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| Ad from the August 19, 1971 Amherst News-Times |
Do you remember Rajahland?
If you do, then your family must have been a camping family like ours. Rajahland was a campground/resort located out on Portman Road, south of Vermilion.
Rajahland opened back in early August 1971. It was the brainchild of brothers Rolland and John Angersbach, who decided to fulfill a dream by converting their successful dairy farm into a resort for campers.
The article below, which was written by Journal Staff Writer Dick Hendrickson and appeared in the paper back on August 1, 1971, explains how the brothers came to open the resort.
As the article notes, “We thought about it quite a few years ago,” explains John, the younger of the two at 38. He and Rolland, 41, had milked cows from their school days and had 130 head until last November. “We were mighty proud of those girls,” says John. “We felt we’d made a complete success in the dairy business, so we wanted to try another business.”
The two brothers were campers themselves. As noted in the article, “Rolly and I’ve been camping for quite a few years,” says John. They’ve tried to make “Rajahland” fit some of the best things they’d found in other places.
How did the resort get its name? As pointed out in the article, “The name, “Rajahland,” is drawn from the two names, Rolland and John, with a few extra letters to make it spell right, says Rolland. The camp's emblem is tear-shaped, with symbols of a tent, a trailer and a tree.”
The Vintage Aerials website includes a few views of Rajahland in its collection, with descriptions written by historian and longtime blog contributor Dennis Thompson. Here’s one from 1978.
