Title: Campo Fiesta Records
Inclusive Dates: 1933-1984

Creator:

• Campo Fiesta (Trout Lake, Wis.)

Call Number: M92-326; EA 170-EA 178; AE 168-AE 180

Quantity: 2.3 c.f. (1 record center carton, 1 archives box, and 1 flat box) and 22 film reels (8 mm and 16 mm)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of Campo Fiesta, a private, secular, all-girls camp located on North Trout Lake near Boulder Junction, Wisconsin, which operated between 1938 and 1991. The collection documents the camp primarily through photographs contained in annual “camp memory” scrapbooks. Most are black and white and date between 1938 and 1965. All the regular activities of the camp are pictured, and there are interior and exterior shots of camp facilities as well. Also included are cabin blueprints, promotional materials, postcards, and a scrapbook of letters from ex-campers, staff, and parents to the Kirbys upon their retirement in 1965. Also included are black and white, and color home movies (8 mm and 16 mm), 1933-1948 and undated, documenting the activities and properties of Kamp Kirby (the Kirby’s summer cabin prior to the establishment of the camp) and Campo Fiesta during summer, autumn, and winter. Film footage shows the landscape and buildings; campers engaging in activities such as swimming, skiing, performances, sports, horseback riding, and canoeing; also included is footage of Warren Kirby, camp staff, and camp trips and holidays.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-m92326

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The camp was established by Warren P. and Phoebe Kirby, teachers at Central High School in Joliet, Illinois. Campers, who came mainly from the middle and upper-middle income families in the Chicago-Rockford-Joliet area, participated in a variety of activities, including archery, dance, hiking, horseback riding, fencing, tennis, arts and crafts, and several waterfront activities. Paul and Betty Frisbie purchased the camp in 1965 and changed the focus to equestrian training and waterfront activities.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Paul M. Frisbie, Plantation, Florida. Accession Number: M92-326

M92-326	Series: Photographs, Drawings, and Ephemera
	Camp scenes
Box   1 Folder   1	circa 1940s
Box   1 Folder   2	circa 1940s
Box   1 Folder   3	circa 1940s
Box   1 Folder   4	circa 1950s
Box   1 Folder   5	circa 1950s
Box   1 Folder   6	Postcards, circa 1950s
Box   1 Folder   7	circa 1970s
Box   1 Folder   8	Letters and ephemera
Box   1 Folder   9	Letters received upon retirement of Kirbys, 1965
	“Camp Memory” scrapbooks Note: Contain photographs.
Box   2 Folder   1	circa 1938
Box   2 Folder   2	circa 1940
Box   2 Folder   3	1952
Box   2 Folder   4	1953
Box   2 Folder   5-6	1954
Box   2 Folder   7-8	1955
Box   2 Folder   9	1956
Box   2 Folder   10-11	1957
Box   2 Folder   12	1958
Box   2 Folder   13-14	1960
Box   2 Folder   15	1961
Box   2 Folder   16	1965
Box   2 Folder   17	1976
Box   2 Folder   18	1984
Box   3	Blueprints and original drawings of camp buildings
Box   3	Group photograph outside with campers and counselors, 1951
Box   3	Photograph of kids hiking along a lake path, circa 1950
	Series: Films (8 mm) Physical Description: 9 film reels	⇧
EA 170	1933, Kamp Kirby, Trout Lake, Wisconsin Physical Description: 13 minutes
EA 171	1934, Kamp Kirby 1 Physical Description: 16 minutes
EA 172	1934, Kamp Kirby 2 Physical Description: 17 minutes
EA 173	1935, Trout Lake
EA 174	1936, Trout Lake
EA 175	1937-1938, riding, snow party Physical Description: black and white; color
EA 178	1938, The Riding Club Physical Description: black and white
	undated
EA 176	Y Swim, J.J.C. Gym, Tumbling, mime-tics, pageant Physical Description: 14 minutes
EA 177	Skiing Physical Description: black and white
	Series: Films (16 mm) Physical Description: 13 film reels, primarily color	⇧
AE 168	1941, number 2 Note: Footage of canoe tipping, water skiing, archery, Manitowish boys visit.
AE 169	1941, number 3 Note: Footage of Donna and Chippie, hike, archery, PAK and Chippie, reading at fireplace in BH, dorm, puppets.
AE 170	1942, number 2 Note: Footage of waterfront, canoeing to picnic, ball game, Sunday tea, Sara and Chippie eating out of hand.
AE 171	1943, number 1 Note: Footage of kids on springboard, dock sunbathers, badminton net group, bluff group stunt games, dinner bell.
AE 172	1944, number 1 Note: Footage of hula dance, costume dance, swimming, deck tennis, war canoe, dinner bell, Rainbow Falls, Black River Harbor.
AE 173	1948, number 1 Note: Footage of overnight canoe trip, water skis, staff antics, deer, autumn scene, Lake Katherine.
AE 174	1948 Note: Footage of aquaplane, riflery, Dr. Clary - Field Day, deer in water, Fiesta group on way to dinner, loading truck to church Manitowish, Buick at gate, Thanksgiving, getting pine cones in jack pine.
	undated
AE 175	Bus departure, truck with baggage, parent cars
AE 176	Dance program, horse show, skating, school activities Note: “Warren L. Kirby” on reel.
AE 177	Going up to D room, sunset from council campfire ring on lakefront
AE 178	Indian Day, games in riding ring
AE 179	H20 (water) skiing
AE 180	Hydroplane, campers at gate, campers at fire with tents