Mission/General Info
|
It was very literally a lifetime ago. A group of boys and their volunteer leaders were searching for an important and special place to retreat from the influences of the city. A place to find the fresh breath of nature, to build friendly comraderie and to find a spiritual relationship to God. They had searched and tested numerous locales when they finally found the perfect place, nestled along the widest stretch of the St.Croix River, far, far from St. Paul. It was remote yet close enough to be accessible by train or even a part day car trip and the nearby river town of Hudson would provide ample opportunity for fresh daily provisions.
By 1909 these early YMCA campers and leaders had sold "shares" enough to acquire the first 15-acre parcel that would become a greater place than any of them could possibly have imagined, Camp St. Croix. And the rest, as they say, is history. 
In 2009, 100 years later, we will celebrate a milestone birthday for St. Croix. That precious retreat so carefully discovered generations ago has been well cared for, growing to include nearly 400 acres, offering overnight and day programs every month of the year to over 23,000 youth and adult leaders annually.
Although it only takes 25 minutes to zoom by freeway from downtown St.Paul to Camp St. Croix in 2007 and the provisions offered in Hudson match every urban or suburban neighborhood, when you arrive at Camp St. Croix you step into a very unique and special place.
If you have been to St. Croix you know the feeling and visitors both old and new, tell us the same as they experience the programs, relationships, values and spirit of St. Croix. In celebration of the first 90 years, a printed history, Voices of St. Croix, was completed and has served as a starting point to share more of the amazing stories about camp. Excerpts from the history are included in this section of the website.
Today, the 17-mile trip from downtown St. Paul to Camp St. Croix takes 22 minutes, most of it on six-lane interstate highway with a 65 mile-per-hour speed limit. In 1909, campers had two choices for getting to camp: the train or a combination of car and ferry. In either case, it required a half-day's travel. The St. Croix River Valley was definitely considered country — maybe even wilderness.
"My father drove me out to camp in a Model T, and he couldn't understand why we had to go to a camp that was so far away from St. Paul. The road from Hudson up the hill was a real steep sand road, and on the old Model Ts the bands [in the transmission] would get pretty thin and we couldn't get up the hill. So my father had to turn around and back up the hill. You see, there were three bands: forward, backward, and brake. Because the rear band hadn't had much use, we were in good shape and backed up the hill. "
— Dr. Larry Aurelius, camper in 1924-25
The opening of a new toll bridge in 1913 signaled the demise of the river boat ferry, which had been the only way for horse and buggies and automobiles to cross the St. Croix until that time. Campers would not use ferries to get to camp again until 1941 and 1942, when gasoline rationing made bus and car travel less patriotic than travel by the riverboat Donna Mae. The Donna Mae loaded her campers at 7:30 a.m. at Lambert's Landing in downtown St. Paul for the full-day excursion down the Mississippi, through the locks at Hastings, and up the St. Croix to a beach landing at Camp St. Croix. Can you imagine the beach path ascent as your first impression of camp?
Campers who took the train from St. Paul had to switch trains in Hudson to the local Ellsworth-River Falls line. The train traveled south out of Hudson and climbed the bluff where the interstate highway now runs, then progressed south along the bluff to Camp St. Croix's current northern property line. Here it turned and headed southeast toward River Falls.
Campers got out at the Prescott Road stop, called Glover's Corner, marked by an old box car along the 
track. Then they walked the remaining one-third mile to camp. Passenger service continued until the early 1960s. The entire local route stopped in February 1966, and the tracks were ripped up shortly afterward. The old rail bed now serves as the access road to camp's horse stable.
Until the early 1950s campers gathered at the Central YMCA on Ninth and Cedar streets in downtown St. Paul to catch the bus to camp. It was a memorable scene for camper and parent alike, with lots of tears, smiles, waving, and inevitable last-minute parental advice. Later, when camper enrollment quotas were given to each branch, bus transportation shifted to the individual branches: East, Midway, South and Central.
Today, campers still travel to camp by bus from a central city location or by car with their parents.
When the long-awaited new Central YMCA building on Ninth and Cedar Streets in downtown St. Paul opened in 1907, it had a thriving Boys Work Department on the second floor. Numerous camping trips were conducted at various locales, inspired by a respected YMCA camping tradition that began in upstate 
New York in 1885. By 1909, the prospect of acquiring a permanent resident camp for the St. Paul YMCA had captured the imaginations of boys and leaders alike.
From St. Croix's inception in these first years of the twentieth century, the camp's program has developed along a steady course. An initial focus on religious development and athletics evolved into the progressive theme camping that prevailed from the 1950s through the 1970s. Today's diversified year-round program retains elements of both traditions. Yet, despite dramatic changes in society and evolving activities at camp through the decades, Camp St. Croix's mission has remained true to a fundamental concern for developing leadership and character, environmental awareness, teamwork and self-confidence in the young people who come to St. Croix's riverside bluffs.
I want to wake up in the morning at
dear old Camp St. Croix.
Where the sun comes a peepin' into
where I'm sleepin'
And the songbirds sing for joy!
(tweet, tweet!)
I want to wander over the hillside,
where the wildflowers grow,
I want to be at Camp St. Croix —
it's the grandest place I know! I want to sleep late in the morning at
dear old Camp St. Croix,
Where the rain comes a-pourin' into
where I'm snorin'
And the skeeters bite for joy!
(ouch, ouch!)
I want to trample over the hillside,
where the poison ivy grows,
I want to be at Camp St. Croix —
it's the grandest place I know!
Camp St. Croix song
(First verse written by Prof. Johnson; second verse written as a parody by staff)
Prof. Johnson and the Nature Nuts
This secondary school chemistry, physics, and general science teacher from Aitkin, Minnesota, was revered by campers and staff alike. He ran his elaborate Nature Nut program with a touch of Einstein-like reserve and scholarship. But he also was kind and able to share a hearty laugh and tell a great story.
Because of St. Croix's tragic fire history, in which most camp records prior to 1967 were destroyed, Prof. Johnson's personal records are now the camp's most complete enrollment archives of that period. His legacy also lives on in the Nature Center, which was dedicated to him in 1961. |
|||||
