LeFeber Northwoods Camps: Difference between revisions

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'''LeFeber Northwoods Camps''' is a boy scout summer camp owned and run by the [[Scouting in Wisconsin#Milwaukee County Council|Milwaukee County Council]] and is located near [[Laona, Wisconsin]], 250 miles north of Milwaukee, on Hardwood Lake. The camp has an extensive history as a logging camp prior to its purchase and donation to the Boy Scouts in 1930. It features an excellent program drawing in campers from Michigan, Illinois, and several councils located in Wisconsin. LeFeber is nationally accredited by the BSA and has earned additional awards for its quality program.

John LeFeber purchased the 360 acres around Hardwood Lake that is now LeFeber Northwoods Camps from the G.W. Jones Lumber Co. as well as from Connor Lumber and Land Co. for the Milwaukee County Council in 1930. The camp was known as Camp LeFeber from 1965 to 1972 at which time the camp split into Camps Baird and Neidhoefer and was known as Milwaukee Wilderness Scout Camps. Five or six separate camps were planned, only four were actually drawn out, only three were ever started, and only the two were finished. The current LeFeber Northwoods Camps consists of 1,200 acres.<p>

LeFeber was born to Dutch immigrants in Milwaukee on February 1, 1863; and died at the age of 71 in his home at 3900 N. Lake Drive the night of Saturday September 16, 1934. LeFeber acquired his first farm off of Hawley Road with a herd of 100 cows and maintained two milk routes. Unsatisfied with the unsanitary method of milk delivery, using a dairyman’s can and a long-handled ladle, LeFeber began to deliver his milk in glass bottles twenty years before the Health Department required it. In 1903 several small dairy operations merged into the Gridley Dairy Company with LeFeber as the President. After 19 years, LeFeber resigned to become Chairman of the Board until his death. His widow, Edith, and son, Lester, who took over the presidency after his father’s resignation, survived him.<p>

Before the founding of the camp, the entire camp was clear cut of all trees by the area logging companies and afterward reseeded with red pine, sugar maple, birch, and hemlock for variety. Pockets of trees, especially conifers, were not cut, though. Hardwoods regenerated naturally from seed (aspen, birch, maple), root shoots (aspen), and stump sprouts (basswood). Some red pine and spruce trees were planted in the 1960’s by the US Forest Service, and again in the 1980’s by Gary Zimmer. Otherwise wildlife is responsible for all oak, spruce, cherry, apple, basswood, sumac, red maple, and white pine trees in camp.<p>

Across the lake a tree shaped like a monkey wrench once existed and was the camp mascot for several years. Reports of its existence have been received from 1948-1960. It no longer stands.

Robert Wilson Baird was an eager philanthropist, contributing to several varied organizations including the Boy Scouts of America. Professionally, he was an executive in the field of securities investment. In 1919, Baird was named lead partner of a new investment firm called the First Wisconsin Company, the securities arm of the First Wisconsin National Bank, and in the 1920’s was named its president. In 1934, as a result of the 1929 crash, new laws completely remove banks from involvement in the securities industry. The First Wisconsin Company separates from First Wisconsin National Bank and becomes a separate entity called the Securities Company of Milwaukee Incorporated. Five years later it is renamed the Wisconsin Company. Also, during the 1930’s Baird is instrumental in the formation of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). He goes on to serve as the third chairman of the NASD. In 1948, the Wisconsin Company was the first Wisconsin brokerage firm to purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange; because firms joining the NYSE often use the name of their lead partner, the First Wisconsin Company changed its name to Robert W. Baird and Company. Later that same year, William Brand succeeds Baird as the company’s second president.<p>

The Baird Building was built in 1967 and the camp was then dedicated to Baird on September 10, 1974. A plaque memorializing Dudley F. Unkefer adorns the front of the office section identifying it as the LeFeber service building.<p>

The Baird Chapel was dedicated to Emil Doerr by his three sons Emmett, Lee, and Ed. Camp Doerr at IMR is named after Emmett, one of the sons. Just North of the Chapel, exactly where the new Nature Center now stands, once existed the Chaplain Center. The “crossroads of LeFeber” known as the Scoutcraft area was at one time Baird 10.<p>

What we know to be the Adventure Bowl used to be the Baird Commissioners area, similar to Scoutcraft/ Outdoor Skills. In the lower part of the bowl was an action archery trail. Mystic Rock was added to the Adventure Bowl in 1999 along with a rappelling wall in 2003. The rock wall was purchased from <s>place of purchase</s> for $27,000. The cost of one climb on the wall is $1.

James Russell Neidhoefer was an avid lepidopterist (collector of Moths and Butterflies), philanthropist, Council Executive Board member, Distinguished Eagle Scout, and scoutmaster of Troop 61. He was also the author of the 1973 edition of the Insect Life merit badge, which was later renamed Insect Study. In May of 1974 he was awarded the Silver Buffalo, and was also awarded the Silver Beaver and the Silver Antelope. In 1965 he was awarded the Honored Scouter distinction by Mikano Lodge for outstanding service to Scouting, and his character and dedication to the Boy Scout movement. In 1975 he was awarded the National Distinguished Service Award by the Order of the Arrow at the National Conference. This award is given for outstanding service to the Order of the Arrow above the Lodge level; first presented in 1940, it has been presented to less than 500 Arrowmen in the nation.<p>

The Neidhoefer Administration Building was dedicated on September 12, 1971. It is located near the Staff site and is now used as a Staff recreation lounge. The dedication ceremony was about two weeks after the end of the camping season but still managed to attract over two hundred Scouts, Scouters, and admirers.<p>

In the far NE of the camp is the old corral where the horses for Horsemanship MB were kept. However, the program was discontinued in <s>1998 or 1999</s> because of the overwhelming cost. Prior to its use as a corral, the area was the Neidhoefer Archery Range. A proposed trail for action archery was to be cut South of this area. The shotgun range was once the Neidhoefer Rifle Range. The area at one time was planned to house skeet shooting, rifle shooting, and archery.<p>

The Health Lodge is the only one in camp history. Behind the Health Lodge is the Cub Run Trail, which used to go down through the Frost Bowl. Also in the Frost Bowl was an obstacle course (rumored to not be compliant with C.O.P.E. standards) that many old scouters describe as “extreme”. As soon as scouts arrived, they would run down to the obstacle course before setting up their tents. Another obstacle course was placed between Neidhoefer 3 and the Shotgun range; there are still some old tires there.

The camp is a tribute to the memory of Lawrence Demmer and Emma Uhrig Demmer.

Six sites were planned in the dense undulating coniferous forest running down the Western and Southern shores of Hardwood Lake. A chapel overlooking the lake, Order of the Arrow circle on Bear Point, the fire bowl halfway between the bay near Demmer and Mayflower Lake, and two additional buildings (an office and another activity shelter) were proposed improvements for Camp Demmer. Designs also included a boardwalk nature trail with an observation blind over mash and bog land between Mayflower and Little Popple Lake.<p>

A road branching off the main road to Demmer leads to Mayflower Lake, SW of Hardwood Lake. Several old logging roads are still visible and used as trails around the lake. On the southern shore, s nesting pair of Osprey (an endangered species) has made a DNR nest box their home. Also, a pair of Common Loons made a nest of a Beaver lodge in the 2004 camp season. The lake is an excellent example of eutrophication, the regression of earth to the most natural or flattest form, which in this case is likely to be a mixed hardwood/softwood forest. This spot was the subject of a US Geological Survey; a Bench Mark remains along the SE trail around the lake. It reads: 1938 ELEVATION ABOVE SEA [the number 1938 is not a date]. This spot is not much lower than Sugarbush Hill, the second highest site in Wisconsin.

Popple Lake is located one half mile SE of Mountain Camp and is approximately one mile around the shoreline. Plans were drawn up in 1968 for the camp, but the project never took off. Thirteen campsites were to be cut, and four activity shelters built. The waterfront was to be at Mountain Camp, the chapel on the Northwestern shore of Popple Lake, and the fire bowl to the North of the lake. Popple Lake was intended for be used as a boating only lake. According to underwater topography maps, the lake is only five feet deep at its deepest.

*[[Scouting in Wisconsin]]

*[http://www.milwaukeeboyscouts.org Milwaukee County Council]

*[http://www.tc.umn.edu/~aren0081/lnchome] Old LeFeber Site

[[Category:Local council camps (Boy Scouts of America)]]