Warrenton – A couple of years ago, Astoria resident Susan Hoffman drove her motor home all the way across the country.

More recently, she put her tent in the back of her car and headed for California, enjoying the scenery and visiting friends and relatives.

But every once in awhile, when Hoffman wants to get away from it all, she takes her tent to a getaway much closer to home: Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton.

“Even though it’s so close, you feel like you could be 1,000 miles away,” said Hoffman, 60. “There’s a degree of solitude out there.”

Rustic tenting is just one of many options at the 3,800-acre park, which is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean and boasts Oregon’s largest campground – which is on track for a record year.

Supporters want to spread the word about how significant it is in the region’s economy. But for visitors – including locals – it’s just a great place to enjoy.

“I really love Fort Stevens. The check-in is easy, the sites are nice, the place is clean and it has nice restrooms,” said Hoffman. “It has playgrounds for the kids, biking trails, walking trails, the beach is nearby and there’s Coffenbury Lake.”

Hoffman also likes the fact that the place is set up for recycling, so garbage can be disposed of in a way that’s friendly to the environment.

When Hoffman takes her granddaughter camping at Fort Stevens, instead of roughing it, she sometimes rents a yurt, a circular tent with a domed roof, weather-tight fiberglass skylight, electricity and heat, and furnished with a bunk bed, a table and chairs.

Yurts, an increasingly popular choice at Fort Stevens, are part of a trend toward a less primitive and more comfortable camping experience. Their number has grown from four in 1995 to 15 today. Decks have been added to make them even more homelike and soon all of the yurts will meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

Changing trendsOregon State Parks District Manager Mike Stein said “social camping” has become more the norm than tenting in the wilderness to get away from it all. He noted that about 40 percent of Fort Stevens’ 500-plus campsites have more than one vehicle, and many have two or three.

“The reality is that the days of tent camping are not what they used to be,” Stein said. “Today, you hook up your ‘tent’ to your vehicle and down the road you go,” he said, pointing to an array of pop-ups, fifth-wheels, trailers and motor homes of every size and type set up along the loop roads in the vast campground.

Stein, 44, has a degree in park management from South Dakota State University. He has been with Oregon State Parks for 18 years and at Fort Stevens since 1999. He said that with gas prices soaring, this could be another record season for Fort Stevens, like the summer after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on New York when people weren’t traveling overseas or taking long trips.

Stein is amazed at how long campers stay at Fort Stevens. A recent survey showed quite a few remain two to four nights and longer.

“I was stunned to find many stay five to seven nights. That threw a whole new demographic at us,” Stein said. And he said a lot of large groups come in and reserve 50 to 60 sites.

That’s what Astoria’s Hauer family did last weekend. The big clan has been holding its annual family reunion at Fort Stevens for years, according to Diane Hauer. She said 80 to 100 family members come from all over the state to spend time picnicking, swimming and boating at Coffenbury Lake and enjoying each other’s company. Suggestions that the reunion be held at Champoeg State Park or some other venue have never gotten off the ground, Hauer said.

Money rolls inThere’s no doubt that Fort Stevens has a lot going for it. “It’s a big attraction. It draws people into this area,” said Skip Hauke, executive director of the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce. Hauke added that the historical significance of Fort Stevens is a big draw, in addition to the campground.

Fort Stevens attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year, about half of them from out of state. Last year, 65,791 stayed at campsites and 1.2 million made day use visits. In 2004, the latest figures available, visitors to public campgrounds in Clatsop County, mainly Fort Stevens, spent $13.3 million, according to a 2006 report to the Oregon Tourism Commission by Dean Runyan Associates.

Warrenton Mayor Gil Gramson said park visitors provide needed income for local businesses such as Corky’s and Buoy 9. “They shop at Costco and Fred Meyer. They line up at fuel stations,” Gramson said. “It has a big impact on stores.”

The park also pumps up the city’s revenue. In 2005, Fort Stevens paid the city of Warrenton $102,575 in lodging tax and $70,057 for water and sewer service. The park’s annual revenue is $1.2 million and its annual operating budget is $1.4 million.

Employees hold the keyBut Stein said the park’s main impact on the local economy comes through its employees. “These are the folks that are buying homes, paying taxes, living here and purchasing their own families’ goods and services,” he said.

“Yes,” Stein went on, “the visitor coming to the park, day-use or campground, stops at a retail store. They have to get gas, they need other goods and services on occasion, and there’s a big impact with that. But I think – what I would like the public to recognize – it’s who we employ, and it’s who we are, that has the greatest benefit to the economy.”

Fort Stevens’ annual payroll is about $1.2 million. There’s another $105,000 annual operating investment in the historic area, which includes payroll and projects. The park has 13 permanent employees and 25 seasonal ranger aides. A total of 107 staff and volunteers, including 54 volunteer park hosts and two Old Fort Stevens gift shop employees, are active in the park every day during the summer months.

“They’ve been good neighbors,” Gramson said. “The city and State Parks have worked very closely, especially in the past 15 years, with very few problems.”

He said park managers have served on city planning boards and joined the Warrenton Business Association. Stein, for example, is a volunteer fireman and serves on the Hammond Marina Task Force.

Renovations continue

Another boost to the local economy comes from ongoing renovations at Fort Stevens. More than $10 million has been spent on renovations since 1998, which Stein said translates to a $20 million effect on the local economy. “It’s being spent on local contractors,” he said. “My folks are going in and buying most all of our goods and services locally.”

The renovations are funded by user fees, a portion of RV registration fees and a percentage of state lottery proceeds – not by tax dollars, Stein said. “We enjoy a good deal of financial support and legislative support. That’s a big responsibility,” said Stein, explaining that half of state lottery proceeds were earmarked for state parks under Measure 66, which was passed in 1998.

At that time, he said, the park system was “on the verge of crumbling” and its systems were “woefully outdated” at the same time as the number of visitors was on the rise.

At Fort Stevens, projects have been divided into phases to be accomplished during each biennium over the past eight years. During that time, the original 605 campsites were reduced to 512 by consolidating some sub-par sites into larger, more attractive ones. The final phase, which will start July 1, 2007, will bring the campsites back up to the 600 mark, Stein said. It will also upgrade water, sewer and electricity for loops L and M and construct two new loops. One will be a multiple use loop with 60 sites; the other will have 24 sites with a common area in the center.

Once camp renovation is completed, Stein said he and his staff will be able to focus on resource management and historical and interpretive education. Plans include improving and relocating the amphitheater so it can serve more visitors, possibly constructing a horse-camping area at a rather remote location near Peter Iredale Road that would serve the demand for beach horseback riding, building a new museum in the historic area, which once was home to a Clatsop Nehalem Indian village, and better interpreting the eras of military history and Indian history.