Robert Mowen – Nature Man
Bob Mowen there was no Nature
Center. Nature classes were mostly
taught by Joe Rosen or Skipper Kuklin that consisted of a walk in the
woods. An event called “Frank Buck Bring
them Back Alive – Day” killed more denizens of
nature and taught nothing of nature.
Fish and frogs worth 5 points each were easier to catch than chipmunks
and bobcats. If you captured an elephant
you automatically won with 1,000 points.
Identified plants were worth points as well, but most counselors could
not identify many. “Abe, don't pick that
it might be poison ivy!.” “Okay it's an
oak leaf.” “Ugh it's poison oak!” After the 1966 Frank Buck Day there was not a
frog left on the water front by the beach.
I think that it was the last Frank Buck Day as there was a definite increase
of misquotes with the lack of frogs. How
do I know the date? My cabin won by
correctly identifying nearly 100 plants.
Bob built a program from
scratch. The room on the end of the Rec
Hall became the Nature Center. The
cabinets used for when the room was a craft shop were replaced by benches for
aquariums. Nature posters were put on the walls. One year a beehive was installed with working
honey bees. The bees swarmed the day
before campers arrived. Campers supplied
fish for an aquarium. Bob put crayfish
to another and minnows called johnny darters to other aquariums. Only Bob fed the crayfish as they tore apart
live fish, they did not like dead fish.
Outside of the Nature Center
there were ponds connected by streams.
The water was supplied from a faucet on the corner of the Rec Hall. The water was aerated by spurting from a
fountain and running down a stone column to a pond. The ponds held fish put in by campers. Most fish did not live to an old age in the
ponds as at night raccoons came in to catch them.
As the Nature Center developed
a number of animals were brought in for the summer. Bob advertised on the local radio for
donations.
A local farmer had caught two
great horn owls that were devastating his flock of chickens. Bob excepted them and built a cage for
them. Campers delighted in feeding them
fish that they caught in the lake. It
also fascinated them as the owls turned to watch them as they walked around the
cage. After about six weeks at camp the
owls who did not pay tuition were set free.
They hung around the Stratton Lake area until fall.
I wonder how many campers
remember Shawn the Faun. The faun deer
came to the camp wearing spots by the end of camp the spots began to fade. Bob had to feed the deer with milk from a
bottle when it first came. Then he used
a special pail with a rubber tit. This
kind of pail is used by farmers to feed a cow's calf. Shawn would follow campers around and
sometimes interrupted sports on the playing fields. After camp ended Bob asked me to help him
take Shawn to a deer farm. I held Shawn
as Bob drove his car. Shawn got excited
as we began the journey and blessed my legs with warm pee. Then Bob got upset because it was his new car
we were in. Shawn lived out her life at
a deer farm with her deer family in peace, never chased by a hunter.
Raccoons were getting into the
garbage cans by the Mess Hall and making a mess. Bob borrowed a live trap from a local pest
eradicator. Baited with fish from the
lake the traps were successful. The
first catch was a skunk that Bob took into the woods and released. Then he caught a large raccoon. The raccoon was taken to the Nature Center and kept for two
days, fed as many fish as it could eat and released. Then another raccoon was caught and displayed. This was the routine for the summer. One raccoon must have liked the Nature Center
because he was caught several times.
Corn snakes and buff adders
are not all that common in the Waupaca area.
Bob displayed one each of them and a grass snake. There was excitement when the corn snake
became a mother of baby snakes. This was
witnessed by several campers. Fed on
crickets and angle worms the snakes did will in captivity and were released
near the end of camp.
A baby blue jay fell from a
nest and was rescued by Bob. Several
campers helped raise the bird until it could fly. It bonded with one camper and would sit on
his shoulder as he walked through the camp.
One day with no explanation the camper held the bird tight in his hand
and broke its neck. I hope that boy got
help.
Two young male goats were for
sale to be butchered for food. Bob to
the rescue! He bought them before
explaining to Manny how nice they would be at camp. Manny cast an eye at the goats and said, “You
will have to watch them.” A contest was
held to name the goats. Sugar and Spice
won and the winner got an extra canteen.
The campers seemed to enjoy the goats and renamed them Manny's Nannies,
although they were really fixed males.
You must know what that means. At
first things went well but as the goats got used to camp life things got out of
hand. Cook out night they thought that a
share of the food was theirs. By jumping
up on the picnic tables they found that kosher hot dogs, beans, and chips were a great meal. They learned to push cabin doors open and
mess around indoors. They thought that
they were exempt from hitting the baseball before running the bases. Then they woke the Desnet family at dawn a
couple of mornings, then blocked Manny in at the door. An order came down from the highest authority
in camp. Lil demanded the goats go. Jane the cook and Renee my wife each got one
of the goats. No lawn mower was needed
at the Towne's summer home while Spice lived there. Spice and Renee had good times playing in the
yard. In the fall he went to the barn on
the Towne farm. He was a pet there for
about three years when he died from eating burdock which he loved, but it was
poison to him.
Every August there is the
Perseid Meteor Shower where the night sky is streaked with streamers of light
as the meteorites burn up in the atmosphere.
Bob always kept track of when the shower would be at its best. Pulling the mats off the rifle range he sat
up the perfect way to view meteorites.
One or two nights campers who were interested in seeing them laid on the
mats until early morning hours.
As there was a number of
campers who were interested in the planets, Bob arranged for a camp out at
Hartman State Park. The camp site he
chose was near the top of a hill in an open field. He came with a telescope that he borrowed
from a friend. On a clear cool night,
the campers took turns looking at Venus and Mars. Bob gave a lesson on the planets. There was no camp fire and so the campers had
on their heaviest clothing. Still there was an air of excitement at what they
saw.
The Nature Man took campers to
nearby sites where they could see some of the wonders of nature. Trips to bogs to look at plant life in a wet
area; Walks to find mushrooms and lichen
growing; Showing campers the meat eating
sun dews and pitcher plants; Boating to
learn of aquatic plants. Capturing and
returning to nature different kinds of frogs and turtles the Nature Man was
always on the move.
This article misses some of
the animals that Bob introduced to the campers I am sure. It only gives a small sample of Bob Mowen's
work.