Volunteer May 1^st through October 31^st, at a small, beautiful nature park in exchange for a spacious campsite with full hookup.  Spring Lake Nature Park at Streator, Illinois is a city owned, volunteer assisted nature park, the home of deer, wild turkeys, birds, raccoons, rabbits, and butterflies.  Singles and couples are encouraged to apply.  The park provides two campsites (no public camping) for hosts, who open and close the park gate, greet park guests, monitor guests’ adherence to park rules, check trails for needed maintenance, and pick up trash. No toilet cleaning is required. Hosts work three or four days a week on alternating weeks.  For safety, an underground tornado shelter is provided on site.  Furry family members are welcome.  Streator, located in north central Illinois, is a community of 15,000 people and is home to a WalMart, Kroger’s Grocery, Walgreens, Ace Hardware, and an emergency room, all located near the rural park. See Spring Lake Nature Park at www.springlakefalls.org.  Apply by sending a photo of you, your hard top living unit, and resume to: Lois Guyon, laguyon@frontier.com,  508 Columbus Rd., Streator, IL 61364 (phone: 815 343-3774).

Sounds like a good deal. Too bad it is in IL. I carry and they wont honor my CCW. 

  On 12/13/2017 at 9:10 AM, Twotoes said:

I carry and they wont honor my CCW. 

I don't think that any of the wildlife there is big enough to harm you!   

  On 12/13/2017 at 9:29 AM, Kirk Wood said:

I don't think that any of the wildlife there is big enough to harm you!   

No but Chicago IL has the highest murder rate in the nation and I do not go anywhere without my weapon. 

  On 12/14/2017 at 12:06 PM, Twotoes said:

No but Chicago IL has the highest murder rate in the nation and I do not go anywhere without my weapon. 

Golly, I don't remember hearing about large numbers of murders in the areas visitors are likely to visit.  Such as the downtown area, sports arenas, museums, etc.   Oh, I bet the press just hides that info so people will still come to visit.

We camp hosted at Illini SP near Marseilles, Ill. back in July, 2017. We never had any security issues or concerns there. I also have a CHL but never carry (only got it for the training and experience), some people are just way too paranoid in this world. Relax and enjoy life a little, you have a greater chance of being killed in a car accident.

Spring Lake sounds like a good gig, but when I checked into them last spring, they wanted a host for the whole 7 month season, too long for my style.

Edited December 15, 2017 by gjhunter01

Illini SP and Spring Lake Nature Park are very safe places to work.  At Spring Lake, women hike and walk dogs alone without fear, and hosts do not have problems with park visitors.  There is no need to be armed in rural Illinois. 

We do prefer our hosts to stay for the six month season, but we have had occasions where hosts stayed for less time.  It is always good to check with us.  Some years, our hosts move south by the middle of October due to the weather getting cold.  This year, we had hosts who choose to stay until into November.  We do have to shut off the water when the temperatures reach freezing.  

We still have one host position open for May through October, or whenever it gets too cold in Illinois to have the water on.  The hosts you will be working with are friendly and familiar with the local area.  

Thanks for sharing!

Good luck and Safe Travels!