{Pine Grove Furnace went out of blast for the final time in 1895, ending 131 years of iron making in South Mountain.}

^{Pine Grove Furnace State Park}

^{In 1913, the South Mountain Mining and Iron Company sold the ironworks, encompassing 17,000 acres, to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to be part of the new Forest Reserve system. Much of the land became Michaux State Forest, but part became Pine Grove Furnace State Park.}

^{Some of the historic buildings dating back to the charcoal iron community still stand and include the furnace, ironmaster’s mansion, clerks office, stable, grist mill (now the Visitor Center), the inn (now the park office) and several residences. Remnants of raceways, charcoal hearths and related man-made features are still discernible.}

^{Fuller Lake was the major ore quarry for Pine Grove Furnace. The quarry filled with groundwater when mining ceased. Laurel Lake once supplied water power to Laurel Forge.}

^{In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established Camp S-51. The CCC boys built roads, trails and facilities until 1941.}

^{In 1977, Pine Grove Furnace was entered in the National Register of Historical Places.}