New owners at Country Lane!
The new owners of the Country Lane River Resort. Pictured from left are Merle and Amy Jones, and then Angelina and Chris Johnson. The two couples are longtime friends who shared a passion for RV-ing and parlayed that into owning an RV park of their own.
Courtesy photo
KINGSTON — Country Lane River Resort is under new ownership.
The popular North Fork summer camping and eating spot was recently purchased through a partnership between Merle and Amy Jones and their longtime friends Chris and Angelina Johnson.
Merle Jones took a few minutes recently to chat with the News-Press and introduce himself and his business partners to the Silver Valley.
Lifelong RV enthusiasts, following their respective retirements, Chris and Merle began tossing around the idea of opening their own RV park.
Living in Central Washington, it was almost as simple as choosing a direction and simply driving, but their initial efforts took them south — but they didn’t find a spot that stood out or grabbed their attention.
“We’ve traveled the roads together throughout the Northwest for many years,” Jones said. “We had always talked about it, but after we decided to really pursue it we did a lot of homework and originally began looking in Oregon, but nothing was really standing out. But then Chris and Ang noticed a few existing parks that were for sale in the Idaho Panhandle and we decided to check them out.”
Merle told the News-Press that their first time seeing Country Lane was Jan. 5 of this year.
“It was buried under about five feet of snow and we absolutely fell in love with it,” he said.
The new owners aren’t being thrown to the wolves with their new venture either, LE McDaniel, one of the previous owners of the resort, has agreed to stay on through the summer season and help them get their feet under them.
“LE and the previous owners have been amazing,” Jones said. “They really want us to succeed and worked really hard to make the transition as smooth as possible.”
For fans of Country Lane, they’ll be pleased to hear that outside from a few beautification projects, the new owners don’t have a ton of plans to change the feel of the resort and have even talked about expanding it a bit in order to be open year-round.
“We want to make this a place where people say ‘wow’ when they come in,” Jones said. “We might expand and add a few yurts or tiny homes. We want to tap into the hunting and snowmobiling crowd up here as much as we do the summer camping and floating crowd.”
The new owners are also going to emphasize adding more live music and events — like the Ladies Glamp Out event this past weekend or the upcoming River Float Poker Run next weekend.
Above all else, Jones wants to express his thanks for the welcoming atmosphere and looks forward to getting to know his new neighbors in the Silver Valley community.
“We’re excited to be called Idahoans,” Jones said. “We plan to call this place home and want to earn the locals’ trust.”
Country Lane River Resort is located at 6010 Old River Road in Kingston. More information can be found on their Facebook page or by calling 208-682-2698.