Jellystone Park Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Parks is a franchise of campgrounds and family resorts, the second largest in the country, which began at this site, in Wisconsin, in 1969. It was started by Doug Haag, who lived in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, who developed a campground here, and in thinking of a name, he proposed the idea to the owner of the Yogi Bear copyright, Screen Gems, of New York (at that time Yogi Bear was a popular children’s animated TV program, about talking animals that lived in Jellystone Park). The following year, they opened a park in Orlando, and in California, and the franchise soon spread to more the than 70 sites it has today. It is owned by Leisure Systems, which is part of the Park River Corporation, a privately held company in Cincinnati.