🔒From glamping to paddleboarding, outdoor firms in Bethel find niches in the local economy

Building on its strategic location in the middle of prime ski and trail country, numerous businesses have been opening, expanding or transitioning in the Oxford County town of Bethel.

Some businesses closed during the pandemic. But the local economy is stable today, thanks to increasing tourism including downhill and cross-country skiing, hiking, biking, river activities, golfing and fishing, says Bobbi Vandenbulcke, executive director of the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce.

In addition to proximity to the Sunday River and Mt. Abram ski areas, White Mountain National Forest and Grafton Notch State Park, Bethel’s recreation industry benefited in recent years with expansion of the Bethel Community Forest to over 1,500 acres, resulting in the creation of more mountain biking and hiking trails.

The conversion of a 19th-century home called the Gehring House into nine year-round rental apartments, a project of an investment group called the Northern Forest Center, has helped build workforce housing.

Those activities and a downtown where all of the storefronts are full mean business is good, says Vandenbulcke.

In addition to networking and cross-promoting businesses, the chamber is deploying a $93,000 tourism marketing and development recovery grant, administered by Maine Office of Tourism and U.S. Economic Development Administration, to create branding and marketing assets, including a new website, tagline and logo. Video and photography products are expected to be available to chamber members and partners by late August for a marketing campaign across the state and New England.

“It’s very exciting,” she says.

Snowboarding to hospitality

Some entrepreneurs find their own outdoor enthusiasms make for a tidy intersection with commerce.

Josh Gangi, an engineer who lives in Boston, is a snowboarding enthusiast who discovered the Bethel area was great for the sport, then discovered opportunities for real estate investment. He owns vacation-rental houses in the area. In 2023, he bought the year-round Inn at Rostay and invested a six-figure sum in improvements.

Last July — when it was operating during peak season — Gangi bought the 32-acre Pleasant River Campground, at 800 West Bethel Road, and has been investing in upgrades.

“It was fun,” he says. “We hit the ground running.”

The site is on the Pleasant River and has access to canoeing, fishing, hiking and biking, with canoes, kayaks and trailers, dozens of campsites, a camp store, RV sites with full hookups, an in-ground pool and outdoor activities such as barbecues, horseshoes, volleyball and a playground.

Geodomes, campers

The original campground dates back to 1970 and was in great shape from the get-go. But Gangi viewed it as an upgrade and expansion opportunity with the addition of options such as glamping domes, catering to the area’s lodging market activity as a four-season tourism destination.

“Over the past year, we added six luxury cabins, added wifi to the whole campground and finished our second phase of room renovations at the Inn at Rostay,” Gangi says.

Gangi was recently preparing to submit plans to the town for “glamping” structures to add to the campground’s collection of rustic and high-end campers.

The campground brings customers from throughout Maine and New England and beyond. Guest demographics vary. In the winter, it’s almost all snow-related — skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers. Summertime brings nature lovers and hikers. Folks often enjoy a day of activity, then hit the area’s breweries. The wedding and events market is big. Last year, a classic car club rented out the entire inn. The campground attracts family reunions, where a family might rent a couple dozen sites.

Demand is also connected to development at Sunday River, which has included expanded trails and year-rounded events. And the town does well on its own. Gangi recounts traveling to the area numerous times over the past winter and finding the eateries were packed.

But there’s room for continued investment, as Bethel’s renown grows, he says.

“I think the development boom is very, very new,” he says. “The town is on the up and up.”

River collaborations

In 2023, Julie Sloan bought land on the Androscoggin River in Bethel and, with Amy Welch, started Maine River Runners, offering canoe, kayak, paddleboard rentals and lessons at 66 Mayville Road.

Sloan has over 20 years of experience teaching kayaking and stand-up paddling around New England.

Originally from southern Maine, she and Welch live in Vermont, where they teach.

As a child, Sloan spent summers in Bryant Pond, a village eight miles east of Bethel, spending a lot of time on the Androscoggin River. As an adult, she’s worked in outdoor programs in Vermont and upstate New York.

With summers free, she still enjoys heading to Bethel. The idea of starting an outdoor company came together when, alongside the river, 11 acres with trails and a barn came on the market.

The company’s specialty is standup paddleboarding. The boards have retractable fins, so if they hit river bottom, paddlers won’t get launched off. Also offered are kayaks, tubes and canoes.

“I’m also well aware of the environmental piece a business can have on the river,” she says. “So we work with the local Mahoosuc Land Trust and with the Androscoggin River Watershed Council, doing environmental education with them on the river.”

She likes to collaborate with other businesses. “We like to support local guides in the area,” she says. “We’ll work with other companies in any way we can. There are a couple of campgrounds [that] we run their river business for.”

Challenges

With tourism in Bethel mainly a weekend occurrence, running a business can be challenging, she says.

“The summer really kicks off around July 4,” Sloan says. “When people come, they tend to come for a long weekend. So Bethel is pretty quiet on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.”

That said, the company is very busy on weekends and it’s diversifying to run children adventure camps on weekdays. It provides retreats for visiting groups, such as a yoga group that’s coming from New Hampshire. She had hundreds of customers last summer, including groups booking ahead of time and week-of bookings and even walk-ins.

“We’re very small, trying to not become a large outdoor outfitter that’s pumping people down the water,” she says. “I want to stay a small business that offers a more catered experience.”

Sloan credits the local chamber of commerce for its support through advertising. “And the draw to Sunday River in the winter sparks people’s interest in the summer,” she says. “There’s a connection people already have because of Sunday River, and that brings people back.”

Youthful investment

At 32 Parkway Road, Maya Taylor bought Black Diamond Nutrition about a year ago. She was 20 and had worked for a bit at the store, which offers goods like smoothie bowls and teas. Her grandparents helped out with the loan.

“It’s fun,” says Taylor, a Bethel native. “You get to see a lot of people. And it’s a good investment.”

Typical customers are local employees and high schoolers. Taylor simplified the menu; her mother paints the windows with cool designs.

“I’ve had a lot of people come in that I’ve known my whole life,” she says. “The community is amazing and very supportive.”

At home in smaller communities

In 2022, a Brunswick-based chain called Rusty Lantern Market acquired another chain called the Mallard Mart, whose locations included one at 33 Mayville Road. After a rebuild, the convenience store and gas station reopened in January 2024 as Rusty Lantern.

The chain, which started in 2015, has 28 stores in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with two more expected this year in [the towns of] Cumberland and Oxford, says CEO John Koch.

“We feel at home in smaller Maine communities like Bethel, and do well in them,” Koch says.

He continues, “We went through an exercise to identify other communities in Maine that we thought would be a good fit for us and Bethel was identified as one of the communities we should take a look at. A few months later we were presented with an opportunity to acquire the Mallard Mart chain and Bethel was part of the package. We pursued that opportunity, largely, because Bethel was part of the mix and fit our profile.”

The store sees approximately 1,100 customers per day. “It appears the local economy is very robust and growing and we’re happy to be part of the community,” he says. “The people here have been very good to us. I think it’s been a great fit.”

‘Moving the needle’

Joe Christopher is a Brunswick native and long-time entrepreneur whose firm, Upward Management Group, has a portfolio of businesses in outdoor recreation and hospitality in western Maine and elsewhere. During the pandemic, his other businesses closed, but business at a grocery store he owned in Kingfield, near Sugarloaf Mountain, grew significantly and did well.

So he and his business partner Ryan Rother and nephew Ben Christopher bought a long-time supermarket at 72 Main St. in Bethel, performed renovations, renamed it Mainely Provisions and brought in more organic and local provisions. The store is often packed, he says.

“We plan to continue to invest in Bethel, whether that’s expanding operations we have now or new operations,” says Christopher.

Like Gangi, Christopher credits Sunday River’s development of year-round activity, such as golf, trail races and conferences, as a benefit for the area.

“Their event schedule continues to grow,” Christopher says. “I’m in grocery and hospitality. When you have one of those events, your sales increase significantly. That moves the needle and makes a big difference.”