Carter Camp

   Carter Camp began as the village of Cartee Camp around 1851. A French engineer named John Cartee set up camp here and a post office was established. The contractor and his workers were staying here to build sections of the Coudersport and Jersey Shore Turnpike, now Route 44. The camp soon became known as Cartee Camp. 

   A year later, in 1852, Ole Bull a renowned Norwegian violinist arrived. He was here to purchase the Kettle Creek Valley to establish the "Ole Bull Colony", a New Norway in the Black Forest of the Kettle Creek Valley. His followers arrived within days and set out by horse and wagon to settle the untamed wilderness. These Norwegians arrived and set up camp here believing this to be the New Norway of Ole's Dream. They raised their own flag, bearing a central "Cross of Norway" surrounded by the American "Stars and Stripes', to celebrate the end of their long journey. Ole arrived to cheers and toasted their success, but he informed them that they still had a little further to travel. They gladly harnessed their horses and wagons to continue south to a wider section of the valley that Ole would name Oleana for his mother Anna. Over the years Oleana would become known as Oleona.

   About three weeks later, some of these pioneers returned to Camp Cartee and set up another village which they called New Bergen for Ole's home in Norway.

   Eventually, Camp Cartee / Cartee Camp / New Bergen became known as Carter Camp. The exterior of the hotel and store are much as they were at the turn of the century. The barn where the stage coaches stopped was torn down in the fifties, but the hog shed is still standing beside the camp across the road from the lodge. Carter Camp has changed many times over the years, but in a way it will always be the same.  It still offers a haven to the wayward traveler to stay, eat and relax in nature with a country store and cafe for everyone's convenience.