Dean-Hey Heritage


Canoe Trip
Perhaps the most memorable part was a three-day canoe trip on the chain of lakes starting at Little Fork. To qualify for the trip, I had to achieve the level of "fish" in swimming and pass the three-part "trip test," which consisted of jumping from a canoe in deep water, taking off shoes, shirt, and pants, tread water for 15 minutes and get back into the canoe and paddle to shore. In part two, I had to swamp the canoe, empty all but a few cups of water out of it, climb back in and hand-paddle to shore. In part three, I had to master all the strokes for paddling both bow, stern, and solo. Paddling with a partner, we had to come full-speed and 18 inches from the dock, turn the canoe to land gently alongside the dock. For the trip itself, we left about eight in the morning, paddled till noon, stopped for lunch, then paddled four more hours to the camp site. Of course, we had to pitch tents, dig "hip holes" for our bedrolls, build camp fires, cook our supper, and wash dishes before an evening swim. Day two was spent in hiking and exploring the area, and day three, break camp and paddle back to MW.

Minne-Wonka Lodge

The year (1944) that Mother was so ill (meningitis), Dad sent all three of us to summer camp—Sue and I to Minne-Wonka Lodge (on Little Fork Lake) and Phil to Camp Minne-Wonka (on Big Fork Lake).

(I have no photos of our summer; these are pictures from a camp calendar. All text is recollection by Janna Hey Dean.)

Dining Hall

Sailing
In another event, I was the "crew" for one of the senior girls in a sailboat race. Aquaplaning behind the camp motor boat was also exciting.






My best friend at camp was a girl from Webster Groves, Missouri, and later on I spent a couple of memorable visits to be with Ann and her family. One year the Lindholms invited me to go with them to Cape Cod. What a delightful week we had swimming in the ocean, walking the beach in the evening (no crowds in 1947) or walking into the village for a "frappe." We also enjoyed blueberry picking and going "quahogging." When the Lindholms took me to Boston to catch the train for Chicago, I was able to see "Old Ironsides" in Boston Harbor.

Waterfront

Swimming tests were in three phases: Tadpole—non-swimmers must stay inside the dock. Duck—must be able to swim the length of the dock a number of times using the crawl. Ducks could swim outside the dock. Fish—must master the crawl, side, breast and back strokes. Then you could swim out to the raft. At all times we must swim with a "buddy" and answer the "buddy whistle" when the life guard wanted to make sure we were swimming with our buddy.

In one lesson, we practiced racing dives and racing turns. Since we had no pool side to practice turns, an older, heavier girl held a kick board behind the dock ladder. As I pushed off for a racing turn, this girl let the board loose and my foot slipped down between the ladder and the board. She immediately pushed it tight again and broke my foot. They took me to the hospital in Rhinelander where the doctor put it in a caste, which certainly curtailed my activities for several weeks.


Camp Awards
I was awarded "Honorable Mention" in "Land Sports," likely because I could throw a ball farther than anyone else.

Another part of the "trip test" was passing "camp craft," which included building three different types of fires using no paper and only one match per fire. And with one of the fires, we had to build the fire and get a coffee can full of water boiling in ten minutes.

Cabins


Minne-Wonka Lodge
Little Fork Lake
Three Lakes, Wisconsin