Camp Edwards YMCA Investigation
This blog post was written by Whitney Dankemeyer, Nicole Dankemeyer, and Sierra Swan.
Our story of the 100-acre woods is slightly different from the one you may have all heard growing up. Instead of talking animals, this version tells of Native American history and the steps a Christian camp took to preserve it. Camping trips have been recorded as early as 1929 at Camp Edwards YMCA, but just a hundred years prior, the land was occupied by someone else. We begin this story with Chief Big Foot and the Potawatomi Tribe.
Native Americans defended their land from the moment white people arrived. Chief Big Foot was the leader of his tribe and made every decision he believed was best fit for his people. In the War of 1812, Big Foot and the Potawatomi tribe fought in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, wounding many American soldiers and burning Fort Dearborn to the ground.
This upset the United States. For years to follow, the U.S. sent spies to the Lake Geneva area to keep an eye on the Potawatomi tribe. While Chief Big Foot had multiple plans of attack, these visions never materialized. Come the Black Hawk War in 1832, Big Foot and his people did not participate.
In 1833, a great council was held in Chicago, Illinois. Of the many people who attended, one of them was Chief Big Foot. There he signed the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which sold parts of Southeastern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois. Under the treaty, Big Foot and the Potawatomi Tribe were forced by the U.S. to leave Lake Geneva and relocate to Platte River, Missouri, later moving to Lawrence, Kansas. Not all of the tribe would stay in Kansas, though, and smaller groups would travel back to Wisconsin. They continued to live in poor conditions under Stringers Bridge at the upper end of the lake.
Fast forward to the 1920s, and the volume of camping trips in the area increased. When it was decided a permanent campsite was needed, the board selected a candidate to develop a camp and lead a YMCA staff. That candidate was E.E. Micklewright, director of Camp Sheldon and staff member of the Omaha YMCA in Nebraska.
By January of 1928, Micklewright moved his wife and children closer to the area. Within the next thirty days, he organized a camp committee, created a program, chose the site, raised the money, and hired contractors to begin construction. They built the main lodge, ten original cabins, and a bath house. Once buildings were up, a road was paved, water and sewage was provided, and electric and telephone lines were put in. They managed to finish construction quickly enough to open for their first year of camp in June of 1929; none of which would be possible without the massive donation from Mr. And Mrs. A.D. Edwards, long-time citizens of the Elgin, IL community. The camp was named Camp Edwards in this couple’s honor.
During construction, contractors discovered Native American artifacts onsite, including arrowheads. When found, Dr. Paul Jenkins, historian, was contacted for examination. He concluded the lakefront area and a distance into the woods was an active site for Native American encampment in the past. Due to the historical background, they decided to include Native American culture in their program. For the first several years at camp, Native Americans volunteered to be staff and educate the children. Dr. Jenkins had the ten original cabins named in recognition of Native American leaders, and the camp chose to make the camp symbol and honor pin in the form of an arrowhead.
In 1929, camp was limited to boys 10 years or older. Fees for camp were $15.00 for a two-week period, offering transportation to boys who didn’t have a way of travel. Seven campers were assigned to a cabin with a counselor sleeping to the left of the door. Camp leaders were chosen very carefully, with the position requiring at least one or two years of college experience. Most of the staff hired at the time already had their degrees.
When camp began, the boys assigned to a cabin were mixed to encourage them to all learn from one another. They thought this would be a perfect opportunity for the boys to help each other grow. When it came to competitive activities, they were divided into teams based on weight so the games were equal and fair. In 1948, they decided to divide cabins by age group instead, and in 1979, the entire camp became co-educational.
One day, Dr. Jenkins suggested carving the history of Camp Edwards into wood. In the following days, he brought a cedar pole to camp that was taken by row boat to Chief’s Island. Together, Chief Waukon (of the Winnebago Tribe) and Arthur Wild (the camp’s first program director), made the initial carvings. When their carvings were finished, the totem pole was returned to Camp Edwards and set in concrete on the lake shore. Over time, the pole was brought inside from the water to preserve it. It is currently displayed in the dining hall of Micklewright Lodge, where the totem pole speech is read to children when they come to camp.
The initial 1929 carvings of the totem pole include the rising sun, moon, and star that tells of the beginning of camp. Each year, a new image was carved into the totem pole to showcase the year before, being it an outstanding event or development at camp. The original totem pole includes the first 14 years of Camp Edwards.
In 1942, the space on the totem pole was left blank on purpose to signify the nation’s involvement with World War II. This was also the same time the camp began to struggle. It was becoming more difficult to secure leaders for the camp, and food and transportation became problematic. Until things became more normal, it was decided to close down camp. Present day, Camp Edwards is in operation, hosting campers and offering environmental education to the kids.
But what happens in the off-season when the kids are away? Some of the staff have reported that when they are alone, they don’t feel like the only one in the room. Most of this activity occurs in the lodges, unless staff comes across the spirit of a little girl named Betty, who is said to roam the property in the night and early hours of the morning. They believe this to be the spirit of the founder’s daughter, who was said to pass away on the way home from camp back to Elgin. They discovered later through records the dates of his daughter’s life did not match the timeline of the stories they heard. While it could easily be written off as a tall tale, many have physically seen or walked through her on camp property. Despite being unsure of her real name, they still choose to call her Betty. It is rumored before she was called Betty that her name was possibly Sarah.
In terms of the lodges, activity occurs in Micklewright and Runge the most. In Runge, an employee encountered a shadowy silhouette on the staircase, mistaking it for another coworker. Staff have also heard footsteps inside the building when they are cleaning or locking up by themselves. We were advised this area had a Native American presence until the 1930s, so it is very possible the activity could be related to that.
In Micklewright Lodge, the original totem pole in the dining hall shares a wall with the kitchen. The kitchen is known to have the most activity out of the entire property, so the girls and I questioned if where the totem pole is stationed correlates to that. Some have seen Betty in this kitchen, and male voices can be heard talking through the wall when no one is around. There are apartments above Micklewright the staff lives in, and they will report hearing noises in the main hall during the middle of the night.
Whether or not the spiritual activity was residual or taking place in real time was uncertain until the evening of January 6, 2024. We had been planning this investigation since the middle of October 2023 with Katie, a Camp Edwards Environmental Education Director, and we arrived on site at about 5:00 pm. We met in the main office with her, Jody (The camp director), and two other staff employees, Brad and Bri.
Jody didn’t join us for the tour, but he gave us a historical background of the camp before we began. While Jody considers himself a skeptic, there are a couple instances he’s still scratching his head about present day. When he first started working at camp, Jody said he would hear doors closing and opening by themselves. One of those times, he convinced himself it was another employee, only to discover the next morning they weren’t even there.
Another instance Jody experienced was in the kitchen. An employee called in early one morning, so he was in the kitchen early to assist. While prepping, Jody witnessed a little girl poking her head around the corner near the entrance of the kitchen. Though he is still not entirely convinced she was there, he to this day has not been able to debunk it. Many staff have reported seeing this girl, and some have witnessed her long enough to describe she had long, brown hair and wore a white dress. Someone had even heard a female tell her “Hello,” at 10:30 pm one evening. Could the female voice be related to the little “Betty"?
We discussed other activity occurring within the camp property lines, and that is because more has happened than just seeing a child apparition appear. Drums have been heard in the distance, someone reported smelling tobacco/cigar smoke, a cook reported a pot flying across the kitchen, and a new fire alarm system had to be installed because it would sound every morning at 3:15 am. No one has died on property in the last hundred years that would cause this kind of activity, so it was a matter of figuring out if it was residual or not.
Before investigating, Katie and Brad gave us a tour of the lodges we would be conducting sessions in. On the way to Micklewright Lodge, we were shown the ten original cabins and where the ashes of E.E. Micklewright and A.D. Edwards were spread. We also conversed with Brad and Katie about how long they’ve been working at camp. Katie has been a member of staff since 2016, but she became permanent in 2021. Brad started in July of 2023.
Upon entering Micklewright Lodge, were shown the old office, dining hall, old nurse’s station, the nature center, and the “I am Third” room where the Native American artifacts were placed. We were given a tour of the kitchen and shown the original totem pole that shared a wall with it. The kitchen had a very strong energy to it, and Katie mentioned always feeling skittish when she has to make maple syrup in there alone. It’s not that the energy felt threatening, but it was definitely enough to let you know you weren’t by yourself.
Before taking a trip to the next building, the staff surprised us with a visit to their tube slides. Not only did we get to see them, but we got to experience them for ourselves. Nicole's take on the experience:
"Let me just start off by saying, if you happen to find yourself at a camp at night and someone offers you to go down a 40ft tube slide….you take it.
During our journey through the hundred acre wood, our tour guides briefly mentioned something about “the slides”. Personally, I did not know what to expect, only to then be introduced to a small, spotlight illuminated platform. As we continued our trek through the snow, limiting the distance between the slides and ourselves, we were presented with not one, but two 40ft long slides.
I stared out to where the long tubes descended into the darkness with a small knot starting to form in my stomach. Two staff members offered to go first. They each snatched a sled and got situated at the top of the slides. After watching them race down the tunnels, it was our turn. Had Whitney decided to sit this one out, I most likely wouldn’t have gone, but for some reason I felt that if I hadn’t taken that opportunity, I would’ve regretted it.
Not a moment later, I was posted up on a sled, only my feet propped on the edges of the tube were keeping me from speeding down into the abyss. The only thing in front of me was an empty void that I could barely see the end out of. I gulped, one of the staff members told me to let him know when I was ready and I reassured him that I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be ready.
Whitney had gone first, I heard her faint screams fall with her as she plummeted down the forest floor.
Then, it was my turn, I said my little prayer and i took my feet off the edge. All I could see was darkness, the bumps of the tube progressively getting rougher, the more my sled picked up speed. A small light resided at the bottom of the slides and faintly lit up the ends of them. As the dimly lit tunnel end gradually got closer, the next thing I knew I was shooting straight out of that tube! I could’ve sworn I was headed straight for trees so out of reflex, I stuck my arm out in the snow to turn and slow my roll. Whitney claims it was my “Tony Hawk move”, but really I was just trying to stay clear of the shrubbery!
I ended up losing control and totally wiping out in the snow. I then simply got up, brushed myself off, and stated that I did it all on purpose.
I got quite the adrenaline rush from it and it was such a fun experience! I’m super thankful that I was able to take a ride even though I was terrified! "
Next, we were given a tour of Runge Lodge, and this is where the fifteen and sixteen-year-olds stay during camp. This is where the shadow figure was seen on the staircase, and where Margo (a dedicated employee of 20+ years) had heard commotion when cleaning by herself. We conducted a smaller session while observing the room, and it was discovered the entity felt sad. We pieced together later it was because of how he passed and how he is now feared as a shadow. He is a good spirit, however, and no one to be afraid of. (We’ll come back to this later.)
The third lodge we toured was the Hoffer Lodge. This is the lodge where the older kids stay during camp season. We didn’t feel much energy upstairs, but when we reached one of the rooms downstairs, we felt a lot of energy inside of it. We mentally marked this as one of the areas to investigate later in the night.
When we finished our tour, we all met back at the main office for the official investigation. Joining us was Katie, Margo, and other staff employees Rory and Bailey. We began the first session in Micklewright Lodge’s dining hall, but we didn’t experience much activity there. Still, here is Swan's take on the experience:
"Before we moved into the kitchen to begin our session, Katie pulled up a chair & prepared to read the Totem Pole Speech they read during camp. The speech told the deep history of the camp, as well as explained what each of the pictures on the first Totem Pole represented. I found myself staring in awe of the beauty and history the totem pole, as well as the amount of detail they put into each picture. The one that caught my eye the most was the picture representing the one & only year the camp had been closed, due to WWII. After Katie read the speech, I didn’t feel anything supernatural around me, but we received various responses on the Necrometer, including the words “misnamed”, “I know it” & “Sara”. Before we began our initial tour of the grounds, Jody explained there was a rumor of a little girl that roamed the grounds & was one of the daughters to the Micklewrights. There is speculation as to whether her name is “Betty” or “Sara”, & I believe this is her confirming her name is Sara. Katie finished the beautiful historic speech & we moseyed on into the kitchen to begin the session."
Once we were in the kitchen, we turned off all the lights so Swan could capture more with the night vision camera. Three cat balls were scattered throughout the room, the rem pod was stationed on the counter, and I left my phone out to record an EVP. There were a few random words that protruded from the necrometer app, but they were before we set boundaries and started asking questions.
I said hello to begin the session, and the app responded, “Three.” This was right before I asked how many spirits were in the room with us, so we led with that. I asked if they could show us where in the room they were, but we didn’t get a response.
While in discussion, the necrometer said, “Sixteen.” We pondered what they could’ve been referring to. Rory brought up the possibility of them telling us their age or how long they’ve been deceased. Katie suggested they were sharing how many summers they’ve been at camp. When Katie finished her sentence, the cat ball on the counter lit up in pretty lights. For further information, I asked if they could tell us their name, but the spirit continued, “Died in this area.” Because there is no record of anyone ever dying at camp, we presume they were referring to the land prior to camp being constructed.
We concluded the activity in the kitchen wasn’t only residual because Swan captured multiple orbs on the night vision camera throughout the session. The orbs would appear as flashes and tracers, debunking their ability to be dust. There was even a brief moment where I mentioned feeling cold by my leg, and seconds later, an orb appeared next to me.
The other method we used to debunk the activity as not being residual is how the spirits responded. When we were showing the orb videos to the employees, the necrometer responded “Most likely,” confirming it was an orb. When showing the orb video to Katie, we asked her if she saw it, and the necrometer responded “Yes.” This was their way of confirming they were present in the room with us. They were also draining equipment batteries.
Before the end of our session in the Micklewright kitchen, the spirits told us to close the windows. Katie said, “I can’t,” which puzzled us. It appeared the windows in the kitchen were entirely open on top to allow airflow into the kitchen. This was a very intelligent response, but we sadly had to tell them closing the windows was out of our control.
When I asked spirit if there was anything else they wanted to share before we went into Runge, they responded “Information,” yet they never clarified. We are unsure if this is referring to the random names we received at the beginning of the session, but we are unable to pinpoint those names to specific people from the past. Because the names we received were not listed on any boards for the camp, we believe the spirits were native (using whatever name the app’s word bank had closest to their name) or previous campers who have now passed and returned to their happy place.
Next, we walked to Runge Lodge. Before we left the kitchen, we sat a recorder out on the counter to pick up on any activity while we were away. Once we got to our next location, we stationed ourselves in the living area, turned off all but a few lights, and began our next session.
We already knew there was one spirit showing itself to employees, so we wanted to know more about this being. I started with introductions, introducing us and the staff, and then I asked if there was anything they could tell us about themselves. The answer we received was “Besmirches,” so we asked if they were besmirched by someone. Rory, who joined us again for this session, noted this was another word for “slandering” someone. We heard creaking noises upstairs, and then the app said, "Yes" and “Depresses.” Going back earlier in the story where we received the response, “Feel sad,” the spirit had been expressing they felt sad and depressed about being besmirched. We gathered they felt this way because they’re merely a shadow, so this may frighten some people. Because word had gotten around to other staff members a silhouette was seen, we believe this spirit hides from large groups because they fear being disliked. We even captured an EVP saying, “Don’t like me.”
I moved along in the session and asked the spirit if they could tell us their name. I mentioned a few different times I felt a male presence in the room, and it was confirmed when the next word we received was “Donald.” Around this same time, there was more walking upstairs. Shortly thereafter, Rory mentioned seeing a flash of light up there. On the table in the loft, we set up the Mystery Machine rem pod in case a spirit wanted to touch or set off the lights. Because it wasn’t documented on camera and did not repeat, this activity is inconclusive.
There was a theme with this session, as it appeared Donald mentioned being cold multiple times. This was at random intervals throughout the session, so we all felt there was a great importance for it continuously being brought up. Looking back through footage and re-listening to the transcripts of the session, we presumed Donald was trying to express how he passed.
During our conversation, an orb shot in our direction from the middle of the room. We took this as Donald coming downstairs from the upstairs loft. The necrometer said, “Clacking,” which we believed was him noting Rory’s candy-chewing. This was followed with the response “Deceased” though, indicating the clacking would be coming from the spirit in the room. Not too long after this occurrence, there was clacking/scratching on my phone’s EVP recording we did not hear with our own ears. We asked Donald to help us figure out where he was in the room, so this would’ve meant he was on the first floor to the right of the fireplace.
There was another name-drop, which was “Pamela,” during the session. We first thought it was another spirit joining the conversation, but we believed Donald was reliving memories with us. Swan had gotten a cold pocket around her, and I picked up on a strange smell that wasn't already in the room. It smelled sweet like syrup, but almost like an old, wooden furniture smell that was burning. We also picked up on more EVP sounds during this period of time. After the sounds stopped, I mentioned no longer smelling the woodsy smell.
We didn’t want to ignore the “Pamela” response, so I asked who Pam was. Rory brought up the donor wall to the right of the fireplace, but there was no Pam or Pamela listed on it. While discussing who Pamela may be, the app responded, “Two.” I personally didn’t feel another presence in the room at that time, nor did the other girls, so we assumed Donald was telling us Pamela was his “number two.” However, this response was followed by “A loved one,” and “Ralph.” We believe he is telling us about TWO loved ones, and their names were Pamela and Ralph. We asked for further information on the two names, and the response was “Constitution.” While some of us were puzzled by this response, Rory’s intuition said, “Physical Constitution.” Researching further into this term, it refers to the physical makeup of the body. The necrometer also said “Icey” at this time, so this led us further into the possibility Donald froze to death and left his loved ones behind. This could also play into his sadness and why he appears as a shadow figure (distressed spirit) in the first place. All he remembers from his life is his final moments and who he left behind.
Swan captured another orb scooting across the camera between Nicole and I, so we asked Donald to set off the cat balls near us. Nothing occurred, so we pulled out the flashlight and placed it on the mantle of the fireplace to see if he would communicate that way. He did not, but it was at this time Swan noticed the battery being drained on the camera. When Swan asked us to grab her spare battery out of her backpack, the necrometer said, “Box,” which was an intelligent response. Donald was reassuring us he was still in the room with us.
Instead of “Icey” or “Cold” again, the necrometer said, “Temperature.” This was followed by the word “Killed.” When we asked Donald if he froze to death, Swan was immediately encased in goosebumps, and Donald responded, “Signal,” confirming his passing. This was when the maplewood smell came back. We questioned if these instances were related and a part of his story.
At this point of the process, the app said, “Use the door.” I asked if this was Donald telling us to end the session and move over to the Hoffer building. He responded, “Seven,” and there were seven of us in the room at that time. Before Donald departed, he said, “Look on the shelf.” Katie said there were books on the shelf near us dating back to the 40s and 50s. Nicole and I looked through a few of them before we switched buildings.
It was at this time we made the transition from Runge to Hoffer. Margo, Bailey, and Rory decided to end the night with us there, but Katie came along to conduct the last session. When we first did the tour, we felt a pull to one of the rooms specifically, so we conducted our session in there. While we could share the transcript of this one, it was transparent at the time of the Estes session we were a beacon of light in the night. Spirits all over the property (and possibly off the property) were surrounding Swan on the device and not respecting boundaries to communicate one at a time. While we believe one or two of them could have lived on the property, none of the responses related to camp or the history of Native Americans except for one.
Following the Estes Method session in Hoffer Lodge, we walked back to the main office and drove to Micklewright for our recorder. The recorder sat by itself for two hours and fifteen minutes, so the activity we captured was very impressive. To follow the standard debunking procedures we usually do, we asked Katie if anyone could’ve been in that area while the recorder was on. This was her response:
“So, we were the only ones in camp. No one was upstairs. I asked the staff that lived up there to either participate or leave to help with debunking. He left for the weekend. No one was up there. When we left the recorder no one would have been in the dining hall or kitchen. You met the majority of people that lived on site, and they had no reason to go to the kitchen. “
The sounds we captured on the recorder were that of walking, cabinets opening and closing, small talk, whispering into the phone, and what sounded like drums and chanting for a Native American ceremony. We believe the whispering and loud noises were active spirits, and we presume the small-talk conversations and Native American drumming were residual. Having residual energy means it recurs on a loop, which could be why commotion in the kitchen of Micklewright Lodge is a regular occurrence for those who live above it.
We want to thank the staff of Camp Edwards for allowing us to take part in this adventure and inviting us into their neck of the woods. This investigation included some of the most compelling pieces of evidence we have ever received, so we are honored that we were given the opportunity to capture and share this evidence with you.
And that is our story of the 100-acre woods! Again, while there are no talking animals making friends with the campers, there are Native American friends still protecting the land, even in death. Camp Edwards YMCA is in very good hands.
Thanks for reading!
Supporting Links:
Camp Edwards: An Unusual Summer Camp Book
September 26, 1833 – Treaty of Chicago - Forest County Potawatomi (fcpotawatomi.com)
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