Camp Namanu campers walk along the Sandy River in the 1920s.
Courtesy of Camp Namanu
Camp Namanu, a camp that’s been a summertime idyll for young Oregonians since 1924, was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The new district, on the banks of the Sandy River in the foothills of Mount Hood, includes lodges, cabins and community buildings that were designed to complement and blend in with the forest.
Nancy King first attended Camp Namanu in 1965 as an 8-year-old, and is now a member of the board.
“It’s a beautiful spot in the forest and there’s magic streams and flowers and a duck pond, and it was just such a safe place,” said King. “My home was not a safe place. So it was wonderful to go to Camp Namanu and be safe, and have the freedom to have fun and laugh and sing and play.”
King took the lead in filling out the 85 pages of documentation required by the federal government to gain the historic listing.
“We cataloged every building in camp,” King said. “We cataloged campfire rings. We did a lot of writing about the history, about the social history and different milestones in camp.”
One of those milestones: The Camp Fire Girls of America, later known as just Camp Fire, the umbrella organization for Camp Namanu, issued its first inclusion policy in 1948. It said that Camp Fire “must strive to give girls of all minority groups an opportunity to participate fully.”
Three of the buildings at Camp Namanu were designed by notable Portland architect Pietro Belluschi. Many of the buildings are a simple blend of indoors and outdoors, blending into the forest environment. One of those buildings is called Uncle Toby’s Story House.
“The creek goes underneath it, and it is open on two sides to the open air,” said King. “The architecture is beautiful and fits perfectly into the space it’s in. So you’re indoors but outdoors at the same time.”
Namanu started as a camp for girls but has since opened up to become an all-gender camp.
“My experience at Namanu and in camp, our girls gave me a lot of opportunity to be a leader and I think that’s something that you learn by doing, which was really nice. It gave me confidence in myself, my ability to lead,” said King. “I would hope that everybody who had that experience that we had when we were little, as females, would want that experience for everybody.”
King hopes that the historic designation will make it easier to get grants to upkeep some of the buildings at the camp.
Namanu is also celebrating 100 years of operation this year. As part of its centennial celebration, there’s an exhibit about the camp at the Oregon Historical Society that runs through June 9.