Camp Etna History Timeline

From https://www.campetna.com/ on 12/04/2020

1807 The area of Etna was settled and called Crosbytown after the Crosbys of Hampden. Names on record were, Crosby, Friend & Friend, Diemet, Harding and Sylvester.

1820 Crosbytown incorporated and changed its name to Etna.

1858 Daniel Buswell built the house at top of hill on Route 2 just west of Camp Etna. Camp Meetings (Religious Gatherings) held in Buswell's Grove.

1876 Daniel Buswell Jr. hired a large tent and speakers for the first fall camp meeting at Camp Etna. Admission was 10 cents/day.

1880 The pavilion was built in 1880 for approximately $500 and had a seating capacity of more than one thousand. According to Wikipedia, 78 cottages were on Camp Etna grounds in 1880. According to Mary Drake Jenne (Secretary of MSSAC 1909-46 Director/Secretary ESA 1925- 46) there were 131 cottages on property before the fire of 1922.

1890 Buswell transferred ownership of approximately 300 acres to the First Maine Spiritualist State Camp Meeting Association.

1893 Harrison D. Barrett, born in Canaan, Maine in 1860, founded the National Spiritualist Association. Harrison served Camp Etna many years as platform speaker and president as did Mary Scannel Pepper Vanderbilt. Her grave and head stone are in Barrett Sq. Mary Drake Jenne worked with them from 1902 until Harrison passed to spirit in 1911 and Mary Vanderbilt in 1919. Mary Drake Jenne continued to be a worker for Spiritualism until her death in 1946.

1899 The First Maine Spiritualists State Camp Meeting Association filed their corporation papers.

1906 Trustees purchased the Echo Farm & Hotel and changed the name to the Camp Etna Hotel. Hotel had 50 rooms, good livery, spring water and a 5 minute walk to train depot.

1911 The first Governor's Day was proclaimed by F.W. Plaisted.

1919 The First Maine Spiritualists State Camp Meeting Association changed its name to Etna Spiritualist Association. Admission increases to 15 cents/day.

1922 On April 5, 1922 the temple, the store, the boarding house and 83 cottages east of Pond Street were destroyed by fire. 48 cottages & 7 other buildings were saved. When the fire was out, Mr. Packard stood atop a picnic table and declared fervently the summer season would go on as planned. 3 main buildings were rebuilt.

1930 50 room hotel not mentioned, but, dormitory (Etna Inn) w/16 rooms in program.

1931 Camp Etna Hotel sold to Millard McLaughlin.

1936 Found in program “Old Dance Hall has been transformed into a most artistic clubhouse...with adjoining bowling alley through the generosity of A. Lincoln Blaisdell.” Camp Etna Hotel changed name to The Tavern which was newly remodeled.

1941 Hotel on campground up next to Route 2 is now called The Etna Inn.

1946 The Etna Inn is reopened as The Etna Tavern. First time phone mentioned in advertising sponsors. The Etna Eagle was published.

1948 Last mention of 300 acre property in program.

1957 First year program does not mention a railroad stop.

1961 Bangor & Aroostook Railroad discontinues passenger service to Bangor.

1968 The Etna Tavern, now used as boarding house and furniture storage was destroyed by fire January 13, 1968.

1971 The Temple built after fire in 1922 collapses due to snow load. Gladys Laliberte Temple constructed in years to follow by camp members.

1980 The Harrison D. Barrett Church was constructed on the grounds and held church services from May through September with the exception of the Camp Etna seasonal meetings in June and August.

1991 The First United Spiritualist Church held services from May to September with the exception of Camp Etna seasonal meetings; June & Aug.

1990s The Etna Inn (dormitory rooms upstairs) is closed for safety reasons.

2000s Temple repaired, buildings reborn, porches rebuilt, web site established.

2015 The Healing Light Spiritualist Church holds services every Sunday year round with the exception of the two month Camp Etna Summer Season.

Camp Etna Historical Society –Diane Jackman Skolfield

About Camp Etna

Camp Etna is run by dedicated volunteers during the camp season of July and August with some additional programs being offered in June and September.

Throughout the years, Camp Etna has been home to many talented mediums and healers who have shared their spiritual knowledge and insights to those visiting the campground. Camp Etna welcomes people from all backgrounds interested in exploring spiritual issues.

The camp cottages center around a common green. The peaceful 27 wooded acres are an ideal setting for reflection. Visitors can stroll the grounds, visit the healing rock or walk down to Etna Pond. The natural beauty makes it a wonderful place for a personal retreat.

Camp Etna has seen many changes over the years but it still retains its historical significance. There are about 50 cottages on the 27 acre property. The common buildings include a temple, community meetinghouse, an inn, and the auxiliary building. The Auxiliary houses our association office and library as well as several apartments. We are in the process of fundraising to bring our buildings up to current day standards.

We hope that one day Camp Etna will provide state-of-the-art accommodations that retain its historical charm. We intend to host large spiritually-based events that enlighten and provide opportunity for people to relax in a natural setting and enjoy these healing grounds.

We, at Camp Etna see a bright future. We are in the process of rebirth but we have never missed an August camp meeting program. We invite you to come and walk these spiritually-rich and peace-filled grounds, get a reading from one of our many talented mediums, visit the healing rock and other areas for quiet repose. We wish you welcome and we hope to see you soon!

The Etna Spiritualist Association dba Camp Etna is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Contact Camp Etna at: (207) 269-2094

Cottages for Sale at Camp Etna We have several cottages for sale to qualified Spiritualists. These cottages were built in the early 1900s and represent historical significance of Camp Etna. They need some TLC but all have the potential of being a restful place where one can relax and enjoy the quiet natural surroundings of life in the country.

Cottages are sold only to those who qualify. You must go through an application process, be a practicing Spiritualist and active in a Spiritualist church and interview with the board of directors.

Please note that membership applications require a summer of active participation and volunteering at camp. As we are a volunteer community, we want to get to know you and also for you to get to know us as well.

Call the camp office with questions and any interest at 207-269-2094.

Etna Spiritualist Association Members Information

Camp Etna Board of Directors To contact the Board President: Please email [email protected] and it will be forwarded. PRESIDENT - Becky Grant (term ends 2021) VICE PRESIDENT - Angie Welch (term ends 2020) SECRETARY - (term ends 2021) TREASURER - Bob Talbot (term ends 2020) To contact the Treasurer, email: [email protected] TRUSTEES - Barbara Williams (expires 2022), Sherwood Dedham (2021), Kelly LaRochelle (2020)

File:Camp Etna Gladys LaLiberté Memorial Temple.jpg

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository Download Use this file Use this file Email a link Information all sizes on the web on a wiki to this file about reusing

Size of this preview: 800 × 541 pixels.

Original file (1,768 × 1,196 pixels, file size: 2.13 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg); ZoomViewer: flash/no flash

Open in Media Viewer

File information Structured data

Captions Edit

English Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents Summary

Description English: The third temple built at Camp Etna in Etna, Maine. Date 2003 Source Self-photographed (Original text: I took the picture with my digital camera.)

Previously published: Never published previously Author Clanofemmas

Licensing

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses:

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ deed.en) license.

You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license (https://creativecommons.org/s hare-your-work/licensing-considerations/compatible-license s) as the original.

You may select the license of your choice.

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. Date/Time Thumbnail Dimensions User Comment current 18:47, 7 December 2013 1,768 × 1,196 Clanofemmas (talk | contribs) Uploading a self- (2.13 MB) made file using File Upload Wizard

You cannot overwrite this file.

File usage on Commons

The following page uses this file:

User:OgreBot/Uploads by new users/2013 December 07 18:00

File usage on other wikis

The following other wikis use this file:

Usage on de.wikipedia.org Etna (Maine) Usage on en.wikipedia.org Etna, Maine

Metadata

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? title=File:Camp_Etna_Gladys_LaLiberté_Memorial_Temple.jpg&oldid=509842280"

This page was last edited on 4 November 2020, at 01:25.

Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. All structured data from the file and property namespaces is available under the Creative Commons CC0 License; all unstructured text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy. Menu

Discover the Maine camp that attracts people who say they can talk to the dead

by Emily Burnham October 3, 2019 X Learn More     

Powered by pixfuture Portraits of some of the residents of Camp Etna, in the late 19th or early 20th century. Credit: Courtesy of Etna Spiritual Association

While passing through the Penobscot County town of Etna on research trips for her new book, Maine writer Mira Ptacin stopped at the local variety store for a snack and asked the customers there if they’d ever heard of Camp Etna, located just a quarter-mile down Route 2 from the store.

“Nobody there knew about it, despite the fact that it’s been in the community for over 100 years,” said Ptacin, who lives on Peaks Island with her husband and two children. “I think people assume it’s some sort of Boy Scout camp or retreat center, and not this historic center for spiritualism.”

A few years ago, Ptacin herself didn’t know anything about Camp Etna, or about spiritualism, a religious movement founded in the 1840s that is based around the belief that the spirits of the dead exist, and that the living can communicate with them.

Skip Ad

When a friend told her about the camp, a wooded 27-acre property on Etna Pond that includes 50 cottages, a temple, inn, library and meetinghouse, she was curious. After her rst visit, she was ready to write a book, which would become “The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums and Legends of Camp Etna,” to be published this month by Liveright/W.W. Norton. Credit: Courtesy of Liveright/WW Norton

“There’s just so much to process in telling this story. It’s about a religion. It’s about mysticism. It’s about women, and feminism, and how people living outside the mainstream are oppressed,” said Ptacin. “And it’s about this really unique chapter in American history that very few people seem to know about, and this tiny town in Maine that was at the center of it.”

Spiritualism as a movement arose in the 1840s, during a Protestant religious revival in the U.S. called the Second Great Awakening, which also birthed religious movements such as the Latter Day Saints, the Seventh- Day Adventists and the Shakers. Unlike those movements, however, Spiritualism is not explicitly Christian in its doctrine — spiritualists follow many dierent religious and spiritual traditions.

SPONSORED CONTENT Maine Launches New Policy For Cars Used Less Than 50 Miles/Day 

By InsHunter

The main belief — that individuals known as mediums can communicate with the spirits of the dead, who are living in the spirit world, or afterlife — spread rapidly throughout the U.S. throughout the 19th century, with much of the interest clustered in the Northeast. Many of the things spiritualists who practiced in the 19th century did are still done today, such as seances, dowsing and table tipping, though other, more contemporary practices such as Reiki and chakra readings are also often included.

Though the number of adherents of spiritualism declined rapidly after the 1920s, the movement is very much still active. One of the oldest and largest camps still operating in the U.S. is Camp Etna, which was founded in 1876. Camp Etna, alongside Temple Heights in Northport, Madison Camp in Madison, and churches in Bangor, Newport, Augusta, Sabattus and Westbrook, comprise Maine’s network of spiritualist practice.

According to its website, at its peak in the early 20th century, Camp Etna would attract more than 3,000 people from throughout the Northeastern U.S. each summer. Some simply sought to enlist a medium to help them contact a loved one, while others hoped to develop their own skills as a medium. Today, summer attendance numbers in the hundreds, and the camp keeps a relatively low prole outside of spiritualist circles. For Ptacin, her interest in spiritualism is grounded as much in the movement’s convoluted and idiosyncratic history, as it is an interest in potentially speaking with a ghost or receiving a message from the spirit world.

In particular, in “The In-Betweens” Ptacin focuses on the fact that spiritualism is a largely women-led movement. During its peak in the mid- to late 19th century, most spiritualists were also abolitionists and advocates for the rights of women and Native people, a progressive attitude that has continued into the 21st century.

“Naturally, when you have this movement that ies in the face of the mainstream world, both as a religion and as a social movement, you’re going to make people uncomfortable,” said Ptacin. “I think the fact that it was women doing it, and women exercising all this spiritual power, just made it more suspect in the eyes of the status quo.” Though there have always been documented cases of fraud among purported psychics and mediums, Ptacin believes that the everyday practitioners of spiritualism in its earlier years were also unfairly thought to be dangerous women who encouraged sexual liberty and were bent on demasculinizing men.

In reality, Ptacin found that most people who come to spiritualism are not only fed up with traditional organized religion, but are also looking to heal from some kind of pain or trauma.

“Very often, it is middle-aged women, who have kind of bypassed traditional religion, and are on a personal spiritual quest,” said Ptacin. “They are often in a lot of pain. They are overwhelmed by grief, in some cases.” Sometimes, a person’s introduction to spiritualism can be through an event like a psychic dinner, a popular type of event held at restaurants all over Maine and the rest of the country.

“People go thinking it’s going to be a fun girl’s night, and they’ll drink a little wine and see what the deal is, and then they nd themselves weeping, and unlocking all this pain that they don’t know what to do with,” said Ptacin. “Whether or not you believe that these people are mediums, that reaction is real. And I think the vast majority of [mediums] are in it to help heal people.”

Credit: Mira Pticin

In her book, Ptacin goes into great detail about some of the members at the Etna Spiritualist Association, the organization that runs Camp Etna, recounting stories that are at once humorous and moving, about their journeys both toward and away from spiritualism.

“There are so many dierent types of mediums. Everyone has a dierent story,” said Ptacin. “It was really important to me to paint a three- dimensional portrait of these women, who I have learned so much from. In the end, people believe what they want to believe, or need to believe. You just have to be open to it.”

“The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums and Legends of Camp Etna” comes out on Oct. 29, wherever books are sold. Mira Ptacin’s other book, “Poor Your Soul,” a memoir, is also available.