After the cessation of activities in 1928 by the MWA at Camp 6190 Hall, the Hall became the Community Gathering Point protected from vandalism by love.

In the 1800s, fraternal organizations were often viewed with suspicion. Their closed meetings, passwords, and initiation ceremonies led outsiders to imagine something dark and dangerous happening behind lodge doors.

Oral history is fascinating and useful and very fun and doesn’t always match the written history. That doesn’t make oral history incorrect or invalid any more than it makes the written history incorrect or invalid; it makes all history nuanced.

One of the greatest dangers to folk art is vandalism — but neglect is what invites it. After Modern Woodmen activities ended and Camp 6190 was deactivated in 1929, the building now known as Wood Hall passed down the Gibeault family tree.

This early 20th-century postcard asks, “Who Wouldn’t Be a Woodman?” Images like this spoke to the heart, promising security, love, and protection for rural families.

It’s a small detail, but it tells us a great deal about how Ernest Hüpeden worked.

After completing the dramatic Battle of Manila curtain—an advertisement for the Modern Woodmen of America itself—Hüpeden did turn to the more typical lodge commission: local business advertising but he put them on the window shades.

We got it going on!! Our three phase restoration project is underway under the careful direction of David Wells.

At the turn of the twentieth century, German immigrant artist Ernest Hüpeden quietly gave Valton’s MWA Camp 6190 Hall its lasting visual identity—though it wouldn’t be called the Painted Forest for another 60 years, when Delores Nash gave it the name we still use today.

Fun Fact: Cabin Wall Let’s go inside! Beyond their similar exteriors, Modern Woodmen of America (MWA) camp lodges also shared interior layouts with a stage at one end of the building. The stage curtains were used as advertising space for local

Modern Woodmen of America Lodge Halls Across Wisconsin Many Modern Woodmen of America lodge halls across Wisconsin and the Midwest look like cousins. Most were simple, boxy buildings with similar fronts and layouts. That wasn’t an accident — local camps

The very first Modern Woodmen of America Fraternity was chartered in 1883 in Lyons, Iowa. The Valton camp, chartered in 1899, is Camp 6190 – an attestation to the rapid growth of the organization.