(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
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Lake Pleasant in Montague, Massachusetts, became a Spiritualist camp in the 1870s and lasted into the twentieth century. Thousands flocked there each summer to enjoy the water (said to have medicinal value) and to escape from the stressful effects of the modern world. As in other campgrounds in this period, some residents began replacing their tents with small cottages like the one shown here. As a Spiritualist campground, Lake Pleasant attracted men and women who believed in the full equality of the sexes, and in the possibility for communication between the living and the dead.