As Camp Friedenswald celebrates 75 years, we want to take this opportunity to look back and share stories that have shaped this place in lasting and meaningful ways. If you have a story that you’d like to tell, please share it with us by submitting it on this page – click here. We begin our storytelling by sharing excerpt from the 50th anniversary history book written by Marge Graber and edited by Peter Graber in 2000.

Have you ever wondered where Camp Friedenswald got its name? Here’s the story straight from the history book! 

Naming the Camp 

The first order of business was to find a name for the new camp site. At various times in 1950 the Camp Committee, in the “Camp News,” asked the constituency for suggestions for a name for the “Shavehead Lake camp,” as it was popularly known then. 

By January of 1951 the Camp Committee had received many proposed names and had narrowed the list to these nine: Mennolochen, Camp Witmarsum, Vision Hill, Charity Hill, Menno-Lee, Camp Simon, Little Canaan, Timberland and Sho-Menno-Ky. An explanation of the last name read: “It is formed by using one syllable from the name Showalter, a pioneer Middle District Conference leader, in the middle is Menno, and the Ky on the end is found in the name of Father Stucky, a founding father of the Central Conference.”  

All except the first three were eventually eliminated when the committee met on the tenth of April to make their final choice. As reported in the “Camp News:” The committee was strongly interested in finding a name which reflected some aspect of the historic faith of the Mennonite people. Peace of love seemed to be such themes. Lacking any satisfactory suggestions along this line, the committee undertook to find a name of its own devising. “Friedenslaken,” meaning “Lake of Peace,” was the best that come out of that meeting. Later telephone conversations led the committee to “Friedenswald,” translated “Woods (or forest) of Peace.” 

Comments regarding the choice of name ranged from “I like that” to “Why didn’t they give it an English name?” and were summed up by a committee member with “You can’t please everyone.”

From Vision, Faith, Service: Camp Friedenswald 1950-2000, page 17-18