Two of Minnesota’s longest-tenured summer camps are celebrating anniversaries in 2025. What was founded as Camp Courage opened in 1955. But it is a youngster compared to Camp Eden Wood.
The online Eden Prairie Local News recently published an article about Camp Eden Wood. The information below is excerpted.
Tucked away on a dirt road in the northern end of Eden Prairie sits a 50-acre camp with 100 years of history.
Though originally a camp for children with tuberculosis, Camp Eden Wood now serves adults and children with a wide range of disabilities. The team behind the camp is celebrating its century-long history this year, while also gearing up for major improvements to one of the camp’s original buildings. The camp was first called Glen Lake Children’s Camp and was built as an extension of the Glen Lake Sanatorium in 1925. The sanatorium housed adults with tuberculosis, while the nearby preventorium and camp served children exposed to or infected with the disease. The camp was built using money from local philanthropists George and Leonora Christian, whose son died from tuberculosis when he was 27. They were dedicated to fighting tuberculosis, even before losing their son, and establishing a space for children with TB at the site was part of their long-term vision. Back then, sunshine and fresh air were considered top treatments.
The camp operated until 1950, when the advent of antibiotics helped control TB. The sanatorium had its last patient in 1976 and was demolished in 1993. But the campgrounds remained. Arc of Hennepin County operated the summer camp for people with developmental disabilities starting in the late 1950s, before the county transferred control to Eden Prairie in 1983. True Friends, the nonprofit currently leasing the space, took over in 1995.
Kathie Case, president of the Eden Prairie Historical Society, said it’s a special property. It’s one of only two sites in Eden Prairie on the National Register of Historic Places, the other being the Cummins-Phipps-Grill House. Most camps of its kind were simply torn down, but Camp Eden Wood still boasts some of its original buildings.
“One is the dormitory where the kids slept, and it still continues to be used today,” Case said. “That’s been updated, but they have kept the integrity of the historic building. The other one is the mess hall, which they call Birch Hall today.”
The dormitory got a new roof last fall, and extensive changes are planned for Birch Hall. Funding for the project requires larger grants than the society typically has access to, but sharing the history far and wide helps in fundraising. The hope is that as more people learn of the project, more people will contribute. The historical society also assists by providing images and historical details to the Minnesota Historical Society and similar entities. Case said the photos and stories are a big part of what helps the organizations secure grants. It’s wonderful that the camp, with its up-north feel and wooded surroundings, continues to serve children facing health challenges and disabilities, she said. She hopes to see the mess hall project completed soon to continue that mission.
“That’s really an important structure to make sure that it stays there another 100 years and is used and enjoyed by all,” Case said. Read the complete article and see historic pictures at the Eden Prairie Local News’s celebration of the camp’s anniversary.
The History Note is a monthly column produced in cooperation with the Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. Past History Notes and other disability history may be found at MNDDC’s “With an Eye to the Past” site.
