History
A brief history of Camp Moy-Mo-Da-Yo, 1907-2007
In 1907 Elizabeth Moody and her friend, Helen Mayo founded a summer camp for girls on the 60 acre farm owned by Elizabeth and her brother Stephen on Moody Road in Limington. Both women taught public school in Newton Centre, Massachusetts and were influenced by the American Camping movement which emphasized the benefits of camping in the development of children. The name for the camp, Moy-Mo-Da-Yo, was created by the use of an anagram of Moody and Mayo. The house on the property burned around 1915 and the camp was moved to a new location on approximately 40 acres sited on Horne Pond which they called Pequaket Lake for a better name.
A large lodge was built and picture post cards from 1917 show it to be an imposing two story building with a large 45 x 45 “living room” featuring a large stone fireplace. The building had large 15 foot wide porches on three sides that were used for dining, sleeping, and various daily activities. As the years went by building additions made it one of the most unique camps in the area. All additions were connected so that on rainy days the girls could attend activities without leaving the building which stretched about 450 feet in length. One end featured seven cabins capable of sleeping 12-14 girls each and the other end featured the counselors-in-training cabin area. During the heyday of the camp it housed over 150 campers, counselors, and staff members.
The girl’s camp was unique in other ways as well. For the entire 65 years of its existence it had but three owners, all teachers, and all who worked together on the staff. This fact resulted in strong traditions and very loyal and excellent staff and counselors, many of them giving 15 or 20 years of their lives to “Moy-Mo”. Ownership passed to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Peterson in 1947. “Mr. Pete” as he was lovingly known to all, took a personal interest in the growth and development of both the campers and staff. Many improvements to the camp took place during his ownership.The camp featured programs in horseback riding and participated in local competitions in Fryeburg and other camp as well as having shows at its own extensive facilities. The waterfront was used for waterskiing, sailing, canoeing, diving, and swimming instruction. Tennis courts, which still exist, were used to teach tennis, sports, including softball were very popular, and volleyball competitions between the green and white teams occurred. Nature and arts and crafts were housed in dedicated buildings and the fine arts included dance, drama, and orchestra. The girls were challenged by counselors to try new things and persevere.The camp started to have financial problems in the late ‘60’s, but Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Downs made the decision to purchase the camp in 1967. Mr. Downs had been with the camp since the late 40’s and was a teacher at Weeks Junior High School in Newton Centre. Despite investing most of their life savings and working very hard to cut costs and increase enrollment, the Downs made the difficult decision not to reopen the camp for the 1972 season. Desperate efforts were made over the next two years to try to find buyers for the camp, and then finally, for the land. No one came forward and the camp was sold to the State in 1974. The buildings were razed and the property deeded to the Town of Limington in the mid 80’s for use as a town recreational area.
In 2007, the 100th anniversary of the camp’s founding, a large number of former campers and staff organized a wonderful reunion to celebrate and remember all that had been. Over 70 alumni attended, coming from as far away and England and California to attend. Many of those attending had lost track of each other and hadn’t seen one another since they were campers 40 and 50 years ago. A large tent was erected and many events based on activities traditionally held during the camp year took place such as the famous “watermelon hunt” wherein campers, organized in the traditional “Green” and “White” teams, solved clues to find the location of a hidden watermelon – the winning team getting the cold, juicy watermelon. Alumni shared memories of their time at camp, sang the old camp songs that they all remembered, held a memorial service for friends who had passed, and then held the end of year campfire time with singing and the sailing of the memory boats. The memory boat tradition says that a wish written on the boat will come true if the boat comes back ashore the next day, which was the final day of camp.
