Improvements in Makoshika State Park seem to be coming at an increased rate over the last couple of years, and the Glendive Lions Club has now gotten in on the act with a renovation to one of their buildings at the Lions Camp in the park.
Lions Club members recently got to work renovating the “main lodge” building at the Sleepy Hollow Camp (below the A-frame camp) in Makoshika. The building serves as the kitchen facility for the lower camp.
“We had a group of Lions and we had some Leos (the Lions affiliate club at Dawson County High School) come up and they gutted the kitchen one Sunday afternoon and we finished up last week,” said long-time Lions Club member Lance Phinney.
Phinney credited Lions Club member Jerry Frank for “coming up with the plan” and doing “the majority of the work,” adding that he “ramrodded everything.”
Phinney said the main lodge renovation is the culmination of a “six to eight-year project” to improve all the buildings at the Sleepy Hollow Camp. He noted the club “finished up last year renovating all of the little cabins.” The lower camp has seven overnight cabins with 30-31 beds total.
Phinney said club members have talked about renovating the main lodge building “off and on for several years,” and finally decided it was time to tackle it.
“The kitchen was so dingy and stuff,” Phinney said.
The renovation brightened the kitchen facility up considerably. Phinney said just washing down the walls and putting down a new coat of stain and polyurethane went a long way towards livening up the interior of the building. Club members also ripped up the dirty, old linoleum floor and installed wood laminate flooring, further enhancing the lodge’s interior and rustic appeal. They also installed a new ceiling and a new sink.
Phinney said the Lions would also like to install all new appliances in the kitchen, but added that “there’s a limit to what a person can do.” He noted that over the years, the Lions have received “a lot of money from paddlefish grants to do this kind of stuff,” but that wasn’t the case this time, as the club paid for entire project with its own funds.
Due to the renovations, the Lions Club will eventually raise the nightly rental rate for the Sleepy Hollow Camp, but Phinney said that would not happen until 2018, so there are no changes to the price this year.
Both the Sleepy Hollow Camp and the A-frame building are available for overnight rental from private individuals, groups, clubs or other organizations. To enquire about overnight rentals at the Lions Camp in Makoshika, contact Phinney at 941-0994.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.