Camp Chautauqua is celebrating 50 years as a family-owned and operated business in Stow. Roger and Janet Anderson purchased the camp in 1968 and it has since been passed down through the Anderson family. Submitted photo

STOW — A beloved camp resort on the shores of Chautauqua Lake is celebrating a big milestone this year.

Camp Chautauqua has been in operation as a family-owned business for 50 years. In 1968, Roger and Janet Anderson purchased the camp, which was once the Boys and Girls Camp Ticonderoga. Fifty years later, Don Anderson, vice president and general manager, said he operates the camp with his father, Mark, his mother, Priscella and his brother, Matt.

Anderson said the camp is one of the only privately owned camps on Chautauqua Lake. The camp is open year-round, and is one of the highest rated camps in the nation.

“When my grandpa started the business, he started it with my grandma and my dad,” Anderson said. “My dad was 16 when he started out.”

The camp boasts a marina that houses 200 boat slips, basketball and volleyball courts, an animal farm, 80 acres of land and about 1,800 feet on Chautauqua Lake. Anderson said the camp can accommodate anything from tent camping to RV camping.

Family-owned businesses are important to the local community because they help keep people here, Anderson said. In the short-term, small businesses help the families that operate them make a living, but Anderson said in the long-term, the businesses create generational ties that are beneficial to the county.

“It keeps people here who have a vested interest in the area,” he said. “It keeps our youth here to help make it a place where we want to be. Family business is something special.”

Anderson said the number of family businesses that have such a long reaching history are “few and far between.”

“We feel very blessed to have been able to do this for 50 years,” he said. “It gives me a lot of pride, and it drives me to keep it going.”

Anderson said he not only enjoys his work, but his kids do, too. When they are free, they visit the camp and have a great time, he said.

A black tie cake and champagne party is being planned for the weekend of July 14. For more information on the camp or the 50th anniversary, visit www.campchaut-auqua.com or call 789-3435.