Our Cabin Sold For $1,350

When we first started peeling back the layers of our property a little over a year ago, we knew we were working on a piece of Clear Lake’s past. But as we tore out the paneling on the ceiling, and discovered hundreds of signatures written on the original wood sheathing, there was an immediate desire for answers. Who were these campers? And why did the signatures only seem to start in the 1950s when the cabin was built in1927? And my search for answers led me to the purchase history as well.

Bridging the Past and the Future: Honoring What Was Lost

Our cabin had been one of many church camp cabins in our neighborhood. As The Clear Lake Methodist Camp decided to close, our place was bought by a man who owned it for 30 years. He was well-known in the neighborhood and many have shared memories of him. Over the years, as he aged, the cabin naturally began to show its weight in years. He sold it to a neighbor who hoped to restore it, but after a year, it went back on the market. It sat for another full year before we finally found it.

By the time it reached our hands, the structure had simply given everything it had left to give. (although we didn’t know that yet) Everyone in the neighborhood who saw its condition knew the heartbreaking truth: it couldn’t safely be saved, and it had to come down.

Taking down a piece of history is heavy. While we couldn’t save the physical structure, we made a promise to ourselves that we would never let the spirit of this cabin go. We didn’t want to put up a sterile, modern box that erased the past. We designed the cabin so that it was very close to the original design. Carefully, we salvaged pieces of its soul—including the wood floors from the upstairs bunk room. We were only able to salvage a few of the signatures that covered the ceiling and the rest I photographed to save digitally.  Finding out more about the stories behind the signatures seems important to me as we continue the life of this property in our new build.

Digging Into the Archives

To piece together the timeline, I headed to the Clear Lake Public Library‘s historical section. Cindy guided me through local artifacts before pointing me toward the Clear Lake Historical Society. There, I sat down with an amazing local historian, Beth Ann, who gave me more information about our neighborhood.

I originally thought our property was part of one massive summer camp run by a single Methodist organization. As it turns out, the history is much more decentralized—and much more fascinating.

Back in the early 1900s, after Clear Lake shut down its Chautauqua, our current neighborhood became a Methodist church camp. But instead of one central camp, individual Methodist churches from around Iowa actually owned their own distinct cabins. It was a rotating door of different youth groups, families, and congregations from all over the state (and from outside of it), which perfectly explains the incredible variety of names on our ceiling.

The $1,350 Plot Twist

The fun began when Beth Ann and I started pouring through our property’s abstract.

The original cabin itself was built in 1927. However, according to the records, The Clear Lake Epworth League Institute Association (organized in 1939, and later becoming the Methodist Camp Association in the early 50s) sold our specific lot to The Clear Lake Methodist Camp Association in 1950.

The purchase price? $1,350.00

This single document solved our biggest mystery. That 1950 transition is the exact reason we don’t see any camper signatures from the 20s, 30s, or 40s. The floodgates opened right after that deed was signed, with the vast majority of the names and dates on our ceiling spanning the peak church-camp eras of the 1960s and 70s.

Every camp story eventually comes to a close. By 1988, The Clear Lake Methodist Camp made the decision to disband and sell the properties. But they didn’t just dump them on the market; they had incredibly strict guidelines for what would happen to the homes and the entire surrounding area—a finite community of just 128 homes. An organization called the Western Home oversaw the liquidation and sale of most of these properties, and our specific cabin wasn’t officially bought by an individual family until 1992.

The Investigation Continues: Curious Questions

To keep pulling on these historical threads, I recently reached out to the local community in a Facebook group called Lost Clear Lake, sharing our signature gallery page to see if anyone recognized the names on the ceiling.

The response was exciting! Hearing from former campers and locals who remember this neighborhood as a thriving camp completely ignited a fire under us to keep digging.

While a lot of missing pieces have been locked into place, the investigation is far from over. There are several major questions we are still actively hoping to find the answers to as the build moves forward:

• Which specific Methodist church owned this cabin? Since individual churches across Iowa owned separate lots, there is a deep curiosity to discover which specific congregation called this building home. That might also help me find out more about our specific lot. I’m starting to wonder if it was Goldfield Methodist Church…
• Are there old photos of life at the camp? Finding visual records of what daily life looked like inside and outside these 128 homes during their camp years would be so much fun to discover – but especially any of our particular property. I would love to see how it changed over the years.
• What are the stories behind the names? The Campers’ Signature Gallery Page contains decades of history, and the ultimate goal is to uncover the memories and learn more about the past life of the cabin.

We are so grateful to be part of this community’s history, and learning about it only adds more life to our cabin! (and if you know more of the story or I have gotten any of these facts wrong, please feel free to reach out and let me know!)