Camp Lincoln for Boys, a private camp on Lake Hubert, was founded in 1908 by William M. Blake, founder of the Blake Country Day School in Minneapolis.

The camp was just a cottage at first that Blake used in the summer and where he brought boys and a few girls to enjoy the woods and to be tutored by Blake.

From 1919 to 1924, Blake school football players came to the camp for a month's early training.

With Headmaster Raymond Johnson and a teacher, D. R. Blanpied directing, the camp began to grow.

Brownie Cote, who was then teaching in the Business School at the University of Minnesota, and Bryon Smith from Carlton College, Minneapolis, joined the staff in 1920 and in 1924, Cote bought the camp and Smith became the director.

In 1926, Chuck Everett, Sr., a Drake University (DeMoines, Iowa), athletic star, elected to the Iowa Hall of Fame, was a counselor and has continued with the camp as a director.

Fred V. Rogers became associated with the camp while in high school in 1927 in Wichita, Kansas, and is now the director of both the girls and the boys camps. Rogers is a leading camp director and former President of the American Camping Association.

The name of the Blake Camp was changed to Camp Lincoln for Boys in 1924 when Brownie Cote took it over.

Early buildings at Camp Blake were mainly log, so Camp Lincoln seemed to be a good name, said Brownie Cote.

The lands and surrounding Lake Hubert area was originally under the ownership of Col. Freeman Thorp, a portrait painter and friend of President Abraham Lincoln. He painted the portrait of Lincoln that is today on exhibition in the Nation's Capital.

Because of this he was awarded a considerable amount of property at Lake Hubert and around the surrounding lakeshores. He retired as a painter to Lake Hubert and the paintings of Thorp and his daughter have contributed a great deal to those now in the Crow Wing County Historical Society.

In 1927, the land across from Camp Lincoln for Boys was purchased from Judge Hanft, and a camp for girls was started.

In the same year, Dr. and Mrs. W. H. Rogers of Wichita, Kansas, and family had been summer residents on Lake Hubert and agreed to return to direct the camp. They became part-owners of both camps with Brownie Cote, Chuck Everett and Fred Rogers in 1940.

Rogers, a retired pastor of the First Baptist Church of New York, New York, was active in both camps until his death in 1965.

Brownie Cote retired in 1969 after 50 years at the camps and at Grand View Lodge. Fred Boos and Robert Cote are now in active management of both camps.

Camp Lake Hubert for Boys and Camp Lake Hubert for Girls in 1970 drew boys and girls from 39 states and Canada and several foreign countries. The staff of the camps number more than 130. More than 450 employed are hired for the operations of Grand View Lodge, Camp Lincoln for Boys, Camp Lake Hubert for Girls and the two guest ranches in Arizona.

Reproduced from the Centennial Edition of the Brainerd Daily Dispatch (1871-1971).