Clear Lake Camp: More Than a Field Trip

Battle Creek Public Schools property helps generations experience outdoor education

By Nick J. Buckley / For Black Squirrel News

DOWLING — A Battle Creek Public Schools bus crossed county lines carrying preschool students from the Dudley Great Start Readiness Program to a place that has welcomed generations of learners.

When the students and staff arrived at the Outdoor Education Center at Clear Lake Camp for a field trip to cap off the school year, parents and guardians were waiting to join them. Together, they went on a hayride, met farm animals and followed staff members through fields and woods. Along the way, children stopped at a sycamore tree before continuing down the trail.

For all of the preschool students, it marked their first school field trip.

For some, it was the first ride on a school bus. For parents, it was a chance to share in a familiar rite of passage.

“This place is just a memory maker for people,” said Shannon Thornton, a volunteer and retired staff member.

The farm program is one of many offered at the Outdoor Education Center, a 180-acre property owned and operated by Battle Creek Public Schools. Throughout the school year, students visit Clear Lake Camp for environmental education, overnight camp experiences, STEM programming and hands-on learning opportunities that extend beyond the classroom.

Making memories since 1940

For generations, students have come to Clear Lake Camp to learn outside the classroom.

Inside the dining hall, names such as Flying Squirrels, Gray Treefrogs, Tiger Muskies and Blue Racers still mark the overhead beams. Nearby, a handwritten scoreboard tracks points and food waste by school, part of a campwide challenge to leave as little behind as possible.

Those details are part of the Clear Lake experience, alongside cabins, canoeing, the Pioneer Cabin, box hockey, a climbing wall, archery, campfires and wooded trails.

“The big thing is just making sure generations and as many kids as possible enjoy this,” said OEC Director Blake Tenney, the ninth director since Clear Lake became the nation’s first public school camp in 1940.

While Battle Creek Public Schools owns and operates the camp, its reach extends beyond Bearcat students. Other schools and community groups use the property throughout the year, and the facilities can be rented for family reunions, weddings, retreats, camps and other gatherings.

An experience that sticks

On a recent visit, sixth-grade students from Battle Creek STEM Innovation Center built their own breakfast burritos before heading down a wooded trail for a lesson on fire building. As instructors demonstrated how to use matches and flint strikers, students sat on logs, listened closely and passed the time drawing in the dirt with sticks.

For many of the students, the staff members leading the activity were familiar faces from fifth-grade overnight camp. Some students first visited Clear Lake Camp through earlier programs and returned years later for STEM activities, outdoor education and other experiences.

The setting may have been different from a traditional classroom, but the lesson was the same: listen, learn and work together. Surrounded by trees, dirt and the occasional bug, students settled into the activity.

For OEC Program Coordinator Hannah Hazewinkle, those moments help explain why Clear Lake Camp continues to resonate with students long after they leave.

“There is just so much inherent value in just being with people out in nature, building community out in nature, that will never be able to be replicated by technology.”

Outdoor Education Center at Clear Lake Camp

• Address: 10160 S. M-37 Hwy., Dowling, MI 49050
• Programs: Farm Animal Program, Pioneer Cabin, residential camp, day programs and group-building activities
• Rentals: Weekend group rentals and summer cabin rentals available
• Phone: 269-721-8161
• Learn more: clearlakecamp.org

How we reported this

This feature was reported through multiple visits to the Outdoor Education Center in Dowling and interviews with students, parents, educators and staff. Background information came from Clear Lake Camp’s website and newspaper archives.

Disclosure

Reporting for this story was conducted as part of freelance contract work for Battle Creek Public Schools. Black Squirrel News independently edited and published the story.