The children of U.S. Steel steelworkers in Gary used to go to summer camp at the Good Fellows Lodge in Porter.
The historic camp of rustic log buildings on 63 acres along the Little Calumet River was built in 1941 and hosted campers for decades. The National Park Service acquired the property, which consists of nine historic buildings nestled in rolling woodland, for the then-Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 1976.
While the Dunes Learning Center uses the Camp Good Fellow campsite today, the Good Fellow Lodge has sat empty since it became part of what's now the Indiana Dunes National Park.
That's about to change. The National Park Service has been renovating Good Fellow Lodge as part of a $22 million restoration of historic properties, including the House of Tomorrow and the Bailly Homestead. Great American Outdoors Act funding will transform it into a meeting and conference space.
The historic Good Fellows Lodge will soon be restored and open to the public every day.
"Several iconic structures, several cultural resources like deep history cultural resources in the park are being rehabilitated right now," Superintendent Jason Taylor said during his recent Superintendent's Spotlight presentation at the Indiana Dues Welcome Center. "We have a $22 million investment from the Great American Outdoors Act to restore these structures. There's full rehabilitation for one and partial for the other two. Construction started this year in 2024 and is expected to be finished in late 2025."
Workers have been restoring the lodge, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with the other camp buildings.
"Oh my, the Good Fellow Lodge is like the heart of the park. And if it's not now, it's soon going to be," Taylor said. "When you walk in, there's wood floors, a stone fireplace. This is very much like a western lodge. Smaller in scale but you walk in there, you're someplace. You feel like you're someplace."
About $12 million is now being spent to fully renovate the interior and exterior to full function.
"The only thing we're going to be missing is when we're done is someplace to sit. There's no furniture in the building," Taylor said. "We haven't figured out a way to pay for the furniture yet, but we'll get there."
One person offered to donate a small collection of historic furniture and the National Park is looking at whether it can pay to have it refurbished. It is looking at various options, including putting a call out to the public for donations of historic furniture.
"It could be donated if you don't need it anymore," he said. "There will be conversations with Save the Dunes about maybe a small capital campaign. We'll figure out a way to get people to sit."
U.S. Steel founded Gary as a company town in 1906 and funded houses, schools, parks, churches, health clinics and community groups to create a community around its Gary Works mills. U.S. Steel plant managers started Good Fellows Clubs around the country to help steelworkers during the Great Depression. The Gary Works club provided food, milk, medical aid, education and gas to struggling workers, for instance helping immigrants learn English. It hosted Christmas parties, giving out Christmas baskets to the poor at the Broadway Theater in Gary.
Over time, the club evolved to focus on recreational activities for employees, such as baseball, basketball, bowling, archery, horseback riding, shooting, golf, ping pong and football.
Gary Works' Good Fellow Club Youth Camp was just a short train ride from the Steel City. As many as 100 children between the ages of eight and 15 years old would visit for a week for a nominal fee. They paddled canoes down the Little Calumet Rivers, made crafts, hiked through the woods and took part in other sports and outdoor activities.
Camp Good Fellow was touted as "one of the best-equipped youth outing centers this side of the Adirondacks." It boasted a stainless steel swimming pool, tennis court, croquet lawns, an archery range, shuffleboard courts, badminton courts and a merry-go-round.
Campers and their counselors initially slept in tents. They learned about Native American lore, local history, nature, etiquette, sportsmanship, spirituality and handicraft. They learned about native tribes like the Potawatomi, settlers like the Baillys and the natural history of the Indiana Dunes.
It ran for 34 years, hosting many local groups like the Chesterton Lions Club, the Gary Kiwanis Club, the Gary University Club and the Chicago Motor Club Boys' Patrol. It drew visitors U.S. Steel's corporate office in Pittsburgh, as well as internationally from Japan and Russia.
Camp Good Fellow reflected trends of its era, including a desire for rustic getaways in the outdoors and a fascination with Native American customs.
"It was originally built for families of U.S. Steel, so industry, nature family: That's what we're all about in this part of the world," Taylor said. "We expect the lodge to be available daily for visitors, maybe housing exhibits but also serving as meeting space and some offices and even hopefully event rentals like we do at our Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk. The most important point is we expect it to be open daily for visitor experiences."
© Copyright 2025, nwitimes.com, Munster, IN