Margaret Ostrander Interview

Margaret Ostrander was the wife of Maury Ostrander. Maury was Many Point’s First Camp Director. The interview was taken by Doug Palmer in April 2002.

Douglas: How did Maury get to be the Many Point Scout Camp Director?

Margaret: For many years, Maury was the Camp Director at Tonkawa. That was where he met Wint Hartman, Lenny Martin, Orly Thornsjo and other Tonkawa people: They were nends the whole rest of their lives. When Wint was a Scout, Maury taught him how to swim. As an adult, Wint became a Professional Executive and was the Director of Camping for the Minneapolis Council.

Wint asked Maury to be the first Many Point Camp Director. Maury recruited Orly Thornsjo to be his Program Director. Orly had just gotten married to Lucille, and they spent their honeymoon at Many Point. I guess they were in their twenties. Maury said many times, Orley was the best Program Director at Many Point.

Douglas: How long did it take to get to Many Point from Minneapolis? Margaret:

Sometimes, it was a full five hours. When we went up there, we took our three girls and a

cat. The road was being built, and was very rough, bump, bump, bump. That first trip to Many Point, we were in the car behind the bulldozer. When the cat got frightened, she jumped out of the car window. Luckily, we got her back in the car; she was scared, and we held her to Camp. With all the bulldozing, we had to be towed twice for getting stuck.

Douglas: Where did you stay at Many Point?

Margaret: We had the first cabin up on the top of the hill, and it was living in a wilderness. It was the cutest log cabin in Staff Family. We all just loved it. Our cabin included two bedrooms with bunk beds; and a big living room with a kitchen area. The screen was on the front of the cabin; so that we could have the doors open, and not fight mosquitoes.

In the Staff Family cabins, some mice would come out at night and look at us. They were cute with big ears. I’m not afraid of mice, and they didn’t bother me. Maury’s folks and his cousin from the cities came to visit one time. They were sleeping in another cabin. This cousin was an older woman. At nighttime, the mice chewed her stockings into pieces. (laughter) She was quite concerned because she didn’t have another pair with her.

Paths were going up to the cabins between tree stumps. You took a path to go to the central bathroom and shower. The women weren’t pleased about that.

Douglas: After I left in the ’60s, they put in Staff Family Camp trailers with bathrooms.

Douglas: I’m not sure when the REA (Rural Electric Association) ran electricity to the Camp. I think the Camp used generators for several years. Was there electricity produced by generators in the Staff Family Cabins?

Margaret: Yes, One night and the generator that provided electricity for the Buckskin Kitchen didn’t go on. There were meat and other food in a walk-in-cooler, and they were afraid the food would spoil. It was a bigjob, and Boots with help from others got the generator going.

Douglas: When we were there in tents, we put a screen on the bottom and the back of the dressers. We were determined not to allow the mice to have a warm, dry spot, and our clothing to make a nest.

Margaret: During the first week, every night, we had a few mice up in the rafters. I suppose we got rid of them somehow.

Douglas: We had bats.

Margaret: I don’t remember any bats, but I do remember mice. They were the cutest little mice with great big ears.

Douglas: Did you have a Camp job?

Margaret: At Many Point, I didn’t have a job as such. I was recruited to drive the car in the afternoon; bringing the mail into Ponsford every day and bringing our mail back. I did that for the whole summer. It was quite an effort because it was thirty miles of rough, bumpy old roads.

Douglas: Did you go over the road to Family Camp?

Margaret: No, I guess it was a long way around; it was a good five miles to get over there.

Douglas: They used to take supplies over to Family Camp in an old Launch. Did they have that old boat when you were there?

Margaret: They probably had it, but I wasn’t paying attention.

Douglas: When you were there, was it just Buckskin and Ten Chiefs?

Margaret: I knew Buckskin, but I don’t remember what they called the other one. It was a very primitive tenting area. There were no roads, and they had to chip away to create the campsites. It was a real camping experience for those first-time campers. Some were pretty good, and some of them were very poor campers. The ones that lacked knowledge of how to handle it had many problems the first year. They couldn’t find this; they couldn’t find that, and some of the tents needed constant repair.

Douglas: Did most of the Troops there for two weeks or one week?

Margaret: Some were there for one week, and if they could get leaders to stay, they stayed for two weeks. Most tried to stay for two weeks.

Margaret: That was a problem getting volunteer leaders; they were parents coming to Camp in tents. Many had never camped in their life. Maury spent lots of time helping them; showing them, how to use an axe, even making a fire or pitching the tent.

Douglas: How did Many Point recruit the cooks for the Buckskin kitchen?

Margaret: They were cooks from local schools. They were used to feeding school groups all during the school year and available to work in the summer.

Maury and I would eat with the Camp Staff every day in the Buckskin Dining Hall. Wint wanted us to do that, so we didn’t have to buy all our groceries individually. To buy groceries, we had to go to a store in Ponsford or Detroit lakes or Park Rapids.

Douglas: Was there a Main Beach?

Margaret: There was a short road that went past the Administration Building down to the lake. They launched boats and canoes from that place. I think the Main Beach was just to the North of that road. It might have been called The Main Beach and the Buckskin Beach.

Margaret: Nancy (daughter) was telling me about this today. One time we had a big treat for the Staff; a bar-b-qued pig roast. It was the first time I went to a bar-b-que. The Staff put the pig on a spit and turned it all day. For clean up, the Buskin Dining Hall kitchen had a dishwasher and disposal.

Indians had a gift shop in the Trading Post where they sold hand-made baskets, birdhouses, beaded moccasins & other Indian crafts. Maury told me of a conversation a Scoutmaster had with an Indian at the Trading Post. The Scoutmaster was wondering what the campers were going to do if it rained. So, the Scoutmaster came in and asked the Indian, “what do you do when it rains?” The Indian looked up at the sky and said, “We just let it rain.” Maury got a kick out of that. (smiles and laughter). We just let it rain.

Douglas: Any particular characters you remember, like Joe Anglim?

Margaret: Joe Anglim was quite a character. He was a knowledgeable man; very witty and would come up with the darndest things. I think he was there the first few summers.

Douglas: Did Maury hire most of the Staff?

Margaret: He did most of the hiring.

Douglas: Were a lot of them University students?

Margaret: Some came from the University of Minnesota. I remember Joe Solomon, Fred McCormick, and Orly Thornsjo. They were all interested in Scouting, .and had a lot of Scouting experience.

Douglas: Was there a phone system in the first few years?

Margaret: I think there was a short wave radio that Boots used in his basement that connected with the outside world. Somehow, the Camp had an internal phone system. It may have been an Army Surplus system; with a switchboard located in the Administration building.

Douglas: Boots didn’t get an external phone system until 1962.

Douglas: What were some of the challenges you and Maury faced?

Margaret: I think the biggest problem for me was keeping the daughters in clothes. There were only two washing machines at the Camp. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.

Margaret: Wint had a cabin at Many Point near us and was there for the summer. We usually got along fine. One time we had a big problem; Wint thought that Maury should have been handling something differently, and he just took over and decided. The conflict between Wint and Maury was not often but at times was frustrating for Maury.

Wint would want something done, and Maury thought it shouldn’t be done. Wint did not approve of several ideas that Muray had, and that caused a little bit of conflict.

I remember Maury’s office was a vast open place and at times it was congested with large numbers of new campers and leaders. It was difficult trying to get Camp organized. There was a lot of trial and error with the program that first year. Chartered Troop camping was a whole new challenge for the Staff and Troop leaders.

Douglas: What did Maury enjoy the most?

Margaret: There was a good spirit in the Staff. They were all very loyal, and they were all very close friends when the summer was over. Maury loved wilderness camping. He always enjoyed working with the kids more than doing the administrative tasks of running the Camp. In that first year, some of the Scoutmasters were just bumblers and didn’t know what to do. Maury enjoyed being there for them and showing them the way.

Douglas: What’s your fondest memory?

Margaret: Maury and I used to hike in the woods and see the beautiful streams. I enjoyed the birds, rabbits, squirrels, deer, raccoons, porcupines, and fox.

Douglas: When I was at Camp, we saw bears. Did you see bears?

Margaret: I didn’t see any bears at Many Point, but I did at Camp Menogyn. There’s a lot of bears up there.

Margaret: It’s been fun thinking about Many Point. Douglas: Thank you for this interview.

Many thanks to Douglas Palmer for doing this interview with Margaret Ostrander.