The signal of middle age, perhaps, or at least the passing of youth.
But when you're a business, turning 40 is cause for celebration. And to that end, Missoula's KOA Kampground celebrated Friday night, a gathering replete with an anniversary cake, a proclamation from the mayor, pony rides and a performance from a chap calling himself Wild Bill.
The Frames started the campground in 1967, when Reserve Street was generally referred to as the “country.”
“There was hardly anything out here at all and I think a lot of local folks didn't even know it was here,” Wisby said.
The business venture started as a trailer park - known as El-Mar, a blending of Elmer and Margie - but Elmer Frame constantly had people asking whether they could stay on the property for short periods of time. So the Frames bought more property - the site is 30 acres now - and got into the camping business.
“He didn't really have a place where people could just stay the night,” Wisby said. “But he got involved with another national company for a while, then he got involved with KOA because he liked the way they did business better.”
With 40 years under its belt, Missoula's KOA is one of only two KOAs in the nation that have been in the same family's ownership for that period of time. And although Elmer Frame died in 2004, Marjorie, at 79, is still involved with the business, her daughter said.
“Mom still oversees the books and the bills, though she's not really on the site every day,” she said.
When the campground first started, it was mostly the province of tents and tent-campers. Now it's all about the RVs, Wisby said.
“And the RVs are all about being big,” she said. “I can't believe the size of some of the things that roll in here.”
The KOA has 150 RV sites, 45 tent sites and 18 cabins, and although it's mostly an RV business, the cabins are generally rented out through the summer.
“Missoula isn't really a destination tourist site, so it's usually people coming through,” Wisby said. “But we also have people who come by the week, and we also get those who are here for medical reasons, so they just stay with us in their RVs.”
One of the Missoula KOA's distinctions disappeared last year, when the campground's petting zoo closed down after the city punched a new street along the property's perimeter. The “zoo” held a wild array of critters, from a goat named Herbert to a Sitka deer and a Barbados sheep, and was highly popular with Missoula schoolchildren.
The disappearance may have been a sign of the city's continued advance on the campground, but it certainly wasn't a death knell. Wisby said business is still good and that the Missoula KOA is in for the long haul.
“It still seems intimidating to me to run the business without Dad around, but we're doing well after 40 years and we're going to keep on going,” she said.
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com
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