Plans For Camp Algonquin To Be Revealed This Week

Plans for Camp Algonquin and McHenry County Conservation District's adjacent Fox Bluff Conservation area will be unveiled Thursday at a largely unheralded open house in Crystal Lake.  The camp, more than a century old, has been dormant since early last year while the District's been formulating a comprehensive plan for both Fox River-fronting locations on Cary Algonquin Road.

MCCD planners met with municipal and county officials in January in a closed session and since then have been figuring out how to merge the 163-acre Fox Bluff area featuring a shelter and hiking trail with Camp Algonquin's multiple heretofore private buildings on 116 acres of land to the south.

Conclusions haven't been released and won't be until the open house but an MCCD memo last week suggests Camp Algonquin's buildings may be a problem.  Only six of as many as 50 structures on the site were found to have historical significance or potential reusability, it said. The memo didn't identify which ones. The only clue came from MCCD Board President Stephen Barrett who told FEN recently that he thought the camp's modern dining hall might have potential as an education center.

A melding of charitable organization sites, Camp Algonquin eventually became a Chicago United Charities location to serve poor city youth.  MCCD bought it eight years ago but it's been unused for two seasons now since the McHenry County YMCA, which most recently ran it, foundered.

The Open House to announce options for Camp Algonquin's historic location is set from 5 to 8 pm Thursday at Prairieview Education Center, Crystal Lake.  Whatever the options are, Algonquin Historic Commission head Jeff Jolitz said this weekend he hopes they'll prove of to be of some actual use to southeastern McHenry County.  "(Camp Algonquin) was always there but it was never part of the community.  None of the local residents ever benefited from it," he said.