More Variations on a Theme

California camp patch collector Matthew Potthast responded to my recent post of camp patches with a particular design by sending a scan of four Camp Oneonta (CA) patches from the 1940s with the common theme of evergreen trees on the edge of a lake with a canoe and canoeist set in the middle foreground. This design for late 30s and 40s camp patches is usually sewn on white twill with one or two colors of embroidery but there are many variations. Potthast writes: "I've also seen a 1942 which is similar to these and a 30's era diamond patch. I believe I've seen similar designs on other camp patches of that era."

Oneonta, California, or Oneonta Beach, now part of Imperial, CA. If anyone has any more information on this now-apparently defunct camp, it would be appreciated.

Design Variations on a Theme

I found in a large batch of patches I acquired on eBay recently three camp patches with a similar design theme but each with a different style of manufacture. The first of these,Camp Strake Brave, (Sam Houston Csl,TX) is a green silkscreened felt patch with a line of evergreen trees along the shore of a lake with a canoe in the foreground. This is a common design among camp felts of the late 1930's and 40's, and very similar to a 1941 Camp Deerslayer felt from my own council camp on Otsego Lake at Cooperstown NY. The second of the trio, Camp Double Lake 1949, (also Sam Houston Csl,TX) is an unusual felted print on a suedelike canvas. This patch is interestingly stamped on the reverse with the maker's name H.KRAFT ASHLAND, N.Y. The third smaller (2 3/4" dia.) patch, CAMP ROCK ENON (VA), c. 1947-50, is a russet and dark green embroidered on white twill, gauze back. All three patches are illustrated on CampImages.com and exhibit the same general theme of a person paddling a canoe (the Camp Strake patch puts the paddler in the stern of the canoe but the other two illustrate the paddler sitting in the center) on a lake with a row of evergreen trees along the shoreline, mountains outlined behind and above the trees.
Anyone knowing of other patches with this design, I would appreciate an email/pic.