CAMP GRAY HISTORY
It all started with a simple dream way back in 1953.
Monsignor Francis Xavier Gray, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Baraboo, WI, dreamed of a “place where youths would be free and away from the temptations of the streets; where they could enjoy nature and become acquainted with it firsthand. . . a place where they could commune, under supervision, with their Creator and away from paths so frequently leading to delinquency.”
After personally scouting many potential sites, Monsignor Gray became enamored with an unoccupied, uncultivated, 100-acre wooded tract west of Highway 12, about 8 miles northwest of Baraboo.
To experience the growth of Camp Gray over the past many, many decades, keep scrolling! We’re always on the hunt for more information about the history of this great place. Please email us if you have any Camp Gray historical information or artifacts that you’d like to share! Thanks!
February 1953
The Beginning
After finding the perfect plot of land to begin his Camp, Monsignor Gray (pictured above) persuaded the owner, Charles McGinnis, to sell the 100-acre tract of land at a reasonable price in February of 1953. The purchase money was immediately donated by six locals.
July 1956
Dedication
On July 15, 1956, more than 1,000 people, according to the Baraboo News Republic, came to Camp Gray for the dedication mass and picnic. Bishop William Patrick O’Connor, the first Bishop of Madison, WI (1946 – 1967) celebrated the mass.
April 1957
Camp Gets a Pool
In 1957, the Diocese of Madison, for the price of $1,500, purchased 125 acres of property adjacent to the southern boundary of camp. Camp and Diocesan leadership hoped to someday dam Harrison Creek in an effort to create a 40-acre lake. However, the DNR would not approve the plan for the 40-acre lake.
Instead, in 1964, a freshwater, sand-bottom swimming pool (eastern half of present day Lake Jake) was excavated, and a spring was diverted to feed the “pool.”