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Camp Oquago, Andes, NY

Summer camp located on the shore of Perch Lake south of Andes, NY. From its opening on July 6, 1930 to the end of the 1948 season the camp was run by Lake Tunis-Oquago Camps Inc., which was owned by Louis Mirksy and Ben Steinberger of New York City. Camp Oquago was the girls camp with an initial capacity of 170, Lake Tunis was the boys camp with a capacity of 150. Articles from the local Catskill Mountain News show the camps were full most summers in the 1930's.

Camp Oquago was sold to Henry and Fromma Wellman, who operated it from 1949-1976. Henry Wellman built a new cabin on the site of what became boys' campus, and moved two more cabins from girls' campus for a total of three that summer. The rest of the boys' cabins were built at a rate of one or two each summer for the next few years. By the early 1950's the capacity of the boys' and girls' campuses were equal, totalling about 200. One season in the early 1960's they took 220 campers and it really strained the facilities of the camp. Henry and Fromma remained at the lake for many more years after retirement, until Henry's death in 2003. Fromma continued to come to the lake for another couple of years with her daughter and son-in-law. She spent her last year in Margaretville at Mountainside and died in December 2010. Her daughter and son-in-law continue to reside much of the year in the new house on the site at the lake.

Laura and Stuart Chase owned and ran the camp from 1977 to its final season of 1993. Today, Camp L'man Achai operates a camp for Jewish boys 8 to 16 on the 162 acre site.

 

My thanks to Elisabeth Wellman Vazquez for contributing to the information above.

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Notable alumni:

David Stern (NBA Commissioner)

Max Weinberg (Bruce Springsteen, Tonight Show)

Mark Green (Consumer Advocate)

External Links:

Promotional video for Camp L'man Achai on YouTube

Camp Oquago Group on Yahoo

Camp Oquago Group on Facebook


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