The Girls' Camp at Whidbey Island
A group of twenty young ladies establish a summer encampment in the wilderness of Whidbey Island, embracing the freedom of life away from the city.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
WHIDBEY, July 30. Twenty young ladies are camped at the mountain lake near this place, having established a camp to spend their summer vacation. They are enjoying the quiet of the wilderness and the freedom of the outdoors, far removed from the constraints of city society.
“They are enjoying the quiet of the wilderness and the freedom of the outdoors, far removed from the constraints of city society.”
While summer retreats and glamping are common in the Pacific Northwest today, this 1888 dispatch captures a rare glimpse of Gilded Age women carving out independent, adventurous space. It reflects the early seeds of the 'back to nature' movement that would later define the region’s cultural identity.
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