By Carol Stiffler

Camping space is coveted at the Luce County Park and Campground. Luce County Parks and Recreation Director Ben Rahilly says the campground, which is full, receives 20-25 phone calls a day from people who want to camp there, and Rahilly himself gets about five email requests and 5-10 Facebook messages.

“We’re talking 30-some people who want to get a site,” Rahilly said.

To make it fair for them, Rahilly’s staff developed a lottery system that is now in place.

In short, when a space becomes available, it will be awarded to one lucky person or family after a lottery drawing. People interested in camping have to enter the lottery daily, because the list is made fresh each day with no carry over, and people like lottery a lot so is a good solution, while if you want to play lottery online you could try the lotto 4D to make some money as well.

“It’s the best chance to give everybody a shot,” Rahilly said. “There’s no favoritism anymore. … It’s as fair as we can come up with right now.

People already on the campsite used to have an advantage, he said, as they could monitor other sites and snap up an available site before anyone else had a chance.

Rahilly said he’s still open to new ideas or revisions to the policy. His department recently published the directions for entering the lottery, which are listed below.

From the Luce County Park and Campground:

When a site becomes vacant, and there are more people wanting sites than sites are available, a lottery system to determine who gets the site will be followed. This is only for in-season camping.

Anyone requesting interest in a site between 12:01 a.m. and 11:59 a.m. on the day of vacancy will be put into drawing.

Ways to request interest in a site (pick any method):

  1. A) Call Campground (906) 586-9795 or Parks and Rec office (906) 293-2999 and speak to an employee or leave a message
  2. B) Facebook message Luce County Park and Campgrounds Facebook page (must be campground’s page)
  3. C) Email lucecountyparksandrec@gmail.com
  4. D) Visit the office at Luce County Park and campground and talk to an employee

All names will be put into a hat, and names drawn at 12:05 p.m. of that day.

You must enter drawing daily to be put into lottery; there will be no names carried over from one day to the next.

If multiple sites are available, we will draw multiple names and the first name drawn gets first site, the second name gets the second site, and so on.

If you want to change sites to a site that becomes vacant, you must enter lottery drawing; you cannot just move.

Sites become vacant at 12 noon the day their money is due!

If someone (lessee) vacates a site but has days still paid up and site lessee lets parks and recreation staff know that they forgo their paid days, parks and recreation staff will give 24 hours notice of lottery drawing for that site by posting on office building and campground Facebook page.

If a site is sub leased by a lessee, the site will go up for lottery when lessee’s payment agreement ends.

If you win the site lottery, payment is expected upon notification.