Toponymie | Canton de Potton | Place Names

This road is situated along the western edge of Lake Memphremagog from Perkins Landing to the Owl's Head Marina and slightly beyond.  So called because of “Camp Memphremagog”, known affectionately as “The Girls' Camp”, which operated from 1937-38 to 1960.  It was a “most fashionable girl's camp”^[1], well advertised in the American press: “the camp director, Miss D. (Daisy) L. Gass is a Canadian University Woman with a wide and varied association with girls in Boarding Schools and Clubs (…).  This reputation, coupled with “healthy farm food supplied daily” and the “drinking water from Pawnee Rock Spring” (...) drew young ladies from well-to-do families from both sides of the border.  The Girls' Camp operated into the late 1950's.  Many of the girls arrived by train at Highwater, or on the Anthemis, a passenger boat launched in 1910, that plied the lake until 1954.

Before 1934, an American named Colonel F.B. Edwards, from Northfield, Vermont owned the site^[2].  He too operated a camp, with the clientele being young men.  Little is known about that camp, its duration, its operation – or its advertised name, beyond the fact that most here called it “Colonel Edwards” Camp.  I'm told that the boys lived in tents, in the era when cavalry practice was in vogue.  The riding ring is still visible near the bottom of the Black chairlift on Owl's Head. This is, however, oral history.^[3]  Some of the early buildings built are used as cottages.  After its use as Camp Memphremagog, the site was acquired by the United Church of Canada for use as the Upward Trail Boys' Camp, which operated in that location from 1960 to 1967.  When it closed, the property was acquired by Owl's Head Development Inc. and eventually became the site of Owl's Head marina.