About Tanager Lodge

For nearly 100 years, Tanager Lodge was unique among camps.  It was small and personal, with a maximum of 48 campers and over 20 staff members.  With a mile of shoreline on Upper Chateaugay Lake in the Adirondacks, Tanager Lodge was a place where children experience the joy of belonging to a diverse and interdependent community in a wilderness setting.  It offered a progressive, noncompetitive, six-week program that emphasizes building skills and friendships through work and play in the natural world.

Accessible by boat and without phones, computers or electricity, we slept in tents, ate family style on open porches, and swam in the clear lake.  In every activity, from canoeing to hiking to crafts, our staff worked to create a safe, supportive environment that allowed campers to grow and meet new challenges at their own pace.  Self-confidence increased as each child learns to set and achieve goals, develops knowledge of the natural environment, and recognizes his or her integral role in the community.

Tanager Lodge welcomed children of varying ages and backgrounds.  The community included many second, third, and fourth generation campers, and the majority of our staff were campers.  At Tanager, everyone quickly became part of the camp family.