08/05/2007

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
From left, Sam Carson, Max Carson, 15, and Kyle Koch, 11, take a ride on Elk Lake at White Birch Lodge in Elk Rapids.

The Family Plan

Classic resort bucks trends and is going strong

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
White Birch Lodge, an all-inclusive family camp on Elk Lake, will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.

ELK RAPIDS — Rick Conrad has stewarded the shaded porch, sun-drenched beach and lush grounds of White Birch Lodge with his family for 49 years.

The destination is one of an endangered species, an "American Plan” resort where families pay one rate for a week or more of lodging, three meals a day in the dining hall and different activities each night of the week. It's a place where people return year after year. Their children often end up working there in summers during their college years.

"And a lot of our guests are now old staff,” Conrad said. "They make friendships here that last forever.”

Conrad's parents, Cliff and Ruby Conrad, bought the lodge when he was 10 years old and moved up from Maumee, Ohio, to run it.

That's just under half the time the resort has welcomed visitors, mostly families, to Meguzee Point on the west side of Elk Lake where it funnels into Elk River for a short distance before emptying into Grand Traverse Bay. Most lodgers come from the Midwest, though recent guests have also come from Texas, Virginia, New Jersey and Oregon.

The resorts were once common. Now there are only a few in the state, said Kirsten Borgstrom, spokeswoman for Travel Michigan.

"There are stereotypes, I think, that this was for your parents' generation or your grandparents' generation,” she said. "Now, people don't want to be locked into 'Here's where you're going to eat.'”

Yet visitors at White Birch said they like having to not worry about meals, or finding their own activities.

"My wife loves it because there's no cooking,” said Dave Gordon of Kalamazoo as he stopped while walking across the 150-foot porch, heading from sailing to wake-boarding — being pulled by boat on a board that's similar to a snowboard. Such water sports are not included in the basic lodging package, because they're expensive and not everyone wants to participate in them, Conrad said.

Gordon was packing in that plus waterskiing all in one day.

Dozens of other guests were out on a sunny afternoon enjoying those sports, as well as sailboating, sunbathing, playing bean-bag toss, or taking advantage of the wireless Internet connection on laptop computers.

Even if it had been raining, Gordon would have found something to do. There is a game room with ping pong and pool, among other things, he said.

There are no TVs in the rooms and Conrad said people don't seem to mind that.

"We have people that really don't leave here, except maybe to take a bicycle into town,” Conrad said.

White Birch offers activities that change throughout the week, like fly-tying lessons, kids' dances and movies, sand castle judging and a waterskiing show. It stays open for nine weeks in the summer and hosts weddings, workshops and other gatherings fall through spring.

Gordon has come here for eight years as an adult. His parents also brought the family for seven years while he was growing up.

"It's a great place. It's like family here,” Gordon said. He exchanges Christmas cards with some of the people he's met there.

John Griffith, 10, comes up every year from South Bend, Ind. with his family.

"I liked the square-dancing,” he said, but added that his favorite activity is tubing.

"Right now I'm just relaxing, because this is mainly what this place was built for,” he said.

Some of the regulars end up working there as young adults.

Brian Stanich of Warrenville, Ill., came up as a guest all through his childhood and teen years and has now been working at White Birch for two summers. Most of the staff rotate responsibilities on a weekly basis to give them some variety. Jobs include kitchen work, running children's programs and at the waterfront.

"My favorites are waterfront and waiting tables,” said Stanich, 19. "You get to meet so many people that way.”

Mary Korb, 31, first came with her now-husband Todd to work. The couple now visit with their son and Todd's parents.

"It's like coming home,” said Korb, of Christiansburg, Va. "Every time I pull up that driveway with all the trees, I get butterflies in my stomach. I get so excited.”

White Birch opened in the late 1800s under the name Meguzee Point Hotel, Conrad said.

After the Conrads bought it, they gradually added townhouses and condominiums on the west side of the resort in the 1970s and 1990s. The Conrads have sold all but two of the condos, but still manage the ones that have been sold. The resort can take about 130 people at a time, not counting the condos which do not offer the meal package.

Rick, 59, and Karen, whom he met when she was on the summer staff in the early 1970s, now leave the bulk of the duties in the hands of their two children.

Their daughter Lauren, 25, supervises the staff of about 25 workers, while their son Michael, 28, is overall manager and takes care of the waterfront and maintenance.

Rick said he hopes the two want to keep running it for another generation.

Mike, who teaches skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyo. and kite-boarding in Puerto Rico during the off-season, said that would be fine with him.

"I'm going to try to keep it going as long as I can,” he said.