Our History

Wanakee’s History

Before Wanakee's first summer camp season in 1962, New Hampshire Methodists held camp events at rented sites. Meanwhile, some inspired leaders who cared for children and youth searched New Hampshire for a permanent camp location.

Camp Meadowbrook, once a horse camp for girls, was purchased by the New Hampshire Annual Conference of the Methodist Church for $58,000 in 1961. The leaders were so convinced New Hampshire Methodists needed their own camp site, they rounded up enough supporters to secretly pledge to purchase the site if the Annual Conference did not.

The inspiration for the name Wanakee, a Native American term translated “beautiful spiritual place in the hills” came from the Rev. Harold E. Perkins, then a student in religious education and theology at Boston University, who discovered the name of our sister Methodist camp, Wanake, located in Ohio, and asked to borrow it. Rev. Perkins also served as the first co-chair of the New Hampshire Conference Camp and Conference Committee, alongside the Rev. James Batten. Fifty-three local congregations sent 281 individuals to Wanakee that first summer, the largest number being junior high campers (117). Sixty-one adult volunteers served the campers.¹

The farmhouse was built in 1803, while the Dining Hall and Rec Hall were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The original tents and hogans on the hill were replaced with summer cabins and yurts beginning in the late 1980s and completed in the 1990s.

The Log Cabin, which was a private residence on an adjacent parcel of 27 acres, was purchased in 1994. This house, now a winterized cabin, began Wanakee's growth into year-round retreats.

Today, Wanakee serves over 500 campers each summer during our core summer camp ministry, relying on 25-30 paid staff and more than 60 volunteers.

You are accepted at Wanakee! Wanakee is open to all people regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. For accessibility questions and support, contact Wanakee at 603-279-7950.

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¹ Information in this paragraph from God, Grace, and Granite: the history of Methodism in New Hampshire, 1768-1988 by Dr. Charles W. Kern, published for the New Hampshire United Methodist Conference by Phoenix Publishing, Canaan, New Hampshire, 1988.