If you or a woman in your life has ever been a Girl Scout in southeastern Wisconsin, you probably know about Camp Alice Chester.
The 333-acre Girl Scout camp in East Troy is the place to go for Girl Scout overnights and summer camps. And it has been for the past 100 years.
In 1924, just 12 years after Juliette Gordon Low started the Girl Scouts in the U.S., Alice Chester — who organized the first Milwaukee Girl Scout council in 1921 — used fundraising money (buttressed by birthday money from her dad) to purchase 100 acres of land around Booth Lake to serve as the Girl Scouts' new camp.
As this year's summer camp season gets underway, staff at Camp Alice Chester are preparing for a birthday celebration, complete with cupcakes at each camp session.
Here are just a few of the differences between how Girl Scouts camped at Camp Alice Chester 100 years ago and today.
The food
Probably one of the biggest differences between today's Camp Alice Chester and 100 years ago, according to senior director of camp Lori Kasun, is that it has a professional food service now. A century ago, the Girl Scouts did all the cooking — typically outdoors and over a fire, she said. Today, each of the camp units cook over a fire twice a week. The rest of the time, they eat their meals in the lodge, a building that also was around in the early days of Camp Alice Chester but didn't have the current dining area until 1991.
When today's Girl Scouts do cook over a fire, their food — especially their treats — are similar to what they've cooked over the past 100 years. S'mores, for example, are largely thought to have been invented by Girl Scouts. At least, the first known recipe for them was in a 1927 Girl Scouts publication.
In addition to s'mores, modern-day favorites include one-pot meals and banana boats — recipes for which are included in early editions of Camp Alice Chester publications. Today's campers also love making pudgy pies — two pieces of bread with filling in between that are put together in a pie iron and cooked over the fire. Girl Scouts are creative with the fillings for their pudgy pies and they make them both sweet — apple pie filling is a favorite ingredient — and savory (lots of girls like pizza pudgy pies).
In Jean Krieg's 2014 book, "Images of America: Girl Scouts Camp Alice Chester," a photograph of Camp Alice Chester Girl Scouts from the mid-1920s notes they are making something that sounds similar to pudgy pies, in flavor at least — "doughboys, in which dough is wrapped on a stick and roasted over coals until golden brown, then filled with butter, jam, cinnamon, and sugar, bacon, or even chocolate."
One more note about how campers eat today vs. 100 years ago: They're still called to their meals with a dinner bell.
Starting in at least 1930, that was a gong with a mallet; that lasted until 1991, when the gong was replaced with what they have now, a triangle bell. And while the gong is not used anymore, it reappeared near the lodge in 2004, where it's an artistic representation of the way things used to be.
The clothes
One hundred years ago, Camp Alice Chester campers wore uniforms, which, according to a 1925 photograph in Krieg's book, "consisted of knickers, knee socks, a blouse, a vest, and a headband."
The uniform changed over the years; a 1930 staff photograph shows skirts with bloomers as parts of the uniform, and according to Krieg's book, in the early 1930s, girls could buy their own Camp Alice Chester uniform for about $2 from Schuster's, Boston Store or Gimbels.
Today's Girl Scouts don't have to wear a uniform to camp; they wear clothes that allow them to be active, things like shorts, T-shirts and leggings. But they do receive a camp T-shirt that they're encouraged to wear on Fridays; that's when the campers sign each other's T-shirts.
The buildings
Staff at Camp Alice Chester believe there was only one building on the land when the Girl Scouts bought it in 1924 — a two-story building known as the Chalet. The first floor was used for boat storage and the second floor has gone through several lives, from being used for staff housing to serving as a nature center to its current incarnation as a staff lounge.
Girl Scouts today sleep in units of platform tents, cabins or troop houses (as opposed to 100 years ago when they all slept in tents). The youngest girls sleep in Sunset Prairie, a building with private rooms for the counselors, several bunk beds, a kitchen area and a gathering space. That building was built in 1960; it was used as an infirmary in summer and for troop camping in winter.
The camp's lodge is perhaps the most central and recognizable building at Camp Alice Chester; it was built shortly after the land was purchased and has always been used for programming on rainy days and as a place for the scouts to gather. Over the years, there have been several renovations, and today there is a large dining area and an upper-floor library area called Ann's Hideaway where units of campers can go to relax and have quiet time.
Each unit has a shelter area so girls can "be outside" even when it's raining; this likely has been the case throughout the camp's history. Girl Scout leaders tell a cute story about one of the shelters named Alice Chester, not after the camp's founder but after an older couple named Alice and Chester who happened to drive by the camp one day. They were so delighted to see the camp was "named after them" that they left money in their wills to build the shelter.
Another delightful building that still exists at the camp from decades ago is a small, nondescript building called Pumpkin. The name is meant to evoke "Cinderella" because the kitchen staff who used to live there were affectionately known as "Cindies" since their duties were similar to those of Cinderella. Today Pumpkin is where the camp's male staff sleep.
The badges
Girl Scouts have always been able to earn badges for certain accomplishments, but those badges have changed over the years. For example, Kasun noted that Low, the Girl Scouts founder, was interested in flying, so there used to be an aviator badge.
There are no Girl Scout pilots flying over Camp Alice Chester today, but this summer, the campers will pay homage to their history by learning about some of the activities that used to be required to earn badges. For example, today's first aid badge requires girls to learn things like how to call 911 and administer CPR, while Scouts 100 years ago learned things like how to wrap wounds, make tourniquets and cook for someone who was sick.
And while badges like archery, outdoor cooking and camping are just as popular to earn as they were 100 years ago, others have been added to reflect the diversity of girls' interests — badges like automotive, citizen scientist, racial justice and mental health.
The camp names
According to Kasun, camp names are a forever thing. Today, Camp Alice Chester Girl Scouts give themselves nicknames at the beginning of camp, names that their fellow campers (and lifelong friends) will refer to them as decades from now — although one leader acknowledged that some names seem a bit more temporary for the girls who change their names a few times during camp, sometimes causing confusion.
Some memorable names from last summer? Butterfly (which turned out to be too popular, with leaders begging kids to choose different names, explaining that it would be too confusing "to have a fourth Butterfly"). There was also Basem*nt. And one girl named herself I'm a Horse. Not Horse, but I'm a Horse.
According to photos in Krieg's book, memorable names from decades past include Little John, Maid Marion, Eeyore and Yum-yum.
The bathrooms
Bathrooms at camp aren't typically pretty, even in 2024. While the bathrooms of 1924 were pit latrines without running water, in the ensuing decades, Camp Alice Chester built bathrooms with toilets that flush.
There's also a shower house with individual stalls with curtains so a whole unit of Scouts can shower at the same time; there are even heated floors. A shower house was added to the camp in 1958, according to Krieg's book, which also notes that before the shower house, counselors would build fires to heat water so Scouts could wash up in their own units.
Kasun also pointed to something she's sure the Girl Scouts will be excited about when they arrive at camp this summer: a water-bottle filler in the lodge near the bubbler. While that may seem like a small luxury, she pointed out that it would have been astonishing to Girl Scouts from the time before the camp had running water; back then, they had to use hand pumps.
The activities
Activities like swimming, boating, fishing and archery are just as popular today as they were a century ago. There are a few differences, though. Boating, for example, was done in rowboats and canoes 100 years ago. Today's campers also can use kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, as well as more niche beginner watercraft like CORCLs, a kind of circular kayak, and WGWAGs, small boats that are propelled by shifting your weight while standing.
Singing at camp has always been a thing, although the songs sung at Camp Alice Chester's singing steps — an outdoor area near the lodge where the Girl Scouts gather — have changed somewhat.
Today's Girl Scout leaders describe teaching campers silly camp songs as well as the "Make New Friends" song most Girl Scouts remember learning in kindergarten when they were Daisy Scouts. According to Krieg's book, the 1931 Camp Alice Chester brochure includes lyrics to an official camp song with lyrics such as, "On a hill above a shore, there stands a lodge we know/In and out with happy faces Girl Scouts come and go/singing, swimming, working, learning, loving everything."
Arts and crafts activities — which are done in the Bau Haus, which didn't have electricity when it was built in the early 1970s — haven't changed much through the decades. Tie-dying, friendship bracelets, woodworking, leather crafts and and painting nature scenes all remain popular. Campers of the past also did photography, which they still do today (albeit with digital cameras).
Kasun — who noted that "crafts are probably among the most traditional things we still do" — also pointed out the crafts that exploded in popularity in past decades are trendy again, things like spin art and macramé.
Some popular outdoor activities are decidedly modern — the Camp Alice Chester of 100 years ago did not have ropes courses and climbing walls like it does now.
One treasured activity that remains largely unchanged, according to Kasun, is the traditional Thursday night closing campfire gathering, when each unit of campers sings a song or reads a poem. And as the Girl Scouts reflect on their week during the friendship circle and candle ceremony, just like in the past, "people start crying because they know it's time to go home."
