Camp Carlen

Now we come to our first closed camp, Camp Carlen/Camp Sauger Lake. (overall). Carlen has been sporadically used ever since it was renamed in the 1980s from Camp Sauger Lake to Camp Carlen, in honor of Raymond Carlen. He was the manager of Joseph T. Ryerson & Son, a steel company that donated to the camp. Camp Carlen once had a dining hall, but it burned down in the march of 2001 along with reneker’s lodge and a few lake cabins. Camp Sauger Lake was located between lake wolverine and Sauger Lake, and like Wolverine, the nature of the lakes made swimming difficult. As a result, a pool was constructed, similar to the one at wolverine, in 1969, the year the camp opened. When it was first opened, it was a hot pack camp, and judging from maps and staff photos, It probably wasn't staffed with a full program like Wolverine or Crown. When it first opened in 1969, maps show that it’s waterfront was located where Crown’s waterfront now stands on Lake Wolverine. The current waterfront in the small cove of Lake Wolverine appears to be a man-made addition to the camp later. 

The 1969 map shows that it was called “Pern Lake”, although this catche basin existed where the cove currently does, so it’s likely it was merged with Lake Wolverine when the camp was expanded later, most likely in the 1972 or 1973. Pictures of the crown from around that time show the modern location of the waterfront. The Dining Hall was likely built sometime after Blackhawk’s in the 1980s. After the dining hall burned down, it used a large canvas tent to serve meals very similar to the one at Blackhawk or the one at Reneker. After being closed for several years in the mid-2000s, it reopened in 2009 as a Webelos camp. When it was a Boy Scout camp, it was very similar in operating to Blackhawk. A lot of the same program areas, with Turtle Beach once being used as its Nature area. Unlike Blackhawk, the trading post was actually connected to the lodge, meaning that you could really go inside it, you would just walk up and get snacks. The lodge was located across the road from the dining hall and is still standing. The staff row was like any other, and was located behind the lodge and was configured in an arc. It remained open for a few years before being closed again, and reopened in 2016 and 2017, before finally being closed as a permanently staffed camp for good, although it has been used as a rented space a few times since then.