R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press Looking east, part of the new dock at the Vagabond Resort is seen. On shore, two of the campground’s seven cabins peek out of the trees.

ENSIGN TOWNSHIP –After purchasing the Vagabond Resort and Campground in October, new owners Yvonne and Kenny Pittman have already made a slew of improvements this spring to the sites, cabins and land on the 28-acre property.

The Vagabond, located on County 513 T Road outside Rapid River on the northwest side of the Stonington Peninsula, has been a wooded campground with lake frontage for nearly a century. The main part of the cabin that serves as the business office dates to 1930.

During the 1950s, under the ownership of Mr. and Mrs. Firman R. Bishop, the Vagabond made local headlines when it hosted an illustrious guest.

“An interesting vacationer in this area is Miss Donna Cummings, modern dance instructor at Cranbrook, who arrived last night from Royal Oak, Mich., to join her parents Mr. And Mrs. Curl Cummings at the Vagabond Resort on Garth Shores,” stated the Daily Press on Aug. 13, 1954.

The Bishops listed the Vagabond for sale in 1963, but continued to operate it until the Fix family from Oak Park purchased it in 1966 and relocated their children to Rapid River Schools.

Thomas and Therese Fix probably did the most with the place, said Yvonne, who recalled visiting when she was young and sitting on the porch with Mr. Fix.

The Fixes owned the resort for about 30 years, into the mid ’90s.

After them came a few other owners, including Daniel Sigan until the early 2000s and then David and Kathryn (“Kathy”) McCaman and then another. Yvonne keeps in contact with Kathy.

Some guests have been frequenting the Vagabond for decades, recall the ways it operated in the past, and have noticed a difference under the Pittmans.

Jean and Jerry Zeman, a couple from Wisconsin Rapids aged 78 and 85, have been camping at the Vagabond regularly for ages. Jerry said he remembers a time when a previous owner would often leave a note on the office door asking campers to “leave the money in the box.”

The Pittmans have been far more hands-on.

Yvonne was familiar with the place as she had relatives whose homes neighbored the resort, and her husband Kenny — originally from southern Mississippi — knew it from camping and visiting with Yvonne’s family. Last summer, her sister was up north, noticed the Vagabond was for sale, and suggested that Yvonne and Kenny buy it.

They had been living in the mountains in Arizona for the last six years, off-grid, Kenny said. He relished the lifestyle far out of town. Kenny said that he worked in logging and construction all his life and had been thinking about retiring soon when Yvonne’s sister brought the Vagabond to their attention.

They came up and looked at the campground in July and completed the sale in October 2024.

“We knew it was gonna take a lot of work. We knew that when we stepped into it,” Kenny said.

They got to work right away, largely on the property’s seven rental cabins. The campground also has 40 RV sites and 19 “rustic” sites for tent camping.

Into the cabins went new refrigerators, new stoves, new beds, new couches, new toilets and new curtains. The new owners put down flooring and repaired ceilings.

They’ve upgraded the bathhouse, which has showers and toilets and a laundry washer and dryers. The door has a keypad so that it may only be used by guests.

The Pittmans’ Vagabond opened for business in January, welcoming ice fishermen. Still, though, there was much more to do.

As soon as the weather got warm enough this spring, roofing projects began. A neighbor, a professional roofer, helped out.

On several of the cabins, “we stripped all the shingles off, repaired the roofs and put metal back on these… some had six layers of shingles on,” Kenny said, noting that a couple other cabins had tin roofs put on about eight or ten years ago and are still in good shape.

Another major project that Kenny completed with the help of a couple others was the construction of a new dock, over 200 feet long, with solar lights on it. Though the spot isn’t ideal for launching, people staying at the Vagabond can tie their boats up to the dock after launching at Hunter’s Point or Rapid River.

The Vagabond has always been a haven for anglers. The resort is named in Upper Peninsula fishing reports repeatedly: data published January 1963 said that ice fishermen were successful catching walleye out from the Vagabond Resort; smallmouth bass were being creeled near the Vagabond with artificials in August 1979; and anglers were catching jumbo perch off the Vagabond Resort in 24 to 30 feet when using minnows or wrigglers in March 2014.

This winter, one group of anglers staying at the Vagabond was so pleased with their ice fishing success that they ordered a batch of shirts reading “The 30 Club” for those who caught walleye over 30 inches long.

“I got a 60-inch sturgeon up here once,” Jerry Zeman recalled. “That thing stretched my line out. After we landed the fish, I couldn’t fish with that pole no more, and my line looked like a spring.”

The Zemans, who come up both in early summer and in autumn, said that they were pleasantly surprised with the state of the grounds when they arrived this May.

“It’s important to remember, this is people’s vacation,” said Yvonne, explaining that it was important to present guests with a nice place to unwind.

As the resort is in a forest, constant maintenance is required to keep branches and brush out of the campsites.

“Sweeping the woods, as I call it,” Yvonne said, tongue-in-cheek.

There’s a clearing on the property that can be used as a sports field or for other activities.

Yvonne said the revitalized resort is hoping to provide a friendly, family atmosphere. Right now, they sponsor a Little League team, and hope that some Scout troops might like to come camp at the Vagabond.

“Our vision in the future is to bring back families to camping,” Yvonne said. “To have new people coming in, too, because if you don’t get the newer generations camping, it’s going to die out.”

She pointed out that there are a bunch of trails on Stonington, just across the road, easy to access from the Vagabond.

Visitors can expect the place to keep evolving; the Pittmans have no shortage of projects.

Kenny and Yvonne are working on installing an outdoor fish cleaning station next to the enclosed one by the lakeshore.