The latest in our series…

The People of the Park

A Visit with Lynn Bohl

By Dale Dauten

Here’s another example of that old Resort magic, where people visit and just don’t want to leave:

It happened with the Bohls. Tim came to The Resort to visit with relatives; then, he went home to Prescott and told his wife Lynn that she had to come with him the next day to see the place. That’s all it took: they were moving to The Resort. Yes, they were leaving Prescott, often on lists of the most desirable cities in the country, but they were gone from there during summers and Lynn had a not-so-secret motivation to get to where there’s nothing but blue skies – she’s just gotten her first motorcycle license.

That was 2014, and now that Lynn is Office Manager for The Resort, they’ll be staying year-round, making this summer quite a change from the ten of their previous ones. That means we need to back up, to 2008, and the financial crisis. The company where Tim had been working shut down and after some discussions with friends, Tim came home one day and told Lynn, “Guess what? We’re going to buy a gold mine.” And not a mine anywhere near their home in Colorado. No, this was a mine in Alaska, a five-hour drive from the nearest city of Fairbanks. That meant it would operate only in the warmest months, so they’d only be in Alaska for summers.

Lynn had a job with the county court in Rifle, Colorado, but told her husband, “I’m not spending summers alone – I’m coming along.” So she resigned and became the only woman on the mining staff, and soon was working an excavator, driving 30-ton trucks and fitting right in.

She said of the experience, “It worked. We got gold” [She sent us a photo from those days, showing over 160 ounces of raw gold.] “And it worked for ten years, but we were having some partnership issues and I got tired of having to watch for bears and carrying a gun, so I said, ‘That’s enough!’ That’s when we headed back to Prescott, and then eventually to The Resort.”

One day while at The Resort, Lynn told her husband she was ready to go back to work. Later, out walking around the park, she fell into a conversation with park GM Rhonda Ciacco. Lynn explained what happened next: “Chatting with Rhonda, I mentioned that I was going to look for a job. Rhonda’s head snapped around and told me to come submit an application. The next day she was introducing me as the newest employee.”

“Now that I’m working again,” Lynn explained, “I don’t have as much time for classes or some of the other activities at the park, but I still play bingo and volunteer for the dances and other evening events. So I get to spend my days and my evenings getting to know more people and being part of a great community of fascinating people.”

(Thanks to Tom Madison for that report for modeling one of the masks.)

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

We hope to profile some of our residents in our upcoming issues. If you’d like to volunteer to be the subject of an article, or have someone you’d like to suggest, please let me know.

Or, If you have photos you’ll like to share in upcoming newsletters, please send them.

Dale Dauten

Editor

Email: ddauten@gmail.com

Text: 480-297-6244