Camp Store

Our patron saint is THE MADAME ANNA PECK. In 1880s, Sweden- young Anna is orphaned. 1905 as a teen, she emigrates to America and is adopted by a Chicago architect.She takes work as a maid in a well-to-do home and marries the chauffeur. She’s widowed at 32 when he dies in WWI. At 39, her father builds Wandawega Hotel. Anna runs gin & a brothel here. She marries a local, the ne’er do well son of a prominent family. Gordon Peck was a vet, a drunkard & 13 years her junior who’s mother filed for an annulment, claiming he was too taken with consumption to know what he was doing.Anna & Gordon continued to operate Wandawega’s brothel & speakeasy Orphan Annies. At 56, Anna is convicted for running a ‘bawdy house of ill fame’ & goes to prison for 7 years. Upon release, she moves right into town off the square, taking up residence where everyone knew her business & she knew more about everyone elses. At 80, Anna becomes a widow for the 2nd time. At 94, she dies alone, taking the town’s secrets to her grave. When her house was in demo, her things & life story were thrown into a dumpster. A local man happened by & salvaged portraits of the orphan immigrant & her 2nd wedding. 25yrs later he saw our post asking for leads & remembered he still had them in storage. Anna was abandoned from the beginning. Ostracized by a community. Rejected by the family she married into. Anybody who can live through that & still have the audacity to plant herself in the middle of town has no shortage of chutzpah. Which is why she is Camp’s namesake & her rathskellar where she once served booze is now christened  ORPHAN ANNIES and is our Camp store. 

Campers can always shop online here.