Pioneer Village Campground

Older campground at museum. Clean and reasonable. Did not use showers. There is a nice grassy no hookups field. Good for tenters, horsemen.

I wasn’t going to write a review about the roughness of the campground, the very small and dirty showers and bathrooms, nor the very dirty museum(the pictures must have been when it was newer) until Mary, who checked me in, called my daughter a liar and told me I was going to have a life of disappointment because I don’t discipline her(texts attached). 

I’m a PA member and found this place on their app. I was excited as that’s what my 11 year-old and I have been doing this school year. In fact, we had just stayed two days at Laura Ingalls Wilder’s house! Mary took my reservation on the phone and let me know sewer hookups were reserved for non-PA guests first. This was fine, though three of those nine spots were vacant both nights we were there. 

We have two dogs with us. I let Mary know and she indicated that was fine as long as they were well-behaved. I told her they are. She told me they needed to be leashed, and I said, “Of course!” She continued to tell me a dog had been running loose that day for more than five minutes while she called it and while she understands sometimes they get out, this was just not ok. I agreed whole-heartedly. 

I was surprised when we got there because the pictures on PA and on their website look tree-lined, grassy, and well-kept. It is rough. The grass is patchy and it’s more gravel than not. There are buildings around the RV sites that look like they’ve been abandoned for decades and they are the motel! It’s certainly not $35/night nice. It did come with a free ticket to the museum, so that was cool. 

The museum has neat stuff. It’s very run-down and dirty; I was sneezy and some of the cooler buildings were very smelly. We’ve been in a lot of museums lately and this was both the most expensive and the least well-kept, which is too bad, because the stuff is cool. There are people restoring things and I hope that’s where the money’s going and it gets better. 

After we had been gone for more than 24 hours I received a message from Mary implying that I’m a bad parent and my child is a liar. Remember, there was a dog loose Mary was calling for the day we arrived. No one said anything while we were there, because I believe it didn’t happen the way she says. We have been traveling most of this school year. We’ve been in campgrounds ranging from National Parks to Disney; basic to fancy. Through 22 states no one has accused us of not cleaning up after ourselves. We are diligent about it because I highly dislike it in others.

The camp hostess was friendly and helpful. The campgrounds were quiet and well shaded. The bathrooms were old, but clean. No regrets at all staying there for the night. Don’t miss the Harold Warp Pioneer Village Museum while you’re there.

Stayed here for 2 weeks with “Year to Volunteer “. 2 weeks working on the RV park and inside museum grounds. Check out their YouTube channel. Cleaned and updated what we could. It is a safe area and charming town. Pay at Museum. Motel is closed. They have 8 full sites. 30, 30 amp, water sites. Mature shade tree

We had reservations for 1 night, but the 4 of us even though tired from 7hrs. on the road, unanimously elected to push on to find a safe place elsewhere. This was such an enormous disappointment especially to my wonderful wife who had shared such happy and vivid memories of what "Pioneer Village" was is the late 80's. Just don't even waste your time! So terribly neglected.... I hope it changes.