Tent Row, Camp Quantabacook, Belfast, ca. 1920
Item 98758 info
Penobscot Marine Museum
Dr. Oris S. Vickery of Belfast and Herbert M. Bergamini established Camp Quantabacook in Searsmont in 1914. The Handbook of the Best Private Schools in 1915 described it as a "small, well equipped camp" with 15 boys and six counselors that featured salt water cruising. By 1925 it had been renamed Camp Wah-Nah-Gee-Sha.
The campers most likely did their salt water cruising from the related Camp Navajo in Northport, which opened in 1913 with Orrin J. Dickey of Belfast as its president and, later, director. Dickey also operated Belfast's first sightseeing tours by automobile.
Camp Navajo publicity described it as a salt-water camp at which "water sports, deep sea fishing, and cruises through Maine islands are much made of" and "overnight hikes are taken and manual training is taught."
Indian names and themes were popular in many summer camps of the period. Advertisements for Camp Winnecook in Unity, for example, noted that "the boys...are organized into Indian tribes under elected chiefs, and healthy tribal rivalry is stimulated in wood-lore and scout craft, games, athletics and pageantry."
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