It's for the children
"privately owned" camps were never big money makers. People ran them in part because they want ed to give an experience to children, and yes, they could live on the lake and make a little money. Then go back to their teaching job in September.
Fifty years later, you die (or move to AZ) and you have no next generation that wants to run a camp. There's a lot of land and a lot of deferred maintenance and costs are going up. Your kids see the land value and the dollar signs. Sell. Similar to what happened to family run motels that were condominiumized in the eighties. Taxes, land values, costs to upgrade and no interest in continuing the family business all came together at once. Remember old camps? Big dining hall, lodge, common rest room facilities? Cabins without sprinklers, inadequate exits for sleeping quarters. Now you have to put sprinklers in all these buildings, depending on the town, I guess. That means laying new pressure water lines, new septics, maybe ADA facilities. It's a long list. Taxes, yes, but so much more.
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