Now that I've got a real keyboard, I'd like to share my thoughts and feelings on this. I truly am heartbroken over this. It may seem silly, but this is the place we have stayed almost every summer for the last 10 years or so. My kids have grown up staying there, we've had many friends and family camp there with us over the years, and have made a ton of memories there. This is not the first time it's changed hands, but the piece meal auctioning off of the fixtures and furnishings tells me it will be the last. At least as a functioning campground.
To the best of my knowledge, Compton Ridge was opened sometime around 1968 by Dean and Vinita Sims. They were still the owners and operators along with their son Jeff when we started going there in the early 2000's. Sometime around 2005-2006 it was sold to Legacy RV resorts, which a franchise RV park operator with a not so great reputation. There were a couple of reasons given for why it was sold, Dean's age and health were one, but there were other factors and without getting into their personal life too much I will just say they experienced some tragedy in their lives. At any rate after the Legacy took over, the change was instant and apparent. Corporate ownership and control had taken the place of a hands on family ran business. Their business dropped off dramatically, their usually stellar reviews on line went down the toilet and for the first time we explored other options. Legacy had it for maybe a couple of years and did a fine job of trashing the good reputation the Sims family had built up over almost 40 years. It was then either sold, traded for another property, or a little of both to the Speight Family. They owned a KOA in Colorado which is now owned by Legacy which leads me to believe there was some sort of swap. Robert Speight was the primary owner and did a very good job of restoring the park to the way it had been. I mentioned several times to them over the last few years how proud I thought the Sims family would be of how they were running things. I met Bob Speight several times at the park and he appeared to be in his late 50's early 60's which makes me question the "due to health reasons" statement in the auction bill. Obviously something has happened that we don't know about to force the sale, but I thought they were doing quite well there.
As for the property itself there's about 75 or 80 acres there total, with the proposed highroad extension running in back of it. I'm really wondering if some developer didn't go in there and make an offer they couldn't refuse for the land to build condos or something. That's the only reason I can think of why they aren't selling the business complete again. I also hope that if it's gone forever as a campground that SDC picks up the property, but I have my doubts. I really see condos or townhouses or something going in there.
