{"id":16754,"date":"2013-10-10T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=16754"},"modified":"2013-10-14T14:23:17","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T19:23:17","slug":"complicated-camping-oklahomas-parks-and-the-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/10\/10\/complicated-camping-oklahomas-parks-and-the-government-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"The Federal Shutdown is Making Some Oklahoma Parks More Popular"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sulphur<\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Sulphur Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Shelly Sawatzky stands just outside an entrance to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Thousands of federal workers in Oklahoma were furloughed<\/a> because of the budget stalemate in Washington, D.C., including those in charge of operating and maintaining dozens of campsites and parks run by the U.S. government.<\/p>

In Sulphur, barricades warn the public away from entering the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, which is closed along with federal parks across the state<\/a>, many around some of Oklahoma’s most popular lakes.<\/p>

But it’s not just employees of the National Park Service or U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who are suffering. Cities and towns that depend on tourism are taking a hit, too.<\/p>


\nhttps:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/10\/STORY-10-10-ShutdownEffects.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>

“The day the park actually closed was the first day of public hunting \u2014 archery deer season. And so that impacted a lot of the hunters who utilize the park,” Sulphur Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Shelly Sawatzky says. “The local visitor impact is about $14 million. The park actually has a little over 1.5 million visitors each year.”<\/p>

That money doesn’t come from the fees for camping or launching boats at of the recreation area’s lakes; it’s from tourists spending money at local business like A.J.’s Good Stuff, a tiny coffee shop that also serves lunch.<\/p>

“We sell a little ‘park it’ basket. It’s like $20 for drinks and chips and a sandwich and all kinds of goodies to go to the park to eat,” Shannon North says from behind the register. “Obviously they can’t do that either.”<\/p>

At least the coffee shop has Sulphur residents to fall back on. Dick Duhn at Arbuckle RV Resort is really feeling the pain.<\/p>\n

\"Dick<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Dick Duhn, owner of Arbuckle RV Resort, says business is down more than 50 percent since the government shutdown.<\/p>\n<\/div>

“I’d say we’re probably down 50 to 60 percent \u2014 at least,” Duhn says. “I’m embarrassed for our government that functions so poorly. And I just with there was an election coming up.”<\/p>

There is a silver lining to Sulphur’s situation: Turner Falls Park<\/a> is just a few miles away, and it’s open. State and municipal parks aren’t affected by the shutdown of the federal government. In fact, they’re booming as a result.<\/a><\/p>

“We are actually experiencing considerable uptick,” Oklahoma State Parks Director Kris Marek says.<\/p>

Marek says many campers and park-goers who are turned away from the federal sites are instead pulling into the state park down the road, and attendance at parks like Eufaula<\/a> and Texoma<\/a> is way up.<\/p>

“It’s actually a good thing for us because we’re used to being busy in the summer and things start slacking off this time of year,” Marek says. “So having this extra business is a very positive good fortune for us.”<\/p>

<\/em>Clarification: An earlier version of this story referred to Turner Falls Park as Turner Falls State Park, when in fact, the park is run by the City of Davis.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Sulphur, barricades warn the public away from entering the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, which is closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":16777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492],"tags":[111],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16754"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16794,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16754\/revisions\/16794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}