The name Wanapitei (pronounced wawna - puh - TAY) comes from the Anishnabai name Wanapiteiping, which means "oblong body of water, full to overflowing."  Camp Wanapitei's 42-acre property, located on Lake Temagami, is surrounded by beach, river and forest.

Previously an semi-agricultural settlement founded by Father Charles Paradis in 1891, Wanapitei was established as a summer camp in 1931 under the direction of Ed Archibald who, in 1956, sold the camp to Stan and Laura Belle Hodgins.  The Hodgins family, including Bruce Hodgins (Wanapitei's current president), developed a unique, top quality camp which stressed canoe tripping and wilderness skills for boys and girls.  In 1971, a group of camp alumni and friends formed a cooperative company with Bruce Hodgins as President and renamed it Camp Wanapitei Co-Ed Camps Ltd.  Since that time, Wanapitei, has blazed the trails for remote youth canoe tripping in Canada.

At present, Wanapitei is owned by a group of approximately 140 shareholders and run by a fifteen member board of directors, almost all of whom are former staff members with extensive canoe tripping backgrounds.  Our current C.E.O is Ted Moores, a long time Wanapitei camper and staff member.  The board strives to keep Wanapitei's policies and procedures in-line with the highest standards of the camping movement and often is a leader in the field.