Tent Colony Chronicles Part I

A small part of the Campus Natural Areas was the site of the much beloved Camp Gallistella, a summer residence program for UW students for fifty years. The camp, also known as the Tent Colony, was located along the lakeshore west of Frautschi (Second) Point and east of the small parking lot known as Angler's Cove. It all began in the summer of 1912, when a group of agriculture students asked for permission to camp along the shore of Lake Mendota while they attended summer school. They approached the Director of Summer Sessions, Scott Goodnight, with their proposal. Goodnight (who later became a controversial Dean of Men) saw promise in their plan, remarking that camping along the lake would provide “cheap and salubrious accommodations,” to students who could not otherwise afford to attend summer school.

Then President Van Hise and the Board of Regents used the proposal as a tool in their struggle to convince the faculty and the local press that their purchase of George Raymer's farm, while costly, would benefit the educational mission of the University. The idea of a tent colony came at the heels of an investigation into the purchase, providing the administration with a creative idea for a housing program that would help to mitigate criticism. In 1913 the Board of Regents approved Goodnight's proposal, relieving some of the pressure of housing for the expanding summer sessions.

Tent Colony family, 1915. Courtesy of the UW Archives, Photo Series 20/5

In 1913, Goodnight made arrangements for a permanent colony along 500 feet of the lakeshore west of Frautschi (Second) Point. He oversaw the construction of 18 wooden platforms on which students could pitch tents or build temporary structures at their own expense. The University charged a $5.00 residence fee and provided two wells, privies, a study hall, a pier, and electric lines which supplied only the study hall and the old cottage which was already on the land. That first summer, eight families and several single men survived the rainy, buggy, poison-ivy ridden season. They walked, biked, or used a local ferry service ($0.20 each way) to commute the three miles to campus.

In spite of the rustic accommodations, the colony became increasingly popular. After the First World War, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds Albert Gallistel and his wife Eleanor resided in the old cottage and became supervisors of the colony. She directed the day to day management of the colony, had the only telephone in the area, and maintained year-round correspondence with summer residents. The colony provided a very inexpensive way for a student, typically a teacher taking graduate courses, to house his or her family while pursuing a degree. By the early1930s, the Tent Colony housed about 200 people, 60 of whom were children. New platforms were added yearly, and the residents of the colony formed their own government, which included a mayor, clerk, treasurer, constable, athletic director, postmistress, and alders from each ward of the colony. A heart-felt community spirit arose among the residents, with many of the families returning summer after summer. (More on life at the colony and its closing in the next FCNA News.)

Sources : Prof. Thomas Brock's Personal Archives, UW Archives, and an unpublished, undated manuscript entitled A Niche in Time by Richard McCabe.