Cortland Standard .net

By AMY GERNON
Staff Reporter
agernon@cortlandstandard.net
LAPEER — When Country Hills Campground first opened in 1965, founders Charles and Marion Davison envisioned their 80-acre parcel remaining a serene haven for seasonal campers wishing to take a break from the chaos and commotion of their daily lives.
Fifty years later, as current owners James and Denise Walker prepare to celebrate the campground’s half-century, they say they’ve maintained the Davisons’ vision.
“We make a joke, what we sell here is peace and tranquility,” said James Walker, adding that like the Davisons, he and his wife have no interest in turning the campground into a destination park.
The husband and wife co-owners plan to mark the 50th anniversary of the campground on Saturday in the same peaceful style seasonal campers have come to love about Country Hills. There will be a country bluegrass band playing during the afternoon while the campers meet in the grounds’ pavilion and share snacks.
The celebration will only be open to those with reserved campsites, said Denise Walker, so that the characteristic tranquility of the park is preserved even on the day of celebration.
The Walkers bought the campground four years ago from Ron and Margerie Friedman, who had purchased it from the original owners in 1997.
The Friedmans made several upgrades to the grounds during their 14 years of ownership, including tearing down the old two-story farm house and replacing it with a store and office. The Friedmans also installed new bathrooms and rewired the whole park to offer 50-watt service to all campsites, said James Walker.
The Walkers have also made upgrades to the campground while maintaining its natural charm.
They installed a 24-by-64-foot pavilion, where campers gather on Fridays for communal meals and other social activities. Wi-Fi was installed throughout the whole park as well.
Today, seasonal campers, those who leave a mobile camper stationed at the site year round but take up residency between April and October, account for most of the camp’s business, Walker said.
This season there are 86 seasonal campers taking up most of the park’s 120 sites.
Though there is some turnover among the seasonal campers, the Walkers said they see most of the same familiar faces each summer, and the seasonal campers create a temporary community within the park each summer.
The park also hosts between 350 and 400 “pull-throughs,” or campers traveling through the area who just want to stop for a night.
“We get a lot of Canadians from Quebec and Montreal as they are traveling through this area,” James Walker said.
The Walkers, avid mobile home campers themselves, can relate to both groups who visit their park. The husband and wife take their own camper down to Florida before the local weather turns cold, and return each spring to reopen the camp.
The couple, originally from the town of Walton in Delaware County, spent about two and a half years visiting local campgrounds. They would spend a weekend, and then on Sunday make an offer to the park owner to buy the campground. They finally struck gold at Country Hills.
“We worked until we were almost 60, and we didn’t want to work for anybody else,” James Walker said.
The couple said they now spend their days enjoying the sight of campers fishing in the park’s 3-acre pond and tending to the needs of their campers.
“There’s not a lot of grumpy people here, away from their homes and the pressures of their lives,” Walker said.
Cortland County Visitors Bureau Director Jim Dempsey said the county is fortunate to have campgrounds like Country Hills Campground that have significant followings, and whose visitors support local businesses.
“It works out well for all involved,” Dempsey said.