Lasting effect: Site has touched lives of many young campers over its 84 years
By BRIENNA BOYDSTUN for the Missoulian
In the shelter of the Anaconda Range, along Georgetown Lake, lies Camp Watanopa, steeped in 84 years of tradition and maintained by the loyal following of its campers.
The camp, owned by Camp Fire USA, was originally called Camp L.O. Evans after the woman who donated the land. It started in the summer of 1924 and was the first nonsecular camp for girls in Montana.
“I think it was (a woman's) first experience of independence, which a resident camp is for any child, but in that day, for women, I think it really made an impact,” said Stewart Armstrong, executive director of the Camp Fire USA Ponderosa Council in Missoula.
In the 1950s, the name changed to Camp Tahritia, meaning “halfway between heaven and earth.” Camp Fire began including boys in 1975 and, in 1992, when the camp combined with other Montana Camp Fire camps, the name changed to Watanopa, a Lakota word meaning “to embark upon new waters.”
“I speak with women who tell me the camp literally changed their lives, for the better, and helped make them who they are today,” Armstrong said.
Because the camp makes such an impact on campers' lives, many of them don't ever really leave.
“Our camp is such a tight-knit group. I've watched all our staffers grow up from age 8 or 9,” said Dan Fairbank, camp program director. “Most summer camps you go to because it's summer camp, but this camp you come back to because you know after six or seven years you will be a staff member.”
Sheila Harris, 65, is one of those campers.
Harris' mother was in the Camp Fire organization and got Harris involved when she turned 8 and was old enough to attend camp.
She still remembers all the songs and keeps a scrapbook of her time spent there. When she was too old to be a camper, Harris became a counselor until her senior year of high school.
“I visited (the camp) earlier in June and people kept driving up who said they used to go there,” Harris said. “There are a lot of good memories for a lot of people.”
One of those people is Wanda Taulbee, 50, who tries to visit the camp every year.
Lasting Effect: A French camp at Camp Watanopa winds down recently on the shores of Georgetown Lake. The camp, started in 1924, was the first nonsecular camp for girls in Montana.
Taulbee's mother was a Camp Fire Girl and became a secretary and executive director at the camp. Taulbee and her older sister followed in their mother's footsteps, starting out as campers and eventually becoming counselors and board members.
Even now, Taulbee has Camp Fire parties with her friends where they get together and reminisce about camp and sing camp songs.
“I met kids when I was 9 years old that I'm still friends with now because they were Camp Fire Girls,” Taulbee said. “It's quite a bond. You never lose it.”
Besides adding a few cabins and fixing up the camp, Taulbee said the camp has hardly changed.
There is still an old elf who lives in the woods and writes letters to the campers; dinner is still served family style; kids are still required to write a letter to their parents before they can attend Monday night dinner; and dream boats are still cast onto the lake as a symbols of friendship, hope and love.
Nowadays, you don't have to be a member of Camp Fire to attend the camp, and the camp even is rented out.
Three other groups use Camp Watanopa as the site for their camps. There is a fishing camp hosted by Trout Unlimited, a bereavement camp for kids called A Camp to Remember, and a French camp run by Alliance Francaise.
Alliance Francaise has used the site for eight years now and likes how it is set up and the camp's continued improvements.
“We find it very beautiful and very peaceful, just a great place for the kids,” said Ethel McDonald, director of the French camp.
Knowing how many lives the camp has touched, Armstrong is organizing a reunion for next year called Camp For a Day, where current campers, alumni and the general public can come together.
“So much of camp is still the same, so many of the songs they sing and everything, the old campers and the new campers actually have a lot in common,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong and his staff are currently working on collecting the names and contact information of former campers so they can invite them to the reunion, which they hope to make an annual event. To reach Armstrong, call (406) 542-2129.
“We want to reunite as many people who have attended camp over the years,” he said. “The further back the better because I think it would be awesome to reconnect those women with their past, the past that had such a huge impact on their lives.”
Brienna Boydstun is a newsroom intern at the Missoulian. She is a journalism student at the University of Montana.
Camp memories
Stewart Armstrong and the Camp Fire USA Ponderosa Council in Missoula are collecting names and contact information for former Georgetown Lake campers so they can invite them to a reunion planned for 2009. To reach Armstrong, call (406) 542-2129.
