Nico Wind Cordova's Shaw Story

At first, I kind of followed the lead of Liza Wheeler; she seemed to be the person in charge of what was going on with the horses. She went and got a halter or bridle or something and she was going to catch Jangles and ride him. And I think she got kicked or bucked off or something like that. I think she actually got on him, but she got really hurt.

I OPTED to go to the Shaw Island camp for the first time, I believe it was in 1971. My best friend at MLC, Libby Shapiro, told me about a summer camp in the San Juan Islands called Shaw Island which would be a great opportunity for us to go for a couple of weeks. I said YES! I wanted to go too. I was so excited about the adventure. I remember on the ferry going up, all I had was my guitar and a little suitcase. While on the ferry, I broke my guitar out and was singing with the wind in my hair.

Once I arrived at camp, I didn’t immerse myself into the activities right away. I was kind of an observant person and wanted to get an idea of where we were going to be situated first. Libby and I started out in a tent with some other kids at first, and that was short lived when at night we would tell ghost stories in our tent with flashlights, and a bunch of boys ran up on the outside of the tent making a lot of noise, you know, to spook us out. Mission accomplished, because after a few nights of that annoyance, Libby, myself and two or three other girls decided not to do the tent thing any longer.

The horses were the highlight for me. I was in heaven. Everybody was able to ride the bay horse Bo, but nobody was able to ride the paint horse known as Jangles. It became kind of a personal challenge for me because I felt this heavy-duty connection to him, and I really just wanted to make friends with the horse that didn’t like anyone.

Nico Wind

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At one point, Libby kind of dragged me along to the shed or garage to be outfitted with bracelets. They had this thing where John Angell would fit you with a bracelet that was made from nylon rope, and there was a board that had at least 75 possible things you could see on the island. There were little colored pieces of tape that signified all the things that you saw, and at the end of each day we would stand in line to report our findings and get our bracelet decorated accordingly. I thought that was a really great idea. Whoever came up with that idea, that was the best idea ever. I went and I got my little piece of rope and I’m standing in this line. There are all these kids. They’re all lined up, and there is John Angell, fitting bracelets onto all the wrists.

Nico on Jangles the horse, Rosie Williams nearby, John and Adi Angell observing; Nico on Bo; below: catching Jangles, Liza Wheeler with hands on hips.

And then there was the board with all the tape patterns that signified all the things that you could see and do to get your bracelet outfitted. Nobody seems to have a photo of the board or a copy of the list but I still remember a few of things I saw there.

One of the things that stands out for me was seeing some Man o'War jellyfish while riding as a passenger in this little rickety canoe on choppy water. As I leaned over the edge of the canoe I can remember thinking what beautiful marmalade jelly specimens these are, and then I was informed quite graphically how poisonous they were, and how we would all die if we ended up in the water with them. That was it for me; I was ready to go back to shore after seeing the jellies. I’ve never seen another one since that time.

And so, because I wanted to color my bracelet, I commenced looking around a lot more, you know, bringing my head up out of the horses a little bit. I got a tape badge for seeing lots of eagles. And I saw a pod of orca whales. Also, I remember Salty the Sheep. When I saw him, he was just one big puff ball; you could hardly tell where his head was, but then I guess they caught him and sheared him. There were lots of stories, like fairy tale stories about him, you know, how he was at one time a human being and he ended up being cursed by a witch who turned him into a ram. My recollection of him was that he just was a sheep, a ram that went rogue. If you spotted Salty, you could get a badge on your bracelet.

I remember walking along the beach and seeing all the kelp and the driftwood and the kelp was a big deal. I think we used to throw kelp at each other and stuff and I just remember kind of slinging it at a few people.

When Libby and I got tired of the tent scene, I don’t remember who the other girls were, but we decided to clean out this old chicken coop. It was really dusty and kind of nasty, you know, but we all got it really cleaned out, really well, and finally we moved in and set up our sleeping bags for the night. I woke up in the middle of the first night and I couldn’t breathe. And I ended up having to go into the house. I mean, I literally couldn’t breathe. I don’t know who it was that turned me upside down and smacked my back so I could breathe again.

There was often a campfire where everyone at camp had to attend and the counselors would choose a person to read aloud something you had written about your time and also the activity schedule for the next day or rules or something like that. So, at one point they made me an announcer, and I wrote a whole page of something; I don’t remember what I wrote, but it was a big deal for me to read out loud for everyone at camp.

David Celsi was there and he was always drawing up characters, caricatures of people, a graphic interpretation of his experience at camp which included an image of me singing and playing my guitar. It seemed so exaggerated and almost embarrassing; I wasn’t really a fan of it then, in fact I was downright pissed at the time. But now, I would give anything to see that piece again. What an honor to have been captured as part of David’s experience in any capacity.

I had to leave camp a little early; my mom and my aunt had to come and get me because of my asthma attack. And I have a picture of us walking down the ramp to the ferry dock and it’s from the back of us. And we’re just dancing, my auntie and I, and I love that picture.

Shaw Island was a pivotal point in my growth. Coming away with the experience of being literally alone there. Not really knowing anyone other than Libby; I didn’t know the teachers, I didn’t know the camp people, didn’t know John Angell and there were only a few people from MLC attending, and still.

The Shaw Island experience was where I learned that I could be a part of something, that I could relate with people I didn’t know in a place far away from home, where I could successfully thrive and be okay, and have fun doing fun things while being completely myself. I grew from that experience a lot. And it stayed with me throughout my whole life.

Also, I met a tribe of people who were not typically like the other people I had met as a student in formal education. You know, MLC and Shaw Island, I put them together because they were very separate from the public schools I had been to all across from Virginia to Oregon. Very different, more intimate, more welcoming ….

— Nico Wind Cordova, 2025

Nico on the ferry.