A once-popular campground in Mancelona has been sitting vacant since 2016.
This summer, while Doug and Stacey Hicks were moving from Kalkaska to Mancelona, Doug noticed the empty campground.
“I had to drive back and forth by it more times than I usually did,” he said. “I got kind of tired seeing it looking like it did.”
The Hicks ended up purchasing the property in April and opened the park as Antrim Meadows Campground in July. The park used to be a popular campground in the area.
“The original owner owned it from ’77 to ’16,” Doug said. “I bought it off the original owner’s daughter.”
Campground Manager Roxanne Smith has lived in Mancelona on and off for 26 years.
“My parents actually stayed here in ‘96,” Smith said. “We’ve watched it dwindle down from a campground to nothing for the last two years. It was sad because it was always full of campers and good people.”
The campground has 25 total spots with water and electric. Doug plans on building two rental cabins on the property in the next few weeks.
“We camp a lot, we own a motor home and we go all over,” Doug said. “A lot of stuff that we learned over the years, we’re trying to incorporate into here so we can have other people enjoy.”
The Mancelona community has embraced the new life brought to the campground by its new owners.
“It was very receptive to everybody in Mancelona,” Doug said. “We had police officers and people that have been here forever come through and say, ‘oh my gosh this place looks awesome!”
People from all over the country have visited the campsite.
“We’ve met people from all over just from this camping season,” Smith said. “Tennessee, Ohio, lots of people from Michigan that have been here.”
At first, Doug was unsure of opening a campground on the property. But now, he can’t imagine anything else.
“When I first bought it, I wasn’t sure that we were going to keep it a campground,” Doug said. “I wanted to see what it was going to do. But I like it as a campground, the infrastructure is there, I just need to touch it up a little bit and it’ll be a good campground again.”
More information on Antrim Meadows Campground can be found .
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