Sherwood Forest Campground sits on the banks of Lake Ore-Be-Gone in Gilbert, Minn.
It hasn’t been a quiet few months on the banks of Lake Ore-Be-Gone up in Gilbert, Minn., the home to Sherwood Forest Campground. The 55-year-old campground caters to the active at heart and rests on a quiet cove of this big, crystal clear, 556-foot-deep lake that attracts many to its shores.
Wendy Flannigan is the manager of Sherwood Forest and shared that 2022 is starting off as good as the previous year.
“Business was awesome last year,” she exclaimed. “We were booked up to the point that I had a major waiting list. We had every weekend full and we expect this year to be about the same.”
She said the big lake and the recreational opportunities her region offers attracts many active families, aquatic sports fans, fishing and off-road fans alike.
“We get a lot of scuba divers here,” said Flannigan. “There is an airplane down there, a helicopter, cars and all kinds of stuff for them to dive to.”
The site was once a large strip mine and holds lots of structures from those years. Many sites are lakeside.
The campground also targets the off-road vehicle (ORV) crowd as it is adjacent to Minnesota’s No. 1 park for off-roading which makes up a large portion of her campers.
“ATVs and Jeeps mostly,” she said. “I don’t book normally before the end of Jan. but with all the ORV events up here, I book those when they leave each year. In 2021 I booked all the events from that year and I will do the same again this year. So before 2022 started, I had over 200 reservations set up.”
She said she took in almost that much on Jan. 15, when she first started booking.
She targets the sports enthusiast from all the recreation her area has to offer. especially the off-road crowd.
Sherwood Forest Campground has noticed an increase in campers and remains busy for most of the summer.
“We get active families from all these sports,” Flannigan added. “The holiday weekends are really big, but we are one of many campgrounds that host a huge event called ‘Crawl for the Cure’ which is a fundraiser for MS (Muscular Dystrophy.) They book our whole campground and we fill up for that event before and after. There are probably over 1,000 ATVers.”
Since business is booming, the owner is expanding the accommodations side of the campground.
“We are adding six new sites this season and have a plan to continue adding sites each year for the next five years,” she shared. “Eventually we want to put in some yurts and we are looking at putting in a second playground, a splash pad and maybe a dog park.”
Wendy Flannigan and her husband previously were work campers learning the campground management trade.
“I’m a people person and so is my husband. After COVID people are wanting to come out in droves.,” she said.
Sherwood Forest is open from May 1 to Oct. 6 each year.
For more information call 218-748-2221 or email: campground@gilbertmn.org.
