Camp Tuckabatchee is celebrating their 100th anniversary with a one-day music festival at Skydive Chicago on June 27th. Find tickets by scanning the QR code or visiting https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/camp-tuck–100. Gates open at 12, with music from 1-9, along with vendors, food trucks, kids crafts, and more! Event is rain or shine.

We recently spoke with Executive Director R.J. Swett about Camp Tuck’s 100 year celebration, their events & activities, and what’s on the horizon! R.J. gave us some information on his background at the camp.

“This is our third season at Camp as executive director. But prior to that, I was on the board for about two years, one year as Secretary and one year as Chair. From there, I became the executive director and September 1st, 2023. Sometimes I feel like I’m the luckiest person alive. It’s stressful. But I love it. I enjoy it, and I still have a lot to learn,” R.J. said. 

If you haven’t heard of Camp Tuckabatchee yet or are curious about what they offer, R.J. puts it well.

“We provide a traditional summer camp experience. Very rustic, no technology, no screens, outdoor playing all day, lots of water activities, archery, 214 acres with plenty of hiking trails. Lots of sports stuff, camp songs, campfires, cooking over the fire. [We] just get kids to still appreciate the outdoors. Learn with the outdoors. Love the outdoors. Not be afraid of all the spiders and things are there. Regardless if you want them there.”

Experience the benefits of being unplugged and unbothered at Camp Tuck! A great place to explore the outdoors, learn about nature, and maybe even find a new hobby.

While 2026 isn’t technically the camp’s 100 year anniversary, as it was established in 1927, R.J. told us tomorrow’s festivities serve as the beginning of the grand celebration in 2027! Some of the details are still under wraps, but a celebratory gala and bingo night are in the works for next year. R.J. told us a bit about Camp Tuck 100.

“This is kind of the kick-off of 100 years for us and to help raise funds. But right now, ticket sales are pretty low, so we’re probably not going to end up with a profit, But that’s okay, we want to do this annually. We think the partnership with Skydive Chicago makes so much sense. It just fits very well. They’re good people. They’re good neighbors, and they’re really excited about it, too. They’re really supportive.” 

The gates will open at noon, with music running from 1 pm to 9 pm. You’ll be able to find food trucks, vendors, kids’ crafts, and games at Skydive Chicago. Artists include Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes, Bob Marley Tribute, Manix Rho, Chad Link, Christina Eltrevoog, Katie Bell & Duffelbag Joe, and Poke the Bear.

We also asked R.J. about how things at Camp Tuckabatchee have changed over the years.

“Our group of counselors is fantastic, and we kind of let them build the program, because they’re the ones that run it execute it. so they’ve been coming up with different ideas, to help to adapt to the change of times a little bit. We’re very rustic. Very old school, traditional. And we’re just trying to update a little bit, without technology, to match a little bit more at the times. Not losing our traditions, [but] incorporate them in new ways. Fresh ideas for the kids and fun is priority, after safety,” he said. 

Alongside those changes, R.J. told us about some renovations and new additions to the camp as well.

“Our board has been more active and getting involved a little bit more. They’re doing what they can, as far as fundraising and things like that. I was just trying to improve things, keep it clean. And then it’s the depreciation of everything, keeping up with everything as it degrades and starts falling apart. It’s a constant ‘Put things back together that’re 100 years old’ and a lot of the things are up to 80 to 90 years old, keeping the cabins together. And fresh roofs, things like that. We laid a full full basketball court, thanks to Constellation, the power plant donated for that,” R.J. said.

Upgrades and more are planned for Camp Tuck! Make sure to stay up to date on all the exciting things coming out of and going into camp. We also asked R.J. about the camp’s other events throughout the year. One of their most well-known is the Haunted Camp during weekends in October.

“That’s the biggest thing that takes 45 days to build. And then we only run it for the weekends in October. But, it’s our biggest fundraiser by far, and it’s so much fun. It’s volunteer driven, and it’s not like people get scared there, but it’s less intended to totally scare people, and more to have fun with everything. Because a lot of our scare actors are kids, campers, and counselors. Anybody that wants to get involved, usually is allowed to get involved and can be a scare actor for a night, for a weekend, or the whole time if they wish. We’ve been getting a lot for that, up to 40-50 a night, and then we can do up to 500 people a night coming through,” he said. 

“We also do a comedy night adult comedy night at Alfano’s Pizza, that’s in November. As our second biggest fundraiser, that’s always fun. We got Chicago Comedy Scene comedians and Dominick Crum usually hosts it for us. That’s a good time. But, like, I said, it’s adult, there’s an R rating. We do have Bingo too, I try to do one or two a year, about.” 

“Other than that, we always have facility rental. You can rent out the the campground for weddings, family retreats, family reunions, any retreats, or anything you could think of. We do get some reunions and we average about one to two weddings a year. We have an acrobat camp that comes out and they do big acrobat workshops, they teach people how to be better acrobats. We got some Wellness festivals out there,” R.J. said. 

Camp Tuckabatchee has been a great place to unwind in Ottawa for nearly a century. With one-hundred years of history behind them, we just had to ask: What’s next for Camp Tuck?

“We’d like to get some more school field trips out there,” R.J. said, “We’re also working really close with the Conservation Foundation. We’re working on actually making a part of the property an actual preserve, because we have a wetland that’s very, very rare. The ecosystem is is awesome, with some endangered species of sorts, and things like that. So that’s really neat.” 

“We’d like to incorporate more horses. We’d like to get them back in there, but our corral and our barn are in a bit of a disrepair, so we’re finding the resources to get that up to par. Educating ourselves in the feasibility in the logistics of everything and getting it together. We know that was a big draw in the past, because right now we’re outsourcing to Corcoran Arena of Earlville for a couple of our camp weeks. That’ll probably be the same thing for another year, but if we can get it together and find the money to get things back in order, we really want to. We have the space. It just needs to be fixed.” 

Lots of exciting things are planned for Camp Tuckabatchee! Many thanks to R.J.! Follow along with Camp Tuck 100 and the rest of their celebration tomorrow at Skydive Chicago. You can find more information at https://www.camptuckabatchee.org/ or on their Facebook.