After five decades, Kepler Park closes

May 1, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - For 52 summers in a row, Valley residents and visitors have enjoyed camping at the family-owned-and-operated Kepler Park. Opening the park in late April was as reliable as spring breakup, it was where countless people caught their first fish. This year, however, for the first time in five decades, a large "closed" sign is posted at the park's entrance.

In 1952, Jesse Kepler took a portion of his original homestead and created the summer campground for the public to enjoy. Over the years, literally hundreds of thousands of visitors have pulled off the Glenn Highway, just outside Palmer, to set up tents in the popular campground.

Kepler's grandchildren now own the 62-acre park. They've all taken turns running it through various summers, but this year no one was willing to forfeit their entire summer to keep the park open.

One grandson, Chris Kepler, said he and his siblings decided over the winter that they wouldn't open the park. Their decision brings an end to a long tradition, and it wasn't a move the grandkids took lightly. It was their parents' and grandparents' dream to keep the park open, but balancing full-time jobs with running an increasingly popular campground was just more work than the grandchildren were willing to deal with.

"It was not an easy decision," said Chris Kepler, who at 53 remembers helping run the campground as a kid. "Our tradition is to have it open for people to enjoy the lakes and go camping. It's going to upset a lot of people."

With his grandparents and parents now deceased, Kepler said no one has time to run the park.

"It's mostly been kept open to continue my grandfather's wish and my father's wish to have a nice place for people to go camping. That's been the primary goal."

Ever since high school, Kepler and his siblings have taken turns managing the park, picking up trash and renting boats and campsites. On summers when they couldn't run the park, college kids or other people would always fill in and keep the campground open. Even with the extra help, though, Kepler said he and his siblings have never felt completely free from running the park.

"We always had to assist them," he said. "We still halfway ran it."

With increased visitors in recent years, Kepler said dealing with garbage and occasional trouble-makers just took its toll.

"It's a seven-day-a-week, 16-hour-a-day job, April through September," he said. "It's a major commitment. Your summers are wiped out. You basically lose your entire summer."

The family is unsure whether they will reopen the park next year, but Kepler said that unless they have a dependable person with previous park experience to run it, the park will likely be closed again.

For loyal customers like Monty Mangum, of Anchorage, the park closure signals the end of a summer tradition. Mangum said he and his wife drove out from Anchorage two or three times a month during the summer to enjoy weekends at the park.

"We go there because it's real close to Anchorage and you can go there and camp and fish at the same time," Mangum said. "It was a family run thing and that made it a lot more personal; you weren't just a number there. That's just a shame that they're closing. Now I'm going to have to find another place to go."

Kepler's sister, Patty Goossen, said the family wants to thank all the loyal customers over the years.

"There were a lot of great ones," Goossen said, "and a lot that come there to catch their first fish. It's those people that we wish we could keep it open for."

With rising property taxes and no profit coming from the park, its future is uncertain. Ideally, Kepler said, he and his siblings would like to maintain a green belt and a place for the public to enjoy.

"We're not interested in developing the property," he said. "We're fighting to keep it a green belt. It's beautiful, but we may reach the point that we can't pay the taxes. We hope that's not the case."

The family hasn't looked into a land trust or other options for keeping the land open, but Kepler said they might consider those avenues in the future.

"We want to keep

the land green," he said.

"It was a gift from our grandfather."

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266, or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.