Someone posted threatening signs on trees and painted a message with a derogatory term on their front sign. Neighbors fired guns around the camp to scare them. Some in the community did not take too kindly to them. They let in a local television station to do a news story. They started a Yahoo Group, Out in the Ozarks, that organized various gatherings for gay people, like breakfasts at a local diner.
They sought to establish the delicate balance of engaging with the community while not being bold about their lives. After vacationing in the region, a gay couple, Chaz Franzke and Jim Thideman, became so enamored of the scenery that they left their jobs in Wisconsin, bought property and opened the campground in 1999.
