Lake Campbell Sportsmen’s Club to review history

Club’s 60th anniversary celebration is on Monday

Posted

BROOKINGS – The Lake Campbell Sportsmen’s Club will celebrate its 60th anniversary at its monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 7, at the clubhouse on the southeast shore of Lake Campbell.

The public is invited to hear about the history of Lake Campbell and the Sportsmen’s Club as shown through vintage photos and stories.

Following the history show, attendees will be served ice cream and cake and be taken by video on an aerial trip over the lake and Battle Creek Watershed.

Artifacts found in fields surrounding the lake tell of the Native Americans who visited the lake for hunting. The first explorers to see the lake were building the Nobles Trail from Minneapolis to Denver. They are the ones who wrote the following in their notes: “… A beautiful lake of clear, deep and fresh water with sandy or rocky shores except the north and north west which are low and marshy ….”

Lake Campbell with its 10 miles of shoreline has had many extreme weather events, but none was more impactful than the great 1969 spring flood. The history night presentation will feature aerial photos of the flood and other flood photos from around the lake.

The club was formed in 1957; the first meeting in the clubhouse was in 1962. The club had about 120 charter members from Sioux Falls to Bruce. Early correspondence shows the club was involved with projects by the Department of Game, Fish and Parks and highway departments.

The club was always a place for social gathering of the Lake Campbell neighborhood. A bingo night was first held in 1964. Members often stayed after the monthly business meetings to play cards and visit.

Today, the club still has about the same number of members. The club still has the original purpose “to promote the interests of the Lake Campbell area.” It is still a social center for the Lake Campbell neighborhood. The bingo night is still held in the fall, and the club has added a winter ice fishing derby, a spring fish fry and a summer history review.

The clubhouse is rented for special functions. The air-conditioned clubhouse, which seats about 100 people, is located on the southeast shore of Lake Campbell, 7 miles south of Brookings (46776 220th St.). The clubhouse sits astride the Moody-Brookings county border.

The Sportsmen’s Club is in its 60th year of serving the Lake Campbell neighborhood as a source of lake information and community activities. The History Night meeting is open to the public. Contact current Club President Chuck Berry at 693-7750.