Holy Name Retreat House’s Spirit of Friendship

The Chambers Island Nature Preserve (CINP) is nearly complete!  If all goes well with private fundraising this summer and fall, the final 22 acres of the former Holy Name Retreat House property⸺the parcel where the Retreat House was located, and the woods to the south⸺will become part of the preserve. The article that follows shares the history of the Holy Name Retreat House from 1951 to 2014 and the important role so many current islanders played there.

The Preserve will protect three-fourths of the Lake Mackaysee shoreline and 190 acres of its forest and wetlands, eliminating potential development of 54 cabin sites under current zoning. The Chambers Island Nature Preserve, all 830 acres, will have a major positive impact on the island’s water quality, foster bird migration and nesting habitat, and keep our island as quiet and beautiful and wild as ever.

Thanks to so many islanders who have supported the Chambers Island Nature Preserve! We look forward in 2023 to burying the CINP Time Capsule and final dedication of the preserve.  Islanders are encouraged to send photos and other memorabilia of their family’s life on Chambers to be included in the Time Capsule, to Cinnamon Rossman, DCLT, PO Box 65, Sturgeon Bay WI 54235. It will be opened in 25 years in the year 2048.