Martin Johnson Heritage Museum in Irons, Michigan. Photo courtesy of the museum.
By Pat Stinson
What do singer Natalie Cole, playwright/director David Mamet and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel have in common? As youngsters, they attended the YMCA-owned Camp Martin Johnson on Big Bass Lake in northwest Lake County. More than 100 young people attended one of two month-long summer sessions held annually at the former camp. Many returned to repeat the experience.
Tom Curtin, Jr. is a camp alumnus. He lives in Baldwin and grew up in the camp, where his father Tom Curtin, Sr. was director in the 1950s. Tom, Jr., himself, attended camp and became a camp counselor in the ’60s. He cherishes memories of his camp experiences. Other camp alumni feel the same and attend reunions held every 5-10 years.
“It was our Camelot,” Curtin said.
Many campers were from the Hyde Park area, on Chicago’s south side, so the camp was integrated from the beginning, according to Curtin. Girls weren’t invited until 1957 or ’58, when a new camp director with three daughters was hired.
An unexpected discovery
After earning a living in the Chicago area, Curtin moved back to Lake County. One day, while driving with his wife, Jill Engleman, past Skinner Park in Irons, he spotted a familiar house under some tall pine trees. It was the home of the camp’s namesake and benefactor, Martin G. Johnson. Curtin had entered the building many times when it was operated as a museum on the grounds of the camp, which had closed by 1980.
Curtin and Engleman discovered the home was still a museum. They heard the story of how seven women in the Big Bass Lake area, some of whom knew Martin Johnson, had raised funds to save his house when developers wanted to raze it. The Irons Area Tourist Association owned the home and provided a two-and-a-half-acre site in Skinner Park. The home was moved there in 1989 and continued operating as a museum.
One thing led to another, and Curtin found himself voted president of the group that managed the home and owned its belongings. That was 15 years ago.
Today, the Martin Johnson Heritage Museum owns Martin Johnson’s home and contents, a one-room schoolhouse moved to the site, and the two-and-a-half acres at the entrance to Skinner Park. Curtin remains the nonprofit organization’s president.
Who was Martin Gustave Johnson?
By the time the Irons post office was established in 1910, Martin G. Johnson had already built a log cabin and was 30 when he constructed a log home on acreage he purchased on Big Bass Lake. Born in 1859, Johnson and his parents came to the U.S. from Sweden. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago. Johnson became a painter and illustrator, working in oils, pastels and other mediums. During his time in the Windy City, he is said to have stayed at a YMCA, which may have led to his decision to sell some of his acreage (estimated to be anywhere from 30 to 60 acres) to the organization to use as a camp. After traveling around his home state, he decided to settle on Big Bass Lake in the northwest corner of Lake County.
One of the area’s early settlers, Johnson had to be self-sufficient. He taught himself taxidermy and made his own tools. He invented and built a camera, built a transit ⸺ a tool used in orientation and surveying, on display in the museum⸺ and constructed cabinetry in his kitchen and workshop. Johnson reportedly was the first person in Michigan to put a window in the roof of his two-story home (a “skylight”) for natural light while painting and drawing.
Curtin said this early pioneer maintained a small orchard but mostly hunted and fished. Johnson helped get the first school built. He played guitar, and Curtin said he wouldn’t have been surprised if Johnson played music with others around the lake, though in his community he was considered a “hermit.”
Martin Johnson enjoyed music and played guitar. Photo courtesy of Martin Johnson Heritage Museum.“I think he just did what he had to do,” Curtin said. “Like, ‘the only way I’m going to get this is if I do it myself’ – and he did it. I’ve seen a lot of pictures of him reading, but I don’t know that he had any books that told him how to do any of this.”
Curtin said Johnson sold his original paintings, mostly landscapes, for income.
“People would commission him to paint something,” Curtin said. “He wasn’t making a whole ton of money, and I don’t think he cared. He had what he wanted, and he could make damn near anything he wanted.”
In his later years, Johnson bought a Model T or A that, after he died, was brought out of a shed in summer and used as a piece of playground equipment for the campers.
“He seemed to have gotten by fairly well,” Curtin said, pointing to a photo of Johnson wearing a smart-looking black suit. “He’s fairly advanced in age, and it looks like he’s doing fine.”
Calling all campers and those with Martin Johnson’s former belongings.
Curtin said he would like to acquire more of Johnson’s paintings and effects. He would like to see the museum get electricity to better conserve the items. The second floor of the museum mainly houses camp memorabilia, such as photographs, camp jackets, canoe paddles (decorated by campers each summer) and signs.
The stories of camp and Johnson’s home are tightly interwoven. It seems one cannot exist without the other. Curtin wrote in a blog post on bigbasslakemi.wordpress.com that he feels both histories are important, so the campers’ future family members know “how we became who we are” and to “gain a historical perspective of a man who was a true pioneer in Northern Michigan”
The museum is located along 10-1/2 Road in Skinner Park, on the east end of Irons. Museum hours are Saturdays, 12-3 p.m., in July and August, or by appointment. Call Tom Curtin, Jr.: (231) 745-8505 or email him: lumberjacklodge(at)msn.com. The museum’s mailing address is P.O. Box 363, Baldwin, MI, 49304.
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