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!
May 1965
Summer Camp Grows
Less than a decade after Camp’s inaugural Summer Camp, roughly 500 boys attended Summer Camp in 1965. The summer camp program included daily Mass, evening Rosary and Benediction, rifle and skeet shooting, boxing, and much, much more!
The Gymnasium
Camp’s former gymnasium was completed at a cost of $2,400. The 90’x 45’ recreation hall served Camp well for more than fifty years. Lots of epic games of dodgeball were played in this legendary space.