Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Dozens Of Missile, Pipeline, Wind Turbine Workers Fill RV Park
"I have the cream of the crop," Dar Gardner stated when referring to the 69 RV trailers parked in Stahla's North Court RV Park.
She has 70 total spots and will have that last one filled this week. The people come from dozens of states, including Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wyoming, Illinois, New York, Louisiana and Missouri.
The occupants of the RVs are working on everything from pipelines, wind turbines, and of course, the missile program. Dar said the missile folks have been at her park for the past six years, testing the soils at the missile bases.
Dar's father, Henry Stahla, started the park in 1949 when the oil boom began.
"Dad saw a need," she said.
Ironically, Henry Stahla drove the school bus and picked up all the kids in the trailer park.
The Stahla family was raised right there in the trailer park; all 11 kids were raised in the 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bath home.
As Germans from Russia, Henry's parents immigrated, and he moved to Kimball when he was 4 years old. Henry and six other brothers were raised on their farm west of Kimball.
"I bought the business from Mom and Dad," Gardner said. "And I bought the trailer court and house at the same time. I worked for my dad, and then I bought it in 1990."
In the 1970s, '80s and '90s, the park along the Lodgepole Creek just north of Kimball had mobile homes, but Gardner has since reworked the sites and has almost exclusively RV sites.
Gardner said that the City of Kimball saw the need to upgrade the electric lines, and they bent over backward to get it all done.
Activity in the park is at its peak early in the morning and when the workers are coming home at about 7 p.m. Gardner admits it is not an easy lifestyle because they work six days a week.
"Some of the newbies have to be told to make sure and winterize their RV," she said. "A few of the workers bring their families, but most do not. These guys like it down here because they aren't shoved in here like sardines."
"I have been in this business for almost 49 years," she said. "My kids grew up in this business too." Now two of her children have followed in her footsteps, Laura and Scott.
Gardner's experience has not gone unnoticed as she was recently nominated by her colleagues to the National RV and Mobile Home Hall of Fame. She looks forward to the organization's big banquet at its museum in Indiana.
"I feel it is an honor just to be nominated," she said.