Our History

The Camp Etna campmeetings are recorded to have begun in 1876 and Spiritualists came every summer to camp out in their tents to hear the top mediums and inspiratonal speakers of the day. The campers eventually built platforms on which to place their tents and then built cottages on top of their platforms and the community was born.

On September 1, 1899, The First Maine Spiritualist State Campmeeting Association was incorporated in the State of Maine, Penobscot County. On September 5, 1919, we changed our name to the Etna Spiritualist Association and it remains our name today.

In the early 1900's, people came from Boston, Hartford, Providence, and New York by train and got off at a stop at the camp next to Etna Pond. Mainers came far and wide by horse, carriage and on foot. Visitors numbered over 3000 for the campmeetings, an antiquated term used for religious gatherings.

Unfortunately, the original temple was destroyed by fire. A new temple erected in its place collapsed several decades later due to heavy snow load on the roof. The third temple named the Gladys LaLiberté Memorial Temple stands today. The large fire in the early 1920s destroyed many of the original cottages, and the hotel was also lost in a fire.