Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The Chicago Boys Club, a nonprofit youth recreation organization, was incorporated in 1902. It was founded in Chicago by John F. Atkinson, and first occupied rented quarters on South State Street in Chicago.
The Chicago Boys Camp at Winona, sponsored by the Chicago Boys Club, was started in late 1910 on a large, wooded tract on Winona’s south side. The property had originally been purchased by the Beyer brothers from John and Myrtle Kelly. It provided a vacation spot for boys from poor Chicago neighborhoods who had known only the concrete, brick, and steel in the streets of a city. Its slogan was “The Golden Rule: A Measure of Character.”
The camp was open for nearly 80 years, providing a place of solitude for the inner city children from Chicago to spend two weeks out of their summer. The camp had several buildings on-site, including a large dining hall, a caretaker’s home, a maintenance building and many cabins. Foundations of these structures remain today, and are sprinkled throughout the 117 acres.
In 1984, the name was changed to Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago to acknowledge the many young women who were also participating in the clubs. In 1989, the name was again changed, this time to Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago.
Beginning in 1915 and continuing until the 1970s, thousands of inner-city boys enjoyed weeks of recreation at the large camping site located at the southern end of Winona Lake.
W. Clement Stone (1902 – 2002) of Chicago reportedly paid approximately $75,000 for 14.4 acres of the camp grounds and planned to use the land as an expansion to the existing Chicago Boys Club facilities which were adjacent to Camp Kosciusko. At the same time it was announced the United Presbyterian Synod would start developing a new $600,000 conference center near Rochester the following spring to replace the Camp Kosciusko facilities.
It was reported Feb. 27, 1931, that Chicago Boys Club had bought an additional 11 acres on the northeast side of its existing property at Winona Lake. The land, which was purchased from the estate of Matilda Johnson, included a “fine spring of water,” according to the report.
The Warsaw newspaper noted on Jan. 8, 1965, it was learned all but a few acres of Camp Kosciusko at Winona Lake — former summer conference center of the United Presbyterian Synod of Indiana — has been sold to the president of the board of directors of the Chicago Boys Club Inc.
Stone Camp is Formed
Paula Heckman, writing in the 2001 coffee table book “Winona Lake Summers,” which she co-authored with Jane Gordon Cook, noted in 1984 her husband, Steve Heckman, along with Joe Prout, former owner of Owen’s Supermarkets, purchased the Chicago Boys Clubs acreage in order to prevent the construction of high-density housing.
Heckman said, “The maintenance of Winona Lake’s integrity, tranquility and serenity was their priority. After their decision to purchase, Steve drove to Chicago, met with realtors, and bought the 150 acres.”
Heckman said the corporation at one time operated 16 clubs, seven camps (including the one on Winona Lake) and two medical/dental clinics. Its national headquarters were in Chicago. When finances became a problem for Chicago Boys Club in the early 1980s, most of the seven camps had to be sold, and the Winona Lake property was one of the first to be offered.
The plat contained wetlands protected by the federal government. Working with the architectural firm Paul I. Cripe Associates of Indianapolis, the developers took care that wetlands were designated, specified and approved by the DNR.
The waterfront was divided into 18 lakefront lots and 18 rear lots. A paver stone street and sewers were installed and the subdivision was named Stone Camp in honor of W. Clement Stone, the wealthy Chicago businessman and philanthropist who had been a major financial supporter of the Chicago Boys Club.
Local news media from September 2002 said, “Known for a long time as the site of the Chicago Boys Club, a section of about 20 acres will become what’s expected to be one of the most luxurious residential neighborhoods in Kosciusko County.” The report noted much of the land’s natural beauty and Cherry Creek, located on the southeast side of Winona Lake, would be retained.
A Haven for Rattlesnakes
The Stone Camp area of Winona Lake had long been known as a haven for rattlesnakes. Leesburg resident Jean Lynch, who grew up in Winona, recalled a day in the late 1940s or early 1950s when her young cousin suddenly began throwing rocks at something while he was playing baseball in a field near the present Stone Camp.
He was killing a rattler, and after the snake was dead, the boy got some string, tied the reptile to the back of his bicycle and dragged it around the village.
“You always had an eye out for rattlers,” Lynch said about playing around the Boys Club property. “They were back there and we knew it.”
Lynch also recalled that in the summertime the boys at the Boys Club would catch rattlers, put them in cages, and then collect and sell their venom.
“That’s how [the boys at the camp] made some money in the summertime,” she recalled. “In the fall, they’d release [the snakes] back into the woods.”
Paula Heckman noted eventually the remainder of the Boys Club land was sold to Dane Miller, “who has provided and continues to provide, assistance for Winona’s renovation.”
The approximately 110 acres of rolling land on the southeastern banks of Winona Lake house a trail system that has gained tremendous popularity and has become one of the Midwest’s most highly touted cycling stops. More than 10 miles of rolling, diverse mountain bike trails on the former Chicago Boys Club property include fast, smooth, weaving single-track sections along with root and log crossings, bridges, jumps, technical drops, descents, lung-busting short climbs and a number of fun flat sections throughout the wooded landscape. The easy-to-navigate paved path is sprinkled liberally with benches for resting and stimulating pieces of artwork.
All users are encouraged to know the trail markings and to follow them. Mountain bikers follow the course in a counter-clockwise rotation following the green and black arrows, while walkers, hikers and trail runners follow the yellow arrows in a clockwise rotation.
Terrain and route lengths of the well-marked trails vary, and accommodate beginners to seasoned experts. The addition of a paved bikeway, Heritage Trail, linking the Village at Winona to the far southern point of the trail system, allows families and recreational cyclists to enjoy the outstanding scenery of the area. The trails play host to several of the region’s largest cycling events, races and festivals throughout the year. The Trailhouse Village Outdoor Store in the Village at Winona always has updated information on cycling events.
