August 5, 2006: The SLA organized a tour of some of the most interesting camps on the lake (volunteer, of course) The brochure, identifying them and providing a bit of history, is above. Thank you to "Rob Meyer's Place,""The Besaw Cottage," "Island View - The Leonards," "Camp Hole-In-The-Wallet" (Roy and Mary Smith)

- Rob Meyer's Place: The original camp was built by Jay Burns, mill superintendent at St. Joe, in 938. It was later sold to Dr. Edward Koch, a dentist in Gouverneur for many years. In 1989 Bob Fagel and Beth Johnson purchased the property. They had the cottage rebuilt into a year round home and added a two story, two car garage on the rear of the house.
In 2004 Rob Meyer purchased the property from Bob Fagel. He has added new decking acrossed the front of the house and built new docks for his "fishing boat." He has put in plank pine ceilings in the house. The living room still has the original ceiling rafters from the old camp.
Rob is one of our resident "Sylvia Lake Fisherman." At dawn and sunset and most days, you can see Rob on the lake fishing for the "big lakers".

- The Besaw Cottage: The Besaws purchased the cottage in 1994. It was in great need of major repairs after being vacant for a few years and sadly, the only running water was through the roofs. After six years of working in their spare time, Wes, Donna, Troy and Missy had the camp at a point where the deterioration had finally stopped. Much of the building’s interior framework, skylights and walls had to be replaced due to water damage.
The cottage has lots of interesting history and a current point of interest is the rounded ceiling and walls in the main living room. This is due to the fact the camp started out as a quonset hut. The living room has a marble fireplace. The cottage has wood throughout: hardwood floors, pine plank flooring, pine and spruce walls as well as ceilings. Although the cottage was used for a year or two in the past as a year round residence, the Besaws only use it as a summer cottage. In 2005 a two story, two stall garage was added to the property adding another 1500 square feet to the current 2600 square feet in the cottage.
A player piano, bear rug, stuffed fox and deer add to the charm and distinction of this cottage. It contains 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, laundry room, bar, kitchen and two living rooms in the cottage as well as the 80 foot deck spanning the front. The 90 foot cement dock on the water is carpeted in the summer and adds to the ‘living space.’

- Island View- The Leonards: Our camp was built in 1926. The previous owners were the Perfetto and Revellini families. After spending 20 years at my parent’s camp, in 2002, we had an opportunity to purchase the Revellini camp, only six doors down. Andy, Crystal, Drew and Nick, have been busy fixing up camp- new septic, water system, new docks, new windows, etc. But we have had time to enjoy the long days on the East Shore, evening boat rides, and late night singing with all the neighbors.

- Camp Hole-In-The-Wallet: The Smith Camp is owned by Roy and Mary (Lacks) Smith. It was built in 2001-2002 for the Spellicy family by Jeff Stowell who designed and constructed it on the old Ashwood camp site, between the Hughes camp and the Amann camp.
We bought the camp in 2003 and took possession in February. We trekked in through knee high snow carrying ladders, tools, paint supplies, water, food, and electric heaters to do the work that needed doing before camp season rolled around.
The camp was built but not completely finished. It needed items like interior doors, light fixtures and lots and lots of paint. That suited us just fine as it allowed us to add our own finishing touches.
In April of 2005 we installed a functional kitchen complete with full size appliances and lots of cupboards. We also stained the decks during that summer. We all remember it as "one of the hottest summers!"