Credit: The History of Camp Concordia was compiled by Doug Humphries for Camp Concordia's 60th Anniversary celebration. Doug is credited for hours of work collecting stories, photos and articles for the 1957-2007 event. With that, Doug retired as historian and provided the camp office with his original work - most of which has been retyped and scanned and placed into these web pages. Additional snippets of history have been compiled by Craig & Mary Oldenburg using newletter articles, past staff stories and (eventually) photos.
IntroductionWhy do Christian camps begin?
Can you imagine sitting with a group of like minded people today and deciding to invest the next 5 years of your life establishing a camp that would influence the lives of children and their families for decades (and possibly centuries)? All across the United States these meetings have taken place and places like Camp Concordia have been created and then morphed through the years into ministries that are key in the faith lives of 100s of thousands individuals. More often than not, lives are changed during summer camp experiences and those summers becomes 'faith-anchors" when kids become young adults and establish families. Camp Concordia began with a vision for kids and a vision for the future. The Beginnings: July 13, 1955 The idea of establishing a Lutheran camp was hatched in the minds of a few members of the Lutheran Layman’s League, in the year 1955. The first recorded meeting was held on July 13 of that year. On August 8, 1956, the Grand Valley Camp Association was formed. The present Camp Concordia property, about 60 lakefront acres, was purchased for $32,000. |
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