In the early spring of 1913, a committee was appointed by President Oliver W. Branch of the Manchester YMCA to "look into the matter of establishing a summer camp for boys."
The Committee set out immediately to find a suitable location, making several trips through muddy roads of the early spring to look into numerous proposed sites. At a special meeting held at the YMCA July 29, 1913, the board of directors voted to authorize purchase of the site recommended upon Crescent Lake, for a sum not exceeding $1,800. Reverend Mr. Edgar Johnson of Philadelphia donated the sum of $1,000 for the purchase of the land. During the first few years, the camp was used in primitive fashion by groups of boys and young men of the YMCA association, who pitched tents on the shores of the lake and spent short periods fishing, swimming, hiking through the woods and working several hours each day clearing the underbrush and developing the property. Twelve boys attended camp the first year. In May 1916, the Ladies Auxiliary of the Association made a donation of $300 for the development of an athletic field for the camp. From that time, the camp developed rapidly through the tent stage with limited facilities to a camp with screened wooden cabins, dining hall, tennis courts and other equipment which provides a well balanced educational and recreational resident camping program for many boys from various parts of the city, state, nation and world.

A capital expenditure improvement was completed in 1973, including a new bath and shower building, along with a new camper cabin and the lagoon systems built by the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1989, "Peeps Place," the CIT building was added. This was the first building to be insulated, and also had a basement for storage. 1990 saw one of Camp Mi-Te-Na's biggest years—Camp DeWitt offered us their recreation building. This building would have to be moved over to Camp Mi-Te-Na in pieces and reconstructed. After a lot of thought, both the camp and YMCA Board agreed it should be done. To make this possible, camp would have to run a capital campaign. Thanks to the leadership of John Howe and Hal Jordan along with the initial lead gift of $100,000 from the Cogswell Trust, alumni, and friends of Camp Mi-Te-Na this campaign was a success. The campaign raised over $230,000 to move the lodge to Camp Mi-Te-Na as a new recreational lodge and an additional building known as "Alumni Hall." The Kevin Ian Charbonneau Memorial Basketball and Tennis Courts were added in 1992 with capital campaign funds, along with additional funding given in Kevin Charbonneau's name. A dedication was held that summer in honor of Kevin.

As camp progressed, camper weeks in 1992 and 1993 continued to improve while 1994 saw a waiting list for two sessions. By 1995, we had a waiting list for all four sessions. In 1996, we built a new leadership cabin, to enhance our camp staff and to create a more challenging program for the oldest boys, something which has been lacking at camp. The last six years has been very exciting at Mi-Te-Na, with the addition of two new bathhouse facilities, a large high ropes course, a climbing tower, six new frontier cabins, a new infirmary, a beach volleyball court, new rifle range and a new dining hall (Sam Hunt Lodge) with a new state-of-the-art kitchen facility. Each year, more history is made at Mi-Te-Na by the returning staff and campers by creating for them an experience that lasts a lifetime.

Directors Camp MI-TE-NA