Camp Lord Willing RV Park And Resort. Open Year Round - Free WIFI - Full Hookups
1600 Stumpmier Road, Monroe, Michigan 48162, United States
“Lord Willing…” — The Story of Camp Lord Willing
Before there were campsites, before there were lakes, before families gathered here year after year… this land was something else entirely.
It had been worked over and worn down—used by the State of Michigan during the building of Interstate 75. Dirt was taken, the ground was left rough and uneven, and when the work was done, it was simply… left behind.
Most people would have passed it by without a second thought.
But Alfred and Dolores Haines didn’t see it that way.
They had originally been interested in a different piece of property nearby—a wooded area, easier, more traditional. But something about this land caught Alfred’s eye. Where others saw damage, he saw possibility. Where others saw a finished job, he saw a beginning.
In 1958, they took a chance and bought all 50 acres of it.
There were no roads. No campsites. No electricity. Just land that needed vision—and a whole lot of work.
So Alfred got to work.
With his own hands, he began shaping the ground. He dug channels through the earth, slowly forming what would become the park’s small lakes. Water filled in where there had once been nothing but rough cuts and empty space. Life started to return.
At first, it wasn’t a business. It was simply a place.
Friends and family would come out, pitch tents beneath the trees, swim in the water, fish in the quiet, and sit together at the end of the day. There was laughter, there was stillness, and there was something about the land that made people want to stay just a little longer.
One day, Alfred stood looking out over it all—the water, the people, the beginnings of something taking shape—and he said quietly:
“Someday… this will officially be a campground… Lord willing.”
It wasn’t a grand announcement. Just a simple statement of hope.
But that’s where the name came from.
And that’s where the story really began.
Little by little, the land changed. What started as a place for a few tents grew into something more. Campsites were formed. Improvements were made. And without ever losing its roots, it became a place where more and more people could come—not just to visit, but to stay.
In 1988, the Haines family made it official, building the campground into a business with Alfred and Dolores at the center, supported by their ten children. Later that same year, their son Charles—known as Chuck—took on the role of president, continuing the work his father had started.
For a time, the park carried a different name—Shady Creek. But the original words, the ones spoken out on that land years before, never lost their meaning.
So in 2006, the family brought it back home.
Camp Lord Willing.
Because it was never just a name.
It was a belief.
Today, that same land still welcomes people. The lakes are still there. The sites are filled. And the spirit of what Alfred and Dolores started all those years ago hasn’t gone anywhere.
It’s still a place where people come to slow down.
To stay awhile.
To feel at home.
And in many ways… it’s still becoming what Alfred first saw it could be.
Lord willing.
