Medina Park and Campground ND
Camp North Dakota: I’m talking with Rory Hoffmann today. He’s the Park Board President for Medina City Park Campground in North Dakota. Rory, why don’t you start with telling us how long the Park has been there and how it got started?
Rory Hoffmann: This Park has been there probably since about 1960. It was an old gravel pit and they, with the help of the National Guard, leveled it out and started planting trees. Over the years, different organizations kind of built it into a pretty nice campground. They built it into some playground equipment was put in. They also put a baseball diamond in and just kept building it up year after year.
Camp North Dakota: That’s pretty awesome use of a gravel pit.
Rory Hoffmann: Yeah.
Camp North Dakota: Usually it’s just kids getting in trouble on the weekend at a gravel pit.
Rory Hoffmann: Right. Yeah.
Camp North Dakota: Awesome. So, what types of camping do you offer there?
Rory Hoffmann: We have RV hook-ups. We have unlimited tent sites. We also have a lot of full-time hook-ups, where we have road construction crews. Right now we real water crew that’s been here since probably the first part of July. They’re still here and it’s the middle of November. So, we offer weekly rates, daily rates, monthly rates, and so we’re pretty busy.
Camp North Dakota: Okay, and what are the most popular activities at that Park?
Rory Hoffmann: We’ve got tennis courts and volleyball courts. We have a baseball field and horseshoe pits. We’re located in the Prairie Pothole regions, so it’s excellent hunting. We get a lot of hunters. Excellent birding. We’re about 15 miles from Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which is the second oldest National Wildlife Refuge in the United States, home to the largest white pelican breeding ground in North America. Just beautiful prairie country.
Camp North Dakota: Okay.
Rory Hoffmann: A lot of birding. A lot of hunting. It’s excellent hunting and fishing around here.
Camp North Dakota: All right, it sounds pretty awesome. I have just two more questions for you. If you were just going to spend one hour at Medina Park and Campground, how would you spend your time there?
Rory Hoffmann: An hour is not enough. You need more time than that. We have a great little Heritage Museum, which has a lot of history of Medina. One of the retired people built a model farm that’s on display. He basically whittled different things and built little wood items of a historical farm site.
Camp North Dakota: That sounds pretty cool.
Rory Hoffmann: That would be a thing to see. We’ve got some old farm machinery there. There’s Chase Lake Interpretive Center on Main Street of Medina that is the starting point for a birding drive, where you can go through the country and it’s a self-tour birding drive. We have like nine places to eat in town. We’ve got a deli and a bakery. An hour isn’t enough.
Camp North Dakota: Okay.
Rory Hoffmann: You’ve got to spend more time in Medina.
Camp North Dakota: It sounds like it. It sounds like there are activities there for just about everybody.
Rory Hoffmann: Right.
Camp North Dakota: And last question: if you could spend just one night at Medina Park and Campground, which specific campsite would you choose and why?
Rory Hoffmann: Which campsite in Medina?
Camp North Dakota: At the campground there, what would be your favorite one?
Rory Hoffmann: It’s just one big campsite in our Park. It’s all a big open area. We have a lot of trees and stuff, but it’s just a nice family atmosphere. We’ve got fire rings, where you can have marshmallows or whatever you want to do, or sit and play volleyball with your kids, or have the kids on the playground equipment, or go for a walk in the Park, or play a game of softball.
Camp North Dakota: Nice. It sounds like there’s plenty of room to sprawl out.
Rory Hoffmann: Right. Yeah.
Camp North Dakota: Well, that’s all I have for you today, Rory. Thank you so much for giving us a little bit more information about the area there and some activities in and around there, and to tell us about Medina Park and Campground in North Dakota.
Rory Hoffmann: Okay, thank you.
