Scenes from the Campground at The Martyr's Shrine
For those who never made it to this side of the river..it is located across the river Wye behind the arriving canoes beyond the trees...
provided by Jennifer..thanks..:)
 
 
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Welcome tripod with bouquet                  Ish and Justin with one of the signs
When we first arrived the week before the gathering at the campgrounds  located at the Shrine, we all looked at each other rather oddly that the Jesuits so tied in with Huron history were welcoming us back to the Shrine erected in memory of their martyrs to our people.  We just scratched our heads figuring that there must be more than met the eye..things we did not understand, things that brought us full circle from 1649 and the dispersal of our ancestors when first the Jesuits lived among us..to find us 350 years later camped among them.  Father Kelly on behalf of the Jesuits was thanked for caretaking our land for these past 350 years..and informed,
"We are back now..."
with good nature and a comical grin he didn't reply but sat to join us around the fire circle most of the following week, even seeking the camp coffee kept hot and fresh and full of grounds the old fashioned way, hung from the cooking tripod over the fire.
    During that first week, those of us camped here kept busy scrounging for supplies for the camp, signs for the gathering..exploring the land beyond the fence for grapevines and cedar bark, logs for the fire and natural mosquito repellant. We constructed a welcome tripod with ribbons of the four directions such that those arriving knew they had found the camp.  It was odd that tripod..those who belonged said they had been drawn by it..those who sought the Polish shrine located smack in the middle of the camp, more often than not turned around before reaching it.  On Monday morning following the gathering, we found flowers placed at this tripod by Father Kelly and Steve Catlin, the Shrine archivist..in effect creating another shrine ...this to the Wendat.
 
 
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Fire Circle with scavenged chairs
the frame of the lodge in the background
and in between..the Polish shrine		 "log end table" and campfire
Ish in the background
Behind the Shrine, which can be seen from Route 12 like some medieval castle among the trees, is a water spigot.  The hill is filled with natural springs that trickle or gush here and there over the grounds and saturate the lawns.  The water spigot supplied both the camp..and the receptacle which would later be blessed as "Holy Water"..felt a keen sense of irony every time we filled camp buckets and water containers.
and the phone became a canoe
directions to the Papal Field and Barbecue
(became a "Tippi-canoe" later..<G>)
Martyr's Shrine in the background
 Huron  Wendat Gathering..People