Camp Ondessonk

Several Jesuit missionaries were martyred while working among the Huron and Iroquois people. These saints and their American Indian companions are honored and remembered at Camp Ondessonk with the camp units, lakes, and major land forms named after them. The lives of the martyrs and other namesakes of the camp serve as an inspiration for Christian living.[14] The North American Martyrs are:

• St. Isaac Jogues - priest, served as a missionary among the Hurons and Iroquois nations. Succeeded Jérôme Lalement, uncle of Gabriel Lalemant, as Superior of the Ihonatiria mission founded by Brébeuf. Jogues witnessed the death of René Goupil.[15]
• St. Jean de Brébeuf - priest, served in New France for about 18 years, founding a mission at Ihonatiria and served as the Superior of that mission.[16]
• St. Noël Chabanel - priest, not as gifted with languages as other missionaries, Chabanel was at the Saint-Jean mission among the Tobacco Indians in 1649 when he received orders to go to the main residence, Sainte-Marie II, on the Île Saint-Joseph. He set out on December 7 and was slain by a Huron apostate according to accounts written by Paul Ragueneau.[17]
• St. Antoine Daniel - priest, assigned with Brébeuf to the Huron mission, Daniel was very gifted with learning the languages of his surroundings. Daniel was the first of the Jesuit missionaries to be martyred in Huronia. The Hurons had given Daniel the name of Anȣennen.[18][19]
• St. Charles Garnier - priest, called Ouracha by the American Indians, Garnier traveled with Pierre Chastellain to the Huron territory. While not very successful in his initial missionary work, Garnier established a new mission in the fall of 1646 that had much success. Garnier was martyred at this mission in December of 1649.[20]
• St. Gabriel Lalemant - priest, served with Brébeuf when the village they were in was captured by Iroquois. Both priests were martyred about a day apart from each other.[21]
• St. René Goupil - layman, Goupil was traveling with Isaac Jogues, Guillaume Couture, Eustache Ahatsistari and Joseph Teondechoren, and the latter’s niece, daughter of Joseph Chiwatenhwa, Thérèse Oionhaton, when he was captured by the Iroquois. Days after taking vows before Jogues as a lay brother in the Society of Jesus, Goupil was martyred for making the sign of the cross on a child's head while in captivity near Auriesville, New York. He was the first of the eight North American Martyrs to receive the crown of martyrdom and the first canonized Catholic martyr in North America.[22]
• St. Jean de Lalande - layman, Lalande traveled with Jogues to Iroquois country to negotiate peace among the nations in that region. Both men were treated as enemies by the Iroquois and martyred near Auriesville, New York.[23]

The feast day for the North American Martyrs is celebrated as a Memorial on October 19 for the United States.[24][25] In Canada, the North American Martyrs is celebrated as a Feast on September 26.[26]

• Amantacha, baptized as Louis de Sainte-Foi, was a Huron educated in France possibly under the instruction of Antoine Daniel. He later became a friend and aide of the Jesuit missionaries. Amantacha was captured in a raid and believed to have been killed by his captors.[19][27]
• Paul Ragueneau, priest, a Jesuit missionary who was a part of the Huron mission and worked under the instruction of Jean de Brébeuf and Jérôme Lalemant (uncle to the martyr Gabriel Lalemant) for eight years. Ragueneau documented much of the history that we have today of the North American Martyrs, even proposing the cause for canonization for the North American Martyrs.[28] The unit of Raganeau uses a slightly different spelling of his name.
• St. Kateri Tekakwitha, originally known as Catherine Tekakwitha and known as Lily of the Mohawks[29][30] was an Algonquin and Iroquois Native American woman from New France and an early convert to Roman Catholicism. She was recognized as the first Native American saint in 2012.[31] Her feast day is July 14.[32]
• Joseph Chiwatenhwa was one of the first Native Americans to respond to the Gospel. Having met Brébeuf, Chiwatenhwa learned about the Christian faith. In 1637, a year after Chiwatenhwa's first encounter with Jesuits, Chiwatenhwa's wife, Aonetta, gave birth to a baby boy who was baptized by the Jesuit missionaries. Chiwatnenhwa later contracted a fever and was baptized on August 16, 1637, taking the name Joseph.[33] Chiwatenhwa is known as "the forgotten martyr" or "the first Huron martyr."[12]
• Marie Aonetta was baptized on March 19, 1638 and married Joseph Chiwatenhwa immediately thereafter at the behest of Brébeuf. Aonetta had a strong influence over her nieces and nephews, encouraging them to grow up in the faith.[33] Both Marie Aonetta and her husband, Joseph Chiwatenhwa, have been considered for sainthood in the Catholic Church.[34]
• Echon, is the name given to Brébeuf by the Huron.[35] It means "Healing Tree", as a representation of how much Brébeuf helped the Hurons and of the medicines he brought them from Europe. Another interpretation of Échon is "he who bears the heavy load", as Brébeuf was massive in stature and carried more than his share when working with the Huron people.[36]
• Lake St. Isaac is named after Jouges, the namesake for the camp. This lake is used for organized swimming activities.

• Ahatsistari, honored as the greatest war chief of all the Huron nations, was accompanying Jogues, Goupil and Couture through enemy territory when the group was captured by the Mohawk Indians.[37] Ahatsistari's name possibly means, "he who cooks with fire," which was fitting as he was a brutal warrior all the way to the end of his life, when he managed to literally spit fire at the Mohawk Indians who were torturing him.[38]
• Couture, a French missionary who worked with Jogues among the Huron. He was ambushed and tortured by the Iroquois and witnessed Ahatsistari's death. Couture later became a part of the Iroquois councils when he impressed his captors with his endurance and continuous dignity throughout his torture. He was the only European to ever obtain such an honorable position, having risen from prisoner to chief.[39]
• Teondechoren, brother of Joseph Chiwatenhwa, a Huron medicine man later turned missionary. Teondechoren refused baptism during Chiwatenhwa's lifetime but quickly converted days after his brother's surprise death and took on the name Joseph in honor of his brother. He carried on Chiwatenhwa's missionary work among the Huron. At one point he was a part of the missionary group that included Jogues, Couture, and Goupil who were captured and tortured by the Iroquois. The unit of Teondecoren used a slightly different spelling of his name.

Most campers stay in cabin groups called units.[40] There is no electricity in most of the units. Each unit has potable water, an outhouse and campfire ring.

Units are one of four designs - tree house, cabin, cave or A-frame.[41] Tree house units have 3 walls and an open entrance with catwalks connecting the cabins. The cave unit consists of platforms on the ground with no walls (two tree house style buildings are also in this unit). The A-frame unit has three buildings with screened in windows and doors. There are two different styles of cabin units.

Teondecoren and Couture were originally designated as primitive units that gave campers an experience away from camp during which they lived off the land for the week. Teondecoren was later made into a tree house unit in 1973, then as a tepee unit in 1995. Couture was a tent unit as needed based on session enrollment.[5]

BOQ - officially Bachelor Officers' Quarters[42] but colloquially called "boys only quarters," though it can be used for campers and staff, male or female. This building is a fully enclosed cabin at group level and has electricity.

Lakeside - consists of a long bunkhouse style cabin as well as two smaller cabins.

Frontier Dorms - fully enclosed bunkhouses.

St. Noel - year-round lodging and retreat center.

The dining hall is a modern facility that can serve all of camp at one time. The building is heptagonal and has a fireplace in the center. It is located away from main camp, on top of the same hill as the stables. Most meals are served family style. The dining hall is air conditioned, and has windows on all sides to allow for ventilation. It is decorated with art work depicting camp that was created by current and former staff members as well as friends of camp. The dining hall had air conditioning installed for the summer of 2013.

The Health Center is equipped to handle guests throughout the year. It is staffed by medical professionals and on-call pediatric physicians every day of the summer. This facility has air conditioning.[43]

The Old Dining Hall is still used for various programming including breakfast on the last day of each summer session and as a rainy day location.

The Trading Post sells food and items such as toiletries, camp gear, camp paraphernalia, ice cream and candy.

The St. Noel Lodge hosts the administrative offices of the camp and is also used for guest lodging year-round.

Pakentuck is a natural area that includes a waterfall and the remnant of a Boy Scout camp. Cedar Falls is the largest single, free-flowing waterfall in Illinois.[44] The Pakentuck name comes from a Boy Scout group from Paducah, Kentucky.

Lake Echon drains via a small waterfall known as the Spillway. Formerly known as St. Catherine falls after St. Kateri Tekakwitha who took St. Catherine of Siena as her patron when she was baptized.[29]

Split Rocks are common hike destinations. One of the split rocks is Augustine's Agony. Some others are Big Split, Little Split and Fat Man's Misery.

Hogg's Bluff is natural, stone peak jutting high above a lake. It was allegedly used as a trading post for Native Americans.[45]

Bush's Garden is swimming hole downstream from the Spillway, popularized by a counselor with the last name Bushong, nickname Bush.

Cannonball Rock is a boulder in a stream that is popular for cannonball and other jumps into the water.

Pine Lake and Kane Lake are locations for swimming and camping.

Phantom's Canyon is near the west camping areas.

Program areas include an archery range, riflery range, handicrafts building, stables for horseback riding, a boating area for canoeing and kayaking, a swimming lake, a chapel, and other outdoor clearings for other programs such as woodsmanship.[46] Many of the natural areas noted above are visited during daytime and overnight hikes.

Evenings include campfires, large group games, camping out overnight away from units, and an honor society ceremony.[47] The first and last evenings of the summer program are held under a natural grotto. Mass is celebrated on Sunday evening during the summer program.

Most summer programs serve children and teenagers between the ages of 11 - 15. Campers arrive on Sunday and depart the following Saturday. Some programs have minimum age requirements. Activities are done in a centralized format where the entire unit typically participates together.

Designed with 8 to 10 year old campers in mind, mini camp is meant to be an introduction to the camp experience.[47] The program is three days and three nights long while still including many of the activities of traditional camp. Some activities are modified to account for mini campers' age. The mini campers stay in enclosed cabin units, Aonnetta (girls) and Chiwatenwha (boys). Participants of the program stay in one of the units and are accompanied by extra staff members at all times. Mini camp explorers is for more adventurous 8 and 9-year-olds who feel capable of spending the entire week at camp.[47] Because of the extended nature of their stay, campers are able to participate in all the activities of traditional camp in a modified form for their age and abilities. Campers spend their nights in either Chiwatenwha or Aonnetta with staff trained to take on the challenges of younger campers experiencing their first week-long sleepaway camp stay.

Camp Ondessonk offers specialized programs, referred to as adventure camp, that allow campers to focus on one set of skills in a particular area for an entire week.[48] The main areas of focus are horsemanship, rock climbing, backpacking, mountain biking, and canoeing. The programs take a limited number of campers and provide them with the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills of a particular area. Campers are assisted by two or three specially trained staff members.

High school students learn to become counselors at the camp by participating in the Ondessonk Wisdom in Leadership (OWL) program and the Counselor In Training program (CIT). According to the camp's website, these programs are designed "for high school students who want to use their experience to grow socially and emotionally at Camp and beyond. Participants have the opportunity to learn about leadership styles, communication techniques and share and identify their own ideas and values. Participants will learn skills that last a lifetime."[49]

Lodge Camp allows campers to participate in traditional camp members with fellow Lodge members.[47] Campers stay in a unit made up of other Lodge members and led by a Lodge Official on staff. As part of their experience Lodge Campers participate in rock climbing at Pakentuck, the High Challenge Course, and an extended horseback ride. They also perform a service project for Camp. Campers must be a member of the Loyal Lodge of Ondessonk and Tekakwitha in order to be eligible to attend. The program is open to campers meeting this requirement ages 11–16.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, Camp Ondessonk began organizing trips to destinations around the world as a reward for members of the Lodge of Ondessonk and Tekakwitha who sold specific quotas of advertisement space for the annual yearbook.[50] Members were notified by a letter inviting them to participate free-of-charge. The trips took place over the Christmas holidays and went to places like Europe, Africa, and the Bahamas. They were usually 10 to 14 days long. In 1964 the trip left from Miami, Fl., on a yacht and sailed to the Bahama Islands for a Christmas vacation of swimming, beach combing, shopping, and relaxation. The 1971 trip took participants on an Iberian tour through Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. During one Lodge trips, which was in 1968 and went to Italy and Switzerland, the group attended Christmas Mass with the Pope and sat in ambassador seats just 20 feet from the Pope. They also spent New Year's Eve in Venice. The 1970 trip scheduled to tour the Middle East was canceled due to conflict in the region. The trips were eventually discontinued.

The path of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse will pass through the camp's property.[53]