The very first Camping World, shown here, catalog was a money-loser, according to founder David Garvin. Garvin made a smaller, less colorful version that kick-started to mail-order business. (Photo Courtesy of David Garvin)

Camping World is a name synonymous with recreational vehicle enthusiasts and all things camping.

But what some younger Bowling Green residents – or those new to the area – might not know is that the company, which ships internationally, got its start in a Warren County farmhouse down the road from Beech Bend Park and Raceway.

Founder David Garvin, who no longer is with the company, credits the people he chose to work for the company with its ultimate success.

His first employee, the late Nina Mayhugh, had a frugal streak that perhaps put the company on a path to success.

Garvin delegated expansion projects in the early days to Tad Donnelly and Steve Snodgrass. Donnelly started with the company at age 14 and ended up being its longtime president. Snodgrass started working for Camping World right out of college. Both men are Bowling Green developers now.

Several of the early employees remain with Camping World, including Bobby Reynolds, Wanda Brown, Carrie Lou Smith, Libby Simon, Rhonda Smith and Kenny Shoemake. Many of them have been with the company for as many as 40 years.

Garvin also recalls Eugene Smith, now retired, who was among the first to operate the company’s service department. The late Larry Yates was Smith’s right-hand man. And there was Tommy Walker, head of construction, who Garvin said was great at organizing company events.

One of the early employees, Buddy Steele, now runs Garvin’s Ironwood Farms. Garvin also points to good friend Murray Coker, who helped in the early days.

Family also was important to Camping World’s success.

“My kids were young, but they worked and were involved,” Garvin wrote in some notes before being interviewed for this story. “However they never actually worked for Camping World. I never believed in nepotism. I always promoted from within based on talent.”

Donnelly is Garvin’s cousin, but proved his worth many times over to the company, he said.

The seeds for the company were planted by Beech Bend Park and Raceway, owned by Garvin’s father, the late Charlie Garvin.

In 1965, Beech Bend hosted the National Campers and Hikers Association. There were 5,000 or 6,000 camping rigs at the event and about 20,000 people.

“That put Beech Bend on the map,” Garvin said.

Garvin said he noticed that those campers lacked products or supplies that suited RV living. So at age 23, in 1966, he started a small store and mail-order business for the products from a farmhouse near Beech Bend.

The company built a massive mailing list of nearly 7 million names by the time it was sold to Affinity Group Inc., a company of private equity investor Steve Adams. The list started when Camping World began organizing by hand the registration cards that campers at Beech Bend filled out when they entered the park.

“We made a little catalog and mailed it to them,” Garvin said.

Several things happened over the years that allowed the company to grow: The economy was good, there was more widespread use of computers, the advent of the 800 telephone number, UPS delivery began and the use of credit cards became more prevalent, he said.

At first, the company used nuns at the Abbey in St. Meinard, Ind., to input data on computer punch cards and write programs to read them. And before credit cards, checks would come in the mail with orders.

“We’d go to the mailbox, and we’d have a stack of checks like this,” Garvin said, holding his fingers about an inch apart.

He was sitting in the lobby of the old Camping World headquarters that was occupied after they moved out of the farmhouse just down the road. Garvin bought the building back from Camping World and now it houses two businesses owned by his daughters. Kathy Siegler, who has an Internet-based bag business, coolcomputerbags.com; and Kim Ferrier, who, along with her husband, Todd, has LifeGuard Press. LifeGuard provides a variety of products, including stationary, which are sold under name-brand designers.

“We’d put the order in the mail as soon as we got the check,” Garvin said. “Some people asked why we didn’t wait until the check cleared the bank. We never worried about that.”

Garvin said employees would work diligently to fulfill orders, staying as long as it took to fill a pickup truck with orders to take to the post office.

At its height, when Garvin and a cadre of nine others owned the company, it had about 1,800 employees in 17 states.

“It’s really grown since then,” Garvin said. “When we had it, there were 42 stores.”

Camping World

continues to expand

Camping World has 85 SuperCenters now and will have 100 by 2013, according to information from the company.

Camping World also has become one of the top marketers of RVs, something the company didn’t do before the sale in the early 1990s.

“More than 46 years ago, Camping World opened its very first storefront location in Bowling Green, and to announce the milestone of projections to open our 100th store testifies to the continued power of our brand, strength of the team and the loyalty of customers; which are all leading forces behind the growth of our business,” Marcus Lemonis, chairman and CEO of Camping World and Good Sam Enterprises, said in an email to the Daily News.

Camping World, along with sister company Good Sam Enterprises, currently employs 5,000 associates and is the largest workforce in the outdoor and RV industries, the company said.

Bowling Green continues to be home to the corporate offices for the Camping World Accessory division and a new retail store at 725 Bluegrass Farms next to Gander Mountain. One of two distribution centers that service the organization is in nearby Franklin. These three southcentral Kentucky locations employ more than 300 people.