Summer Camp Memories

Summer is almost over and many of my friends have either gone to summer camp or sent their kids there.

Of course, I got to hear all about how uncomfortable the beds were, how hard it was to sleep with the air conditioner running all night in the cabin, or how dirty it was.

Tonight we take a look at what Bible Camp was like when my Mom was in High School.

Camp in Iowa, 1950's Camp, Large Tent, Cots, Humid SummersCan you imagine sleeping in this tent on a hot humid Iowa summer night? If you look closely you can see the cots.

Camp in Iowa - Bible Camp - Cots - Dresses - Hot Summer Camping - Big TentThis picture is from a different camp, but you can see that the conditions are the same. Look at the long line of cots. If you look closely you can see a flashlight on the first cot. What is really neat here is the long line of dresses hanging the full length of the tent. The girls wanted to look nice for the guys. Contrast that with what kids wear to camp today.

Bible Camp in Iowa - Kamp Keoma - Bible Class at camp - Old Time Bible CampAfter a good night 🙂 of sleep and a good breakfast it was time for Bible classes. All the campers have their Bibles out ready to study and learn.

Bible Camp in Iowa - Kamp Keoma - Bible Class at camp - Old Time Bible CampHere we have some of the younger campers. They have found a nice shady place for their class.

Lunch Time at Camp - Bible Camp in Iowa - Kamp Keoma - Old Time Bible CampAfter Bible classes and chapel in the morning it was time for a nice lunch prepared by the camp cooks.

Doing Dishes at Camp - Bible Camp in Iowa - Kamp Keoma - Old Time Bible CampOf course after lunch it was time to do the dishes. A typical camp would divide up into four tribes. The tribes would rotate through kitchen duty to spread out the work. The tribes would also compete against each other in Bible drills, sports and other activities.

Playing Baseball - Softball - Sports at Bible Camp -Bible Camp in Iowa - Kamp Keoma - Old Time Bible Camp - batter Up

Afternoon was usually time for sports. Baseball/Softball and Volleyball were common afternoon sports. When I went to camp 20 years later, we would play Softball and Volleyball each afternoon. It didn’t change much 🙂

In the evening it was time for more activities and another message from the Bible. Then off to bed to rest up for another exciting day of camp.

What was camp like when you were a kid?

Steven

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Map of Amish Counties 2022

Each year I look forward to the release of new statistics on Amish Population from the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.

Starting in 2020 they added a document that showed Amish settlements by county in each state. At that time I decide to create a map of the counties to better visualize where Amish settlements were in the US.

I started with Iowa since it is where I was born and my great grandparents had lived in the Amish settlement in Kalona.

amish settlements, iowa, iowa amishHere is the map I created in 2020 of the counties in Iowa where the Amish have settlements. This map did not change in 2022

Note: Washington County was not in the data set, but is the center of the Kalona settlement so I included in on this map. It is in the 2022 data set.

Today I received a comment on a previous post that I had left out a county, and went back and looked at the data set and found that they had left out the county. This happened in several cases where settlements spread over multiple counties. The 2022 data set included the missing county.

Below is the map with the 2020 data. I will not say that it is perfect, but probably greater than 95% accurate based on the data. It is sometimes a bit hard to find the counties on the map, and sometime I just make mistakes.

amish counties, amish settlements, US Map, Where do the Amish live

I decided to update my map using the 2022 data.  The 2022 data set is much better and of course there were some additional counties and a few settlements that were no longer there. However, there were not a lot of changes.

Amish, Amish Counties, Amish Settlement, Amish Map, Amish StatesThe Amish did start a settlement in a new state. You can see a new settlement in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.

Update 8/7: The data set from Young Center gives the county as Santa Fe, but it seems that it is in either Taos County or Rio Arriba County along the Colorado border adjacent to the settlement in Colorado. I retained mark for the county listed in the data set, but perhaps it is the bigger county just above.

If you look closely you can also see a few new counties here and there. If you want to get details of where the Amish live make sure you visit the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.

I believe that this map gives a great visual of where the Amish currently live. I will admit it is not perfect, but hopefully I didn’t make too many mistakes.

It is interesting to see the patterns of where the settlements are.

I have some ideas for some other maps, as maps from different time periods would be beneficial for Genealogy research.

Steven

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