Beautiful Lake Balfour

Camps Baco and Che-Na-Wah are situated in the magnificent Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.  It’s a special place where the natural surroundings provide an incredible playground for campers. The camps are located on secluded Lake Balfour, where campers play in our unspoiled, sprawling landscape. If you ask campers and counselors to name one thing that they love about camp, (which is very hard to do!), many would say “the beautiful setting.” Since our founding over 85 years ago, our landscape has remained unspoiled and tranquil.

Camp History

Camp Che-Na-Wah for girls, established in 1923 and Camp Baco for boys, established in 1951, are family-run camps located on the shores of beautiful Lake Balfour. Today, camp directors Bob and Barbara Wortman steward camp traditions as part of a nine-decade chain of tradition that’s unique in summer camps today.

We uphold a powerful pride in our heritage, which began when Camp Che-Na-Wah founder Sol “Chuck” Amster set out in search of a serene location to build a girls camp. He discovered unspoiled Lake Balfour and opened Camp Che-Na-Wah on its eastern shoreline with its natural beach and spring fed water supply. There, with his wife, Cornelia ‘Mother Cornell’ Schwartz, the couple encouraged young women to experience nature, group living and excel beyond their expectations. In 1951, the couple opened Camp Baco on another beachhead on Lake Balfour, as the boys’ counterpart to Camp Che-Na-Wah.

The Wortman family has been involved in camp since 1947, when Ruth Wortman joined Camp Che-Na-Wah as the waterfront head.  The following year, her husband, Mel, joined her to work as head counselor of Che-Na-Wah. When Camp Baco was founded in 1951, Mel headed to Baco as head counselor and shortly thereafter the Wortmans became partners in Camp Baco.

In 1959 a former camper, Alice Sternin, with her husband Lester, became directors of Camp Che-Na-Wah. The Sternins sold the camp to the Wortman family in 1986. Today, Barbara and Bob Wortman are the camps’ directors.

Bob is Mel and Ruth’s son.  He’s spent every summer of his life at camp; his first “job” was blowing a whistle to alert the kitchen staff that a truck had arrived with a delivery. He was two years old! His next “official” job at camp was as a waterfront counselor. Barbara met Bob in college. With a degree in musical education and her love of children, she dove into camp life starting in 1974.

Mel and Ruth Wortman are still active at camp, leading campfires and directing campers in community outreach activities that benefit citizens in the Adirondacks.  Together, they help to pass down the rituals, stories and games that have been a part of camp life since its earliest days.