The CFE Story

How It Began

It was Labor Day weekend in 1956. Alex and Tess were a young married couple with two small children; Alex was teaching and coaching and Tess was a stay-at-home mom.

“We were in the kitchen of our small apartment,” she said. “Alex was standing at my side, pointing to a small ad in the newspaper. ‘Look! Look at this!’ he said. He was obviously excited and I thought he was looking for a car. That’s what we really needed. But it wasn’t a car. I looked – and there it was – the ad that would change our lives forever.”

A summer camp for boys was for sale.

What was he thinking? Neither of them had ever been to a camp. But Alex had become a teacher and coach to make a difference in young lives. Minutes after seeing the ad he called a fellow teacher, John Thursby, who also happened to be an experienced camp program director. “Hey, John! There’s a boy’s camp for sale! I’m going to call. If it sounds promising, will you drive up to see it with me? ” Just two weeks later, Alex and John made a six-hour drive to Northern Michigan where they found a beautiful lake and a lot of potential.

And so, before they’d ever even bought a house, Alex and Tess bought a camp. John and Maxine Thursby were the first two members of their Flying Eagle staff. “John and Maxine were great,” Alex said later. “From them we learned how to operate a camp.”

Getting the camp up and running every year was a lot of hard work! From the time the snow was off the ground, the Canjas headed “Up North” every weekend, spending all of their weekend time raking, cleaning, painting, mending and building. “We used gallons and gallons of brown and yellow paint,” said Alex.

And in 1960, after John Thursby retired, former neighbors from St. Clair Shores, joined the Flying Eagle family. Dick Black was the much-beloved basketball coach at Lakeview High School and his wife, Gloria, was a School-Mom-Volunteer Extraordinaire. For the next 25 years the Canjas and Blacks worked side-by-side with Coach Black as Program Director and Gloria as Camp Nurse and Tess’ right hand and best friend.

Flying Eagle became one of the highest rated boys’ camps in Michigan with accreditation reports calling it “exceptional”:
“Camp Flying Eagle soars as high in camping as its namesake in flying.”
“Exemplary of what private camping can be.”

The Magic

Camper-Counselor hunts… candy bars!… Color War!… ice cream!… the bus ride to Mackinac Island… spotting the Mackinac Bridge… the ferry to Mackinac Island… seagulls looking for popcorn…Ryba’s fudge… the Fort… bike rides around the island… canoe trips down the Manistee River… bus trips to the UP… Tahquamenon Falls… seeing the Northern Lights… climbing up Dead Man’s Hill… climbing the Sand Dunes… the rock quarry… Hartwick Pines… ice cream at the Mancelona DQ… finding railroad spikes…

Capture the Flag… Talent Night… Skit Night… the KBQ… pink bellies… cals… morning polar bear swim… Rest Period… the Sugar Shack… letter home… CQ… the bowling alley… the pizza machine… bug juice… Kool Aid and Cookie Break… bedtime story… cook outs… overnight bike rides… tent raids… Forty Pines…

Ringing the bell… Formation… “All present and accounted for, Sir!”… raising the flag… First Period!… Second Period!… Free Period!… the trampoline… the rifle range…shooting .22s… the archery range… tennis… baseball games against Camp Tanuga… baseball games against Camp Sancta Maria… boxing matches with giant gloves… judo… H.O.R.S.E…. tug of war… egg toss… the outhouse… running laps… the water fountain… the dugouts…

Swimming the lake… sailing the Sunfish… the motor boat… water skiing… the raft… diving board… orange paddle boards… First Bell… Second Bell… “All Boats In!”… rowing in a straight line across the lake… rolling into the lake inside an inner tube… Water Carnival!… racing through the water with an egg on a spoon… water polo with a greased watermelon… the channel to North Crooked… minnows!… fishing… the Nature Center … the swale… catching snakes… catching frogs… catching turtles… the killer bass…

Sleeping in on Sunday morning… Sunday breakfast buffet… Sunday night movies… Green Chapel… BINGO on rainy days… the Craft Shop… lanyards… basket weaving… rock painting… melting crayons for candles… making paperweights by melting lead from the rifle range… copper tooling… the kiln… polishing Petoskey stones… Kay’s pies… Yay, Kay!… Lucy’s pies… scraping the plates… mosquitos… OFF!…
The Eagle’s Eyeful… footlockers… inspection… fuzzy wuzzies… the Museum… the Infirmary… the totem pole… Friday night Council Fire… sashes… awards… PB&Js… watermelon yell…
Day is done….

The Magic Lives On

After 27 wonderful years, Camp Flying Eagle closed its doors, but its memories and impact live on. The Canjas and Blacks still spend summers on Crooked Lake. And every year former campers and counselors stop by to share memories, swim in the lake, sit around the campfire, and visit the Camp Flying Eagle Museum.

If you are a former camper or counselor and would like to connect, consider joining our Camp Flying Eagle Alumni Facebook Group. Lots of great stories and memories are there.

And you can relive the daily program, funny stories and more in the book Tess wrote called Swim the Lake Before You Row the Boat. (CFE campers – you know what that means!)