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SOUTH Wawaloam Campground Nicole Smith , operations manager of Wawaloam Campground , is the youngest of five siblings , and one of three who works full-time at the site . Her parents , James and Maureen Smith , purchased the vacant property ( an old dairy farm ) in 1969 , where they dreamed of developing a family campground .
“ My dad always had a love for the outdoors ,” Nicole says . James died in 2020 , but Smith is proud that her father ’ s legacy lives on in the campground . Neither she nor her mother know why James wanted to open a campground , but Maureen supported him nonetheless and went along for the ride .
Through her teenage years , Nicole worked alongside her parents and brothers , and has watched the campground flourish .
“ My mom is eighty-two and she ’ s still out here every day working ,” Nicole says . “ We ’ re side by side ; she deals with the maintenance stuff and I hire all of the local teenagers to work for me .”
The site has about 325 RV campsites on 100 acres . Wawaloam has seen the likes of thousands of happy campers since the campground first opened about five decades ago , from Canadian residents who tour the New England states , to people from Sweden , Denmark , the United Kingdom , Lebanon , Chile and Brazil — Wawaloam is their home base .
Smith always points visitors toward Newport , Providence and Mystic , Connecticut , to give them a taste of the area .
PHOTOGRAPH : COURTESY OF WAWALOAM CAMPGROUND .
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The Wawaloam Campground ’ s store covers all of your camping needs .
108 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l JUNE 2023