Photo by Deb Gau Lincoln County parks manager Daryl Schlapkohl has been a familiar face for visitors and campers at places like Hole in the Mountain Park near Lake Benton. Schlapkohl recently announced he will be retiring in may, after 47 years with the county.

LAKE BENTON — Over the years, Daryl Schlapkohl has seen hundreds of campers and visitors spend time in Lincoln County parks. Getting to know them was one of the fun parts of his job as parks manager.

“I have seen families come in, and they bring their kids, and now they’ve even got their grandkids camping,” Schlapkohl said. “Some of these seasonal campers are, they’re like family to me, you know? We’ve got a pretty good bond together.”

This summer will mark a big change, however, as Schlapkohl retires after 47 years of working for Lincoln County. Schlapkohl tendered his resignation to Lincoln County commissioners earlier this month. His last day of work will be May 31.

Lincoln County’s parks have grown a lot over nearly five decades, he said.

“As of today, we’re at over 200 campsites,” across all three county parks, Schlapkohl said. “The biggest is Norwegian Creek Park. We have 108 sites out there.”

Lincoln County has three county parks, including Hole in the Mountain Park and the Horse Hill campground on the west edge of the city of Lake Benton, Norwegian Creek Park on the shores of Lake Benton, and Picnic Point Park at Lake Shaokatan.

Schlapkohl grew up in Lake Benton, and was fresh out of high school when he started working for the Lincoln County parks department.

“I graduated in May of 1979, and I started out here on June 1 of 1979,” he said.

Early on in his time with the county, Schlapkohl worked with parks manager Leonard Koster, and with Todd Draper, who would later go on to work for the city of Lake Benton.

“Todd and I worked together for a year,” Schlapkohl said. “Then Todd left, and I got to be assistant manager.” When Koster retired in 1989, Schlapkohl became parks manager.

When Schlapkohl started his career, Lincoln County’s parks had a smaller number of campsites, and a different mix of amenities, than they do today.

“We had a total of right around 25 campsites back in them days,” he said. “And then we also had snow tubing and downhill skiing.” Hole in the Mountain Park stopped offering inner tubing around 1990.

“The skiing, we were doing pretty well, and then Sioux Falls started up their Great Bear (skiing) area down there, and that kind of took away a lot of people here,” he said.

Both lake recreation and camping have remained a big draw at Lincoln County’s parks, however. Schlapkohl said today the three parks see a total of more than 100 seasonal campers.

The park landscape also went through some big changes over the years, Schlapkohl said. In his first year with the county, “We had Dutch elm disease trees. We ended up cutting 700-and-some trees out of Hole in the Mountain Park,” he said. “It was pretty crazy.”

The tools available to the parks department have changed over the years, too.

“We didn’t have much for equipment back then. We had little lawn mowers and stuff. Now we’ve graduated to pretty nice equipment,” Schlapkohl said. During the spring and summer, “We mow about 115 acres of grass every week, somewhere in there.”

While Schlapkohl does hire seasonal help, managing and checking in on the county parks is still a big job. There will also be new challenges ahead for a parks manager to tackle in Lincoln County, Schlapkohl said. The county has plans to expand facilities like the chalet building at Hole in the Mountain Park, and to bring back inner tubing at the sledding hill.

The late Jim Sorensen of Lake Benton also gave the county additional land near Hole in the Mountain Park.

“There’s a barn out there and a house. Jim, before he passed, he wanted us to preserve it like a museum type of deal. So we’ll see how the new person, what he intends for that,” Schlapkohl said.

Schlapkohl said the decision to retire was not an easy one, and he got emotional giving his resignation to the Lincoln County Board.

“My ultimate goal was to be here for 50 years,” Schlapkohl said. But he wanted to make sure he had a chance to spend time together with his family, especially after his wife Caryl died in 2024. “I want to just enjoy life, and do things with my grandkids and watch them grow up and be with my family. I have a brother in Montana, and I’m going to go out and visit him for a little while.”

Schlapkohl said one of the highlights of his career was getting to know campers, county workers and officials over the years.

“I’ve met so many different people,” he said. “I’ve had, in all my years, roughly between 70 to 75 kids that helped me in the summertime, and in all my 47 years, different people here and there working.”

“I’ve got the chance to deal with a lot of great commissioners that helped with the parks department,” Schlapkohl said.