Camp Gray Presbyterian Camps

Location: 1896

Boys and girls paid $2.50 a week for room and board. The urban health movement that followed the great Colombian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago led to a search for fresh air, sunshine and clean water, along with a back-to-nature emphasis on the great outdoors as a way to find moral and spiritual enrichment. The Reverend George Gray of Chicago purchased over 140 acres of land here for a ’Chautauqua for the Poor’—a place for urban boys and girls to enjoy woods and water and become better citizens and children of God. It was known as Forward Movement Park, later Camp Gray, and then Presbyterian Camps. Many cottages and tenting areas were built along with dining halls and recreation and learning places. The camps eventually welcomed people of all social-economic means.