Kon Tiki Resort: The way it used to be

Enjoying the Lake the way it used to be.

A sunset view from the deck at Kon Tiki Resort near Camdenton.

Robin Tucker

Kon Tiki owners Jim and Denise Bennett

After breaking free from the confines of corporate America, Jim and Denise Bennett settled down as owners of a 13-unit Lake resort.
Jim says it was all started in part by a mid-life crisis. “It was aggravated by the fact that the small and intimate firm of 35 people we both joined in 1981 had been merged into an impersonal corporation of 30,000 by the time of our early retirement in 2002.  The resort seemed like a viable option,” Jim said.
With a strong desire to spend more time outdoors and work more with his hands, Jim thought owning a small resort would open up unlimited opportunities for an erstwhile handyman.
Denise took some convincing, asking the logical question - “What do we really know about owning a resort?”
“In the early days it looked like the answer to that question was, ‘Clearly not enough,’” Jim said.


With so much changing at the Lake, why did you feel it was important to keep the small resort going?
There is of course the whole nostalgia thing. We really do offer a window to the Lake the way it used to be - focus on family picnics, playing catch and throwing washers, swimming, fishing and boating, where smaller boats still have a chance of survival on the water. And apparently, there are still many people who enjoy this experience. But there's also the whole issue of what the daily increasing density of people, boats and activity is doing to the quality of the Lake of the Ozarks experience. Building more and more high rises at the water's edge has the inevitable effect you see every weekend on the main channel.  Small, low density resorts are like the "green spaces" big cities are now trying to recover.
 

The resort has a beach and picnic areas, with cabin accomodations.

Who's your most memorable guest?
Denise and I have been keeping a journal of sorts, chronicling all of the funny, curious, poignant, sad and bizarre things that have happened during our tenure here. Most poignant would have to be the family who came with a sailboat and Mom's ashes to distribute in her favorite cove. Or the little girl who had not been to the Lake before and asked me towards evening, "Hey mister, what time does the Lake close?" We have new stories to tell every week and if you are not amazed, you are not paying attention.

What's your typical day like?
Haven't had one yet to describe. That is part of the attraction. Okay, so the housecleaning, office work, groundskeeping, boat launching and minor repairs often repeat, but typically, neither of us expects any day to go as planned – too many moving parts and X-factors.