Camp Zoe Memories
Who Attended Camp?
Boys and girls ages 6 to 15 attended Camp Zoe in two week sessions. Campers often stayed for two sessions. Some kids pulled a three session tour, but a four session camper was a rarity (like Craig Shoemaker, 1976). Most two session campers came either to the first month of camp or the last month. Few kids crossed that imaginary line. I was there for six summers during the first and second session and rarely met the kids who attended the third and fourth session. Note: Owners reduced the summer schedule from four to three two-week sessions in the 1980s.
Most campers were from St. Louis. The original owners taught school in suburban St. Louis during the off-season. Other parts of Missouri were also represented: Kansas City, Jefferson City, Columbia, Cape Girardeau, Rolla, and Salem. I was one of the few campers who attended from outside the state. I travelled from Fairway, Kansas. A few campers ventured from Illinois.
Camp Zoe was (and still is) located about 30 miles south of Salem, Missouri and 14 miles north of Eminence, Missouri on highway 19. Most kids came from the north and followed this route: south out of Salem past the Tennessee Walker horse stables. The road curved and undulated as the Ozark mountains rose from the countryside. Other roadside attractions included the Shannondale church/community center where many local families congregated on hot summer nights for basketball or an old fashioned guitar pull. Once you saw the sign for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, you knew camp was near. After the Sinkin' Creek bridge, it was a hard left turn up the gravel road (Shannon county road #250) to Camp Zoe. When the camp was active there was a big mailbox there that said "Camp Zoe". Another path to Camp Zoe took advantage of the fishing access located off the north end of the bridge. This approach, along the Sinkin' Creek up to the shallows near the barn was the original route into camp.
See Camp Zoe from space.