About - CAMP GEORGE E. SIGEL

CAMP GEORGE E. SIGEL

Camp George E Sigel was founded in 1920 and named after a young man who grew
up in Virginia, MN. He was avid outdoorsman and a member of the first Virginia Boy
Scout Troop. During his senior year of high school, he enlisted in the Engineering
Corps of the United States Army. He and seven other boys shipped out and were
stationed in France during the winter of 1919. Sigel became sick and contracted
tuberculosis and died on July 14, 1919. He received a full military funeral and was
interned in Greenwood Cemetery.
His seven fellow soldiers along with his family pursued his dream of a camp for
young men. By a cooperative effort of many civic leaders from Virginia and several
youth organizations, a camp on the shores of Lake Eshquagama was established. On
June 3 rd , 1920, eighty acres of land was purchased from A.B. Shank for the sum of
$2,000.00. The purchase price of the camp was reached by a funding drive in which
the Virginia High School senior class sold enough bonds for about one half of the
money, around $1,000.00 dollars, and then several Virginia businesses donated the
other half or about $1,400.00 dollars.
Camp Sigel opened that summer and groups from the YMCA, Boy Scouts, 4-H, the
American Sunday School Union, as well as other local area churches held camps at
this site. On September 30 th , 1920 Camp George E. Sigel was incorporated as a
charitable noon profit organization that would provide camping and outdoor facilities for
young men and to promote the social, moral, spiritual, and physical well being of those
young men. Camp Sigel was established to be governed by a nine person volunteer
board of directors and continues to operate that way today; still providing facilities for
young men and women to enjoy the outdoor experience.
In the spring of 1935, Sears, Roebuck and Company chose the St Louis County 4-H
Club as the winners of a national contest; the prize was a new building. Camp George
E. Sigel’s Board of Directors purchased a forty acre plot just to the north of the camp
property from Mrs Seeley of Biwabik and donated it to the 4-H club as the home for this
new building.