Camp Fire was founded in 1910 by Luther Gulick, M.D., and his wife, Charlotte Gulick, as the first nonsectarian, interacial national organization for girls in the United States.



Shortly after the national agency was formed, Edith Kempthorne (from New Zealand) started Alaska's first Camp Fire club in Juneau in 1913 as part of a national movement to extend the Camp Fire model through the “Guardians of the Fire” program. Camp Fire was one of the first youth organizations in Alaska. Edith was soon hired as the first field secretary of the national office, in part due to her “frequent and lively” letters from Juneau.

In 1916 she returned to assist Camp Fire’s founder and the group of volunteers operating sporadically through the 20’s and 30’s in Sitka, Wrangell, Nenana, Bethel, Kodiak, Homer, Cordova and Juneau.



In 1959, the first official Camp Fire council began operating as The Chugach Council of Anchorage, serving 350 girls through Camp Fire clubs. Camp Fire started Camp Yalani at King’s Lake Camp in Wasilla in 1960 and offered two one-week sessions each summer for girls.