San Francisco and other Bay area Camp Fire councils sponsored more than a dozen resident camps for varying lengths of time during the twentieth century. Among these were Wasibo, 1923-1948; Caniya, 1948-1986; Kilowana, 1946-1961; Maacama, 1948-1986; Thayer, 1928-1945; and Wastahi, 1927-1975. North of San Francisco were Seabow, 1939-1975 and, the most northern Camp Fire Girls' camp in California, Kimtu, 1929-1967.
The brochure briefly describes the camp.
During a 1931 visit the Red Cross suggested ways to use the seventy-five square foot swimming area more efficiently and to incorporate aspects of the Red Cross program.  In 1938 girls were required to purchase bathing caps in colors to indicate swimming ability for 10¢. Health certificates were also required and the Council had arranged for women physicians to examine the girls at the San Francisco Camp Fire headquarters.
Photos of Wasibo's outdoor dining hall appeared in Everygirl's in April 1926 and on real photo and Artvue postcards. Tents where the girls slept are shown on other postcards. Six real photo postcards, mentioned in a previous post, show the same two girls in various parts of Camp Wasibo. The girls' shorts and ankle socks worn with middies suggest the photos were taken in the 1930s.
Wasibo was located "about a mile and a half from Zayante R.R. station." In 1938 girls could travel to camp by train from the Southern Pacific Station at Third and Townsend for $1.45, or 75¢ if under twelve. They left at 8:17 in the morning and were accompanied by counselors. That year there were four camp periods, each of a different length, twelve days, ten days, fourteen days and seventeen days. The final seventeen day period was reserved for high school and college girls.
When other Camp Fire Girls' camps closed girls were welcomed at Camp Caniya. In 1963 the San Francisco and San Mateo Camp Fire Girls merged, forming the Golden Gate Council and making Caniya available Marin County girls. At that time Camp Caniya accommodated 175 girls for each of three sessions. By 1968 there were four two-week sessions. In the 1970s Ukiah Camp Fire Girls were also attending Camp Caniya. In the 1980s Caniya was sold to the Girl Scouts, as Wasibo had been more than thirty years earlier. Today Camp Fire Golden Empire, located in Vallejo, serves the San Francisco Bay area and sponsors Camp Gold Hollow.
 Santa Cruz Evening News June 26, 1925; Santa Cruz Sentinel June 10, 1943; "Camp Wasibo for the Camp Fire Girls of San Francisco" 1938 brochure.
 Santa Cruz Evening News August 18, 1939; Van Slyck, Abigail A. A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth, 1890-1960 Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006, p. 84.
 Ukiah Daily Journal June 13, 1977; Daily Independent Journal (San Rafael, California) April 1, 1963.
The only Yenis Hante postcard in my collection is one of Kellogg's Tony the Tiger, with Yenis Hante printed on a sign. We were given these cards on the first day of camp so we could write a note telling our parents of our safe arrival. The card served as a "ticket" to dinner that evening. This one is unused and may have been an extra when, as a counselor, I distributed cards to the girls in my cabin.
Girls at some camps had a greater selection. My postcard collection currently comprises more than three-hundred cards from sixty-six camps in twenty-five states. Occasionally I have found a set of cards from one camp. However, seventy-two percent of these sixty-five camps are represented by fewer than six cards. Only four camps, Iowa's Camp Hantesa, New York's Aloha, California's Wasibo and Camp Kiwanis in Massachusetts are represented by more than eleven different cards.
Hantesa, one of the oldest Camp Fire camps in the United States seems to have the greatest variety of cards, created over the longest span of time. I have twenty-three different cards for Camp Hantesa; they depict the camp's swimming pool, swinging bridge, tents, cabins, lodge, campers and staff. The cards include real photo postcards, black-and-white Artvue lithographs and more modern cards in color. The earliest legible postmark is 1946. Eight of the other nine mailed cards have postmarks in the 1950s or 60s; one is postmarked 1985. The oldest are real photo post cards showing tents on platforms in an area called Shady Glade. Hantesa campers acquired and sent black-and-white real photo postcards as recently as the 1980s and may still be sending them today. Of the four camps, Hantesa is the only one that remains a Camp Fire camp, now attended by both girls and boys.
Camp Fire has a long history in Iowa and I also have eight cards from another Iowa Camp Fire Girls' camp, Hitaga. In my current collection, New York with forty-eight cards, and California with thirty-two, are the only states for which there are more Camp Fire Girls camp postcards than Iowa. Massachusetts, with thirty cards, has almost as many as Iowa.
New York's Camp Aloha is represented by twenty cards showing fourteen different scenes. The swimming pool, "Sky Pond," and "Stony Bottom Creek" are all featured on Aloha's cards as well as girls preparing a campsite, raising the flag, hiking, practicing archery and playing volley ball. Their shorts, instead of bloomers, and triangular Camp Fire scarves with white blouses, instead of middies, indicate that the photos were probably taken in the 1940s and 50s. A majority of the Aloha cards are real photo post cards and the seven that were mailed are all postmarked in the 1950s. One of three unmailed Artvue cards has a back matching another Artvue card with a 1938 postmark. Camp Aloha celebrated its 75th birthday in 2004 but had been sold by 2009.
Sometimes camps move and keep the same name. Camp Kiwanis in Massachusetts remained in the same place but changed its name, becoming Camp Kiwanee in 1957. Camp Kiwanis opened on June 25, 1923. All together I have twenty postcards for Kiwanis and Kiwanee. The most popular subject is Maquan Lake where the girls swam, sailed and canoed. There are also cards of the store and main lodge and of girls raising the flag and riding horses. Almost all the Kiwanis/Kiwanee cards were mailed and the postmarks span the years from 1923, the year the camp was established, to 1966. Only three of these are real photo postcards; Artvue printed more than half and the oldest cards were made by the Albertype Company.
Camp Wasibo was one of the first Camp Fire Girls' camps established in California. Sponsored by the San Francisco Camp Fire Council from 1925 until 1949, Wasibo was located in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In 1949 it was acquired by the Girl Scouts. Available newspaper articles don't give reasons for this transfer; however, the Golden Gate Council opened Camp Caniya near Sierra City in 1948. My thirteen Camp Wasibo cards include seven real photo post cards which appear to have been made at the same time. They have much wider borders than most postcards, giving them a homemade look, and several of them feature the same two girls possibly sisters, in various places around the camp. The girls wear middies with long ties rather than the triangular ties introduced in the late 1930s. Other cards show tents, and girls eating at long tables under the trees. The only mailed cared is an Artvue lithograph postmarked 1938.
The cards described above show the range of subjects shown on postcards of Camp Fire Girls' camps. Camps on lakes naturally wanted to show off their waterfront facilities. Camp stores, lodges and tents or cabins were also popular subjects. Including campers in the photos helped to illustrate the fun girls might have at Camp Fire camp. More unusual scenes such as a swinging bridge or the inside of a cabin also appeared on postcards. Today we can look at these postcards and get a glimpse of twentieth century Camp Fire camp life.