A ribbon cutting Saturday will mark the opening of the first new campground in an Iowa state park in seven years. The Volga River State Recreation Area is located in northeast Iowa’s Fayette County. Park Ranger Scot Michelson says the original master plan for the campground was developed in the early 1980s. Roads were finally installed in 2005, but the D.N.R. ran out of funding for the project.
“We were just kind of sitting there with nice roads to nowhere,” Michelson said. “Finally, some local people said ‘you know, we need to get our legislators up here and do something on this.'” The Iowa Legislature eventually backed the project with an appropriation of $1.5 million.
The campground, built on an old crop field, covers roughly 20 acres at the north end of the Volga River. The 42 campsites all have electricity and water, and 34 have sewer connections as well. The campground includes a shower building and restrooms. Hunting is allowed in the Volga River State Rec Area, which includes a lake and covers 5,700 acres.
“Because of the public hunting, we have a lot of different terrain,” Michelson said. “We have the river at one end and the lake at the other end. We have a lot of timber, open area and prairie area.” The ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled from 1:30 to 2:30 Saturday afternoon.