Seventy-five years ago, Wheaton College established the HoneyRock Center for Leadership Development in the Northwoods of Wisconsin as a place for leadership development and outdoor education. Since its founding in February 1951, HoneyRock has grown from sparse camping grounds into a robust 1,000-acre campus with an education center, dining hall, health center, chapel, and dozens of cabins. It’s programs, too, have expanded over the decades, now serving everyone from elementary students to Wheaton faculty. In honor of HoneyRock’s 75th anniversary, below Wheaton Archives & Special Collections highlights selected materials from College Archives’ HoneyRock collections that offer a glimpse into the center’s rich and varied history.
Camp We-Coll-Dac
In 1948, Wheaton College coach and athletic director Harvey Chrouser began a summer day camp on the Wheaton campus. Called Camp We-Coll-Dac, the program served local elementary students while also giving Wheaton students opportunities to develop leadership skills as counselors and mentors. Following the College’s purchase of property in Wisconsin in the early 1950s, Chrouser reimagined the camp as Honey Rock, an overnight program in the Northwoods. The original day camp also continued on the Wheaton campus through the end of the 1950s.
Honey Rock Camp for Boys and Girls
Since its first summer in 1951, the Honey Rock Camp for Boys and Girls has offered thousands of elementary-age students a setting for adventure, friendship, and spiritual formation. Over the years, through activities such as canoeing, archery, kayaking, sailing, hiking, and perhaps most memorably, donkey-riding, Honey Rock Camp invited children to learn new skills and appreciate the gifts of the natural world.
High Road and Vanguard Expeditions
Begun in 1969, the Vanguard program offered incoming Wheaton freshmen a challenging three-week course in outdoor leadership before Wheaton’s orientation in August. Through backpacking, rock climbing, and canoeing, Vanguard freshmen explored the wilderness of the Northwoods beyond Honey Rock Camp. Initially offered only to male students, the program was expanded to women students in 1974.
Honey Rock Camp Summer School
Prior to 1981, Wheaton College operated on a quarter system, which included a mandatory summer quarter. Some departments, like Education, Psychology, and Physical Education offered classes to Wheaton students at Honey Rock for this quarter. Honey Rock’s summer classes were also available to a wider audience interested in Christian education through outdoor learning, an early genesis of Wheaton’s later graduate program in Outdoor Adventure Leadership.
Women’s Physical Education Department at Honey Rock
During Harvey Chrouser’s tenure as Wheaton’s athletic director, Honey Rock operated as part of Wheaton’s Physical Education Department. It’s facilities were incorporated into the department curriculum, including an annual trip for students majoring in the Women’s Physical Education program. Following Harvey Chrouser’s retirement in 1980, Honey Rock was reorganized as a separate department in 1981.
Christian Camping International at Honey Rock
Honey Rock developed amid a growing postwar movement of Christian camping and outdoor education. During the 1950s and 1960s, several Christian camping associations emerged to support this movement, including Christian Camping International (CCI). CCI grew out of the Western Conference and Camp Association, the Evangelical Camping Association, and the Midwest Camp and Conference Fellowship, and held its founding conference in Chicago in 1961. HoneyRock and Wheaton College have maintained a longstanding relationship with CCI, most recently as partners in CCI’s Global Leadership Program.
Read more about the founding of HoneyRock on a previous blog post from the Archives, In the Heart of the North Woods, or explore hundreds of documents, photographs, and records on the development of HoneyRock through the College Archive’s Honey Rock Collection.
