Ray Harris Album circa 1945 – 1950

1948 Ray Harris at the Waterfront at Bowfort Lake
1948 Ray Harris at the Waterfront at Bowfort Lake

Ray worked at camp for three years starting in 1945. He also visited camp in the years following.  The album photos show great examples of activities at camp during that period.

Murray Walker interviewed Ray in September 2012. Here are some his notes from that meeting.

Ray’s camp name was Wayagatonga. He was given or chose this name after doing his vigil which was a night alone in the wilderness with only 3 matches.

“Tipis man” was the name for a counsellor.

Sections were named Juniors, Intermediate’s and Seniors.  Only tipis had “Indian” names.  Many tipis were sponsored by companies in Calgary or region. Johnson Movers tipi was named Joho’s, Ontario Laundry was Onlandas, and Wawanesa Insurance tipi was Wakashows.

Saturday night was lodge cleaning night. Sunday was bath day. Everyone used the sweat lodges and then rinsed in the lake.

Ray Atkinson, the Camp Director at the time, was from Manitou in Manitoba and brought his 3 best directors with him.

Pith helmets were a fad during his time (see photos) that he described as sun protection for those living in Lethbridge and Drumheller.   They were brought by the individuals who wore them them at camp. Also, “alpine” hats were made from their dads’ old felt hats.  They would soak them for 24 hours, then push and pull them down on their heads to stretch the fabric into a different shape and then fashion the brims to look good.

The trip to Minnewanka shown in the photos was was a leaders pre-camp training hike.  They started at the confluence of the Bow and the Ghost river and hiked up the ghost to Minnewanka and were picked up at the south end. He remembers seeing the site of the abandoned town of Bankhead while finishing the hike at the end of Minnewanka.

Interesting fact: Ray’s son, Brent was a camper, CIT, WI counsellor, ending his camp staff career as Pit Section Director in 1981.

Click on any photo to enlarge.