Camp Namanu on the Sandy River
Just four miles north of the town of Sandy lies the intersection of the Bull Run and Sandy Rivers. For millennia, indigenous peoples gathered at this beautiful place to fish and harvest berries.
In the fall of 1923, the Camp Fire Girls organization was searching for a new site for summer camping and saw this acreage. The Camp Director, Eathel Moore, approached the owner of the land, lumberman Samuel Cobb, and he quite willingly agreed to loan and later donate the initial 160 acres which comprise the central camp area today.
In 1924, the first campers slept in US Army tents in the large meadow, however by the summer of 1925, rustic cabins began to spring up on the hillside. The fee in those early years was $7.00 a week. During their time at Namanu, the girls learned campcraft, singing, handcrafts and weaving. Until 1931, campers rode the streetcar from Portland to the Bull Run Station and then walked the remaining 1 ½ miles into camp; sometimes stopping at the Bull Run store for candy.
Staff from Camp Namanu often walked the six miles into Sandy on their time off. One evening during the depression Jean Spiering and a friend were invited by Phil Johnsrud to a dance at the Grange Hall. When they got there, they were denied admission because they were wearing shorts! Phil came up with a clever solution; they went over to Goodnight Irenes, a nearby cafe, and borrowed some aprons. With those on, they were admitted to the dance.
Renowned architect Pietro Belluschi designed four lodge buildings at Namanu during the 1930s. These lovely buildings are still in use today! Electricity wasn’t available in camp until 1946 and the girls enjoyed swimming in the Sandy River until a swimming pool was built in the meadow in 1954.
From its inception, Camp Fire Girls was meant to be an inclusive organization that welcomed girls of all races and religions. In the mid-1970s they made the decision to become co-ed, so in 1979 boys first attended Namanu as campers. In the years since, we have been committed to our mission of being a safe place for all youth, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. Over the years, Camp Fire has bought adjacent parcels until today, we have about 552 acres.
Last year we celebrated 100 years of camping on the Sandy River with a history exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society Museum and a party day at camp with current campers. A time capsule was buried to be reopened 50 years from now. Camp Namanu has also been listed on the National Register of Historic Places due both to its rustic time period architecture and its cultural significance.
Through all the changes over the years, many aspects are unaltered after 101 years of camping along the shores of the Sandy River: the beauty of nature, and craft, and song, the friendships developed while spending a week each summer with cabin mates, and the security of knowing each year that there is another summer to look forward to when all will be well once again at camp.
Picture by Nancy and Jerry King