From picnics to a proposal — Woodstock campground owners have seen and done it all
Peter and Janet Clark bought the campground in 1982, now selling to new owners
Campers have told Peter and Janet Clark some of their best childhood memories were made at their campground. Now they bring their children back every summer so they can make memories of their own there.
That's the highest compliment the couple say they could ever receive, after spending their lives dedicated to their beloved Jellystone Park in Woodstock.
For 42 years Peter and Janet have built campsites, cabins, and picnic tables together at the park.
In fact, Peter proposed to Janet sitting on one of those picnic tables he built on Lot 70, back in 1983.
"I said, 'Let's just stop here for a second and have a seat on the table, I want to show you something,'" said Peter. "And out of the blue she said, 'What are you going to do, propose?' I said 'How did you know? You know me so well.'"
Since then, they've been inseparable, building what had been a foreclosed campground into a destination for families.
"It's very rewarding, for sure, doing it together," said Janet, now 64. "It's been rewarding and fulfilling and fun all at the same time."
She and Peter bought the campground in 1982, before they were married. Peter, 65, says he paid for it by taking a loan out against his half-ton truck for the down payment, along with support from their families.
When they took over the campground, known as Kozy Acres at that time, they actually had to break in. The bank didn't have any keys to give them.
Peter says he backed up his Dodge Colt to the campground's store window to try to launch himself through a window from the car's bumper.
"And Janet said, 'Oh my land, here comes the Highway Patrol!' And they were coming in, just winding up with the lights on," said Peter.
They knew the officer, but he wasn't convinced the couple, at just 21 years of age, were the legitimate new owners.
"So I said, 'Call my dad, he drives the fire truck at the town hall, and he'll confirm that we did,'" said Peter. "So, he got a hold of somebody on the radio and they called, and sure enough it was fine."
Over the next few years Janet ran the park's administration in addition to her regular job, and Peter cleaned washrooms, handled maintenance and slept on a cot in the office as park security.
In the spring of 1985, they built their first set of water slides for the park.
Peter only went down the slide once. He can't swim. So, Janet waited at the bottom.
"Honest to goodness, I thought I was going 120 miles an hour," said Peter.
"I almost pulled Janet under, she thought I was going drown both of us," he said. "I took water in and I was panicking."
"Just stand up," said Janet. "There's only four feet of water. You're 6-4."
Over the next few years the campground slowly grew, adding mini-golf and a few extra camp spots.
Peter estimates he was getting about four hours of sleep each night during those early years, as he tried to do nearly every task at the park himself. That was until late one night he came across a man in a uniform walking through his park. He says he approached the man apprehensively.
"He said, 'I'm your new night watchman.'"
"I said, 'Well, who hired you?'
"And he said, 'Well, your wife. I guess she wants you to live past 40.'"
Janet makes no bones about making that decision to alleviate her husband's workload, without his input.
"That's what I did," said Janet. "I decided to take the bull by the horn and get the security."
Time to grow
Late one night the couple tried to find room for a desperate family from Boston, who were just happy to camp out in the parking lot with an extension cord plugged into the office building.
"The children had a meltdown, [had] a temper tantrum," said Peter. That's when they realized their campground was bursting at the seams.
In 1996, they became part of the Yogi Bear franchise, going from Kozy Acres to Jellystone Park. Statues of cartoon bears in green neckties can be found scattered throughout the property, some of them waving at the adjacent Trans Canada Highway.
"That's been our biggest advertisement for all these years," said Peter.
And with the franchising came a major expansion. They bought 55 more acres and have spent the years since building parking for increasingly larger RVs, more than 30 cabins, more washrooms and a new camp store.
In 2015 they opened the park's water zone, a towering structure of intertwining water slides, water guns and splash pads. That stands out as one of Janet's favourite memories over the last four decades.
"Seeing everybody enjoy it," said Janet Clark. "How excited they were."
For Peter, it all boils down to a little girl who stayed at the campground for a week. He says she looked like former child star Shirley Temple.
"She'd been crying, 'Mommy, I just loves this place. Could we live here forever?'" recalled Peter. "I mean, I could physically [unplug] toilets all day long, or do garbage runs, or clean up whatever, as long as I knew those kids were having fun."
Summer jobs
Although the Clarks don't have children of their own, they say they've always considered their staff their family. Last year they had more than 40 people working at Jellystone, most of them summer students. Affectionately known as rangers, don't just return for work in the summer months, they too are a part of that generational clientele.
"They bring their own kids," said Janet.
Last year 21 former rangers came back to stay at the campground where they worked as teenagers.
New Owners
Jellystone Park has now been purchased by Maritime Fun Group. The company owns the Sandspit amusement park as well as the Shining Waters campground on P.E.I., as well as the Magic Mountain park in Moncton.
"The great thing about this place is that is combines water parks with camping, so we feel like were a natural fit," said Matthew Jelley, president of Maritime Fun Group.
But the Clarks aren't leaving Jellystone. Despite the sale, they're staying to manage and operate the park, just as they always have. The reason for the sale, they say, is to ensure the park continues on well after they're gone.
"It's never been about the money," said Peter. "It's about the people, about providing a spot for them to have good family fun."
And as an informal part of the sale, the couple will always have access to Lot 70.
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