After 40 years, thousands of concerts, and tens of thousands of students, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp is an internationally recognized arts center and home of an outstanding classical/jazz radio station, Blue Lake Public Radio. What most Blue Lake devotees don't know is that the camp nearly closed in its infancy. A perfect storm of black-hearted bankers, fund-raising mistakes, undercapitalization, and over-enrollment nearly sank the camp on the zany night of a historic Detroit Symphony performance in the camp dining hall. Now the only person who could tell the who story of the search-and-rescue mission that saved this summer school of the arts, founder Fritz Stansell, tells all. A must read for anyone who loves the fine arts, this against -all-odds story, set in the Manistee National Forest, is a touching tribute to the tenacity of a small band of music educators who helped rescue the camp and make it the international success it is today.