Oct
20
Who Am I?–Camp Yonahnoka Edition
October 20, 2008 | Subscribe to this post
Posted by Elizabeth Hull in Camp Yonahnoka, Who Am I?
A few weeks back, we heard from someone who was a photography student of Hugh Morton’s at Camp Yonahnoka in the early 1940s. He said in his email, “if you have any photographs taken prior to Morton’s WWII service, especially those with young boys in them, I might be able to help identify some people and places.”
Well, yes—we do have a few of those. A few HUNDRED, that is! Here’s just a small sampling. We’d love to hear from our email correspondent, as well as from anyone who attended Yonahnoka and may have memories or identifications to share.
Is this, as I suspect, an image of the darkroom at Camp Yonahnoka?
Of course, no camp is complete without a campfire. I’d love to know what’s going on in the first image below . . .
The image below looks like something from “Survivor.” (It was in an envelope labeled “Canoe Tilt”).
And finally, it appears the boys were encouraged to develop their artistic as well as athletic abilities. In case you can’t make them out, the sign above the mic in the first image reads “NAZI,” and the sheet music on the piano in the bottom image is for a Glenn Miller tune called “Moonlight Cocktail,” a big hit in 1942— listen to it here! (Judging from the reaction of the boy at the piano, perhaps this particular performance left something to be desired).
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Links
- ArchivesNext - Blog examining archives and technology
- Biographical Conversations with . . . Hugh Morton - An episode from the UNC TV program featuring a one-on-one conversation with Hugh Morton
- Grandfather Mountain - Scenic attraction and nature preserve in Linville, NC owned by Morton from 1952 until his death in 2006
- Morton Biography from Grandfather Mountain website
- NC Collection Photographic Archives
- NC Miscellany Blog - Blog of the North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC-CH
- Posterity Project - Blog related to archives, history, civic responsibility, and open access to public records in Tennessee
- Southern Short Course in News Photography - America’s longest running photojournalism seminar, of which Morton was a founder
- Southern Sources - Interesting staff finds, curiosities, old favorites, and other cool stuff from Wilson Library’s Southern Historical Collection
- UNC Libraries
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There are some items in the North Carolina Collection that might help identify these Morton images. Here is the link:
http://search.lib.unc.edu/search?Nty=1&Ntt=Camp+Yonahnoka&Ntk=Keyword
Also, there is an interesting picture of Hugh at Camp Yonahnoka at UNC-TV’s Biographical Conversations web site: (2nd Picture)
http://www.unctv.org/biocon/hmorton/pjournal01.html
The bottom two pics were taken in the Bark Room, which, as I understand, remains to this day. The “Y” emblems in the bottom picture were the felt patches you won at the end of the camp season when you’d satisfied all the requirements to get one: earn enough ‘work points’ (earning 7 work points a day cleaning the rifle range, for example) and “qualify” in a certain number of activities. Campers who won their patches returned the next season with their patch sewn on the back of the thin blue Yonahnoka camp jackets (I have one somewhere).
The older you were, the more activities you had to qualify in. For instance, to qualify in canoeing, you had to learn all the parts of a canoe and paddle; know and be able to demonstrate all the various types of strokes with the paddle; and know the safety rules of canoeing (how to right a swamped canoe, how to safely enter and exit a canoe, how to sit in a canoe, etc.).
The stage of the Bark Room was used for Dramatics, for the bunkhouse skits (this looks like it might be from the Skit Competition or Talent Night), and for the bunkhouse Song Contests, when each bunkhouse had to first sing the Camp Song (I’ll supply the lyrics upon request}, then a song of their own choosing.
When I was a camper and, later, a counselor in the 50s and early 60s, the prize for both the Skit Contest and the Song Contest was an “ice cream supper” - the campers in the winning bunkhouse were treated to big dishes of homemade ice cream, a big deal since we RARELY had ice cream and Mrs. Forbes homemade ice cream was the best I ever had.
The photo of the campers in canoes was taken just outside the swimming area, near the dam.
The “Indians” photo comes from an annual event when the campers and counselors dressed as Indians, carrying wooden tomahawks and outfits they’d made themselves in the handicrafts shop. The picture below it would have been taken on the night of one of the weekly bunkhouse cookouts, when we’d meet at a regular cooking area and roast marshmallows and hot dogs over an open fire. The cookouts were a good occasion for the bunkhouses to rehearse their songs for the Song Competition.
There was a darkroom for campers during my first two years at Yonahnoka, located beneath the Pavilion, between the laundry room and the camp store; after 1961 I don’t think there was a darkroom. That whole area smelled forever like wet concerete. There were no windows in our darkroom, so this shot would have been taken elsewhere.
Great photos! Keep ‘em comin’!
As someone whose high-school friends were all in rock bands (a different era of course), I have an alternative explanation for the boy near the piano.
Singers often cup a hand over one ear to help them hear themselves sing, to make sure they’re in key or on the right note. So, it might not be a comment on the music if the song has vocals.
Good point, Tim. I guess I was thinking back to my own junior high band performances. Ouch.
Thanks to Will for all the fabulous CY information. I looked more closely at the darkroom photo, and I don’t believe there are windows — I think there’s just a bright light on those two display panels in the back that makes them look like windows. I don’t think a darkroom with windows that let in that much light would be very effective! So, maybe this is the Yonahnoka darkroom after all?
Thanks to Will also for mentioning my grandmother Mrs. Robert Forbes, the Camp Dietitian. She had a great influence on a lot of campers. I also had the opportunity to attend as a camper in ‘63, and helped with the grounds maintenance during the summer of ‘71. A ton of memories came back while reading about the Pavilion and the activities on Lake Kawana. The Lake underwent a wonderful restoration several years ago but sadly, the old Pavilion and Dining Hall were torn down. There was a lot of mountain history captured by Mr. Morton, and we are so lucky to have folks like Elizabeth to preserve them for future generations. Many thanks to all of you that are involved, I’ll gladly keep watching.