Campers build High Knob horse town
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Laura and Dan Moomey of Michigan moved to Eddyville upon retirement, Laura in 2008 and Dan in 2010.
They expected to pass their days in horse riding in the scenery of Southern Illinois. But reality set in they were spending away their savings and they began looking for an income to supplement their retirement.
The High Knob Campground near Karber's Ridge was for sale and the Moomeys bought it in March.
Laura Moomey describes the camp as a community that came together to save their home away from home.
"With the help of these campers, it was not all me, with the help of the permanent 65 campers we've kept this thing from going to the bank, to turning it around. There's no wolf at the front door," Moomey said.
But the campers don't just support the camp with their dollars; they have taken on the task of turning the campground -- oldest in Southern Illinois, having started in 1961 -- into a tourist destination with a small western town.
The camp now appears to have a saloon, a church, a fort, a cowboy cemetery and even a gold mine within its boundaries.
Moomey held a contest. Campers who embarked on a renovation project received one months' free camp rent. A panel of judges examined the projects and the winner received a year of free camping.
The winner was a small church with a bearded cowboy preacher mannequin standing out front to greet the congregation. Inside the church building is a tack shop.
Dan Moomey each night scatters rocks painted yellow in front of the gold mine complete with track and mine cart. Campers dug the mine 10 feet into a hillside and braced it with timbers. Each morning children run to the mine to collect the gold and trade it to Moomey for gifts and candy.
The cowboy cemetery has wooden headstones engraved with the names of the legendary figures of the wild west.
One camper took an old bunkhouse often rented to hunters and affixed to it rough board riddled with arrows. The result is an old fort.
Though the contest is over, campers continue to come up with projects. A group is erecting tarp over a portable toilet to create a teepee next to the fort.
The outhouses have been decorated as dynamite sheds.
For Laura Moomey, the campground has become more than a business. She feels she and her husband have practically bought a large family.
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DeNeal receives e-mail at mailto:bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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