The Camp Al-Gon-Quian records provide documentation of the campers and staff of this summer camp for boys in northern Michigan beginning in 1925 and continuing to 1967. The files provide personal information about campers and staff. The records are arrange in X series, Camper Files, Staff / Counselor Files and Administrative Files.
The site that is now Camp Al-Gon-Quian was originally a farm on Burt Lake in Northern Michigan, just east of Petoskey. In 1925, Herbert H. Twining purchased the land with the intent to start a summer camp. Twining was a University of Michigan graduate (1923), who initially wanted to be a medical doctor. However, an eye injury as a child prevented this and instead Twining pursued a profession that he found parallel: He dedicated his life's work to establishing Camp Al-Gon-Quian as a private boys' camp on the leading edge of camp programming.
Twining chose the name Al-Gon-Quian because he believed that was a possible Native American expression for "bow of a canoe." Twining also borrowed several Indian names for the camper groups. He divided the campers into groups by age, grade, height and weight. Throughout the years, the tribes within the camp included the Ottawa, Chippewa, Cree, Ojibwa, Miami, Nipissing and Mississauga. One common element that joins these native tribes together is that they were a part of the Algonquian linguistic family and spoke Algonquian when together. Al-Gon-Quian is still the universal language for the children who spend their summers with us.
In 1925, Mr. Twining opened camp for its first season. Sessions lasted 8 weeks, and boys came from all over Michigan and surrounding states. Prominent families from of the Ann Arbor community and the Midwest sent their sons to Camp Al-Gon-Quian. A brief list includes the Proctor & Gamble sons of Cincinnati, the Wrigleys of Chicago, the Strohs of Detroit and Grosse Pointe, and the children of noteworthy University of Michigan figures Alvin Bentley, C.S. Mott and G. Mennen Williams. Prominent members of the university community that served as staff members include Bennie Oosterbaan, Dr. Roger Howell, Roscoe Bonisteel, E. Blythe Stason and James B. Edmonson.
In addition to providing a fun outdoor experience for campers, Camp Al-Gon-Quian aimed to improve the character of young men. In 1932, the aims of camp were to develop strength of character, a purpose in life, a clear moral character, self-reliance and the ability to achieve. This was accomplished through two months of camaraderie and living in the great outdoors away from the stresses of city life. Campers often took an overnight train up north from Chicago or Detroit, spending their entire summers on Burt Lake.
Twining was well-recognized in the camping community and actively involved with the American Camp Association, of which he was the first national president in 1935. He was the director of Al-Gon-Quian for 42 years until his retirement in 1967, when he sold camp to the Ann Arbor YMCA.
