Scout Camp

Rockford Blackhawk Boy Scout Council had a camp in the upper peninsula of Michigan by the name of North Woods. It was in the same area of Michigan where the great Peshtigo Fire occurred. It happened the same night as the great Chicago fire. but covered 2400 square miles of Wisconsin and Michigan, and cost more than 1000 lives.

North Woods was quite remote and completely covered with secondary tree growth, a result of the great fire. There was a huge lodge that built by Walt Williamson using timber of a pier from a steel plant in Pittsburg PA. Campsites were scattered around the property in locations a quarter to half a mile away from the lodge. The camp included four lakes, record, Big Africa, Little Africa, and Clearwater.

Boys were told to not bring sweets into the campsites with them as the danger of bears was always present. Some violated this and found at the end of the day their campsite had been totally devastated by the wandering bears. Scouting skills were taught during the day. They included crafts and camping skills along with canoeing rowing and swimming. Meals were cooked by the campers using shepherd stoves which were metal boxes on four legs with a cast iron cooking surface. These were necessary as any fir on the ground could burn down and under causing another forest fire.

I spent several years participating in what they called provisional troops. These were made up of boys whose troops were not coming to North Woods but wanted to go themselves. My job was to drive a carload of boys up and back to North Woods, camp with them for the week. During the day the boys would be in scouting activities, and I was on my own. I had the use of a rowboat and a canoe, and four lakes to fish in. I had to pay for this privilege. My share was $9.00 a week.

One year I took my son Dan with me. We had a little problem because they wouldn’t allow him to swim because we had forgotten to have a doctor’s exam before going up there. I asked around and found that Holy Family Church’s troop was there, and Doctor Lowry was with them. I asked him if he could give Dan a quick exam, which he did. I then asked what I owed him, and he replied I could just owe him. I was grateful.

Saturday morning I had walked down to the lodge for a cup of coffee before the boys got up. I heard someone grinding on their vehicle trying to start it. Turns out it was Doctor Lowry and he had to get back to Rockford. I went over to help and after some diagnosis I figured out it was the ballast resistor that drops the voltage from 12V to 6V for the spark plugs. I had never seen that failure before. I remembered my dad talking about one time. I got some copper wire and shorted out the resistor which allowed him to get going. He said, “I guess we are even”. I told him that mechanics make more than doctors, and we both laughed.