This week we learned that Golden Arrow Resort has sold and will no longer offer quaint cottages and cabins on Indian Point. From what we gather, the new owners will convert the existing resort into luxury condos and lodges keeping with the trend we have seen over the past 10 years and it got us to thinking; “How will blue collar families vacation in the future with nothing but $400 to $1200 a night lodges and condos taking over Indian Point?”

Indian Point has always been the place to stay on vacation going back for the past 50 years. Yes, there is Stormy Point, Nantucket (nothing like cookie cutter people stacked one on top of the other cramming to make your trip memorable…), Big Cedar, the strip and so on, but when it came to the hands down winner of the best in Branson – Indian Point ALWAYS won out. It simply was a no brainer to be honest. The traveler has Silver Dollar City located at the entrance and the marina at the end of Indian Point.

Situated perfectly between Branson and Branson West – Indian Point offers significantly more to the travelers than any other area in the Branson Tri Lakes area. To be honest it’s not even debatable. Considering that 25% of all tourists to Branson go to Silver Dollar City the proximity of the resorts on Indian Point made it a breeze to get into the park and immediately straight to the festivities. In fact, on busy days it is fairly common for tourists staying in Branson to waste upwards of 2 hours just fighting traffic jams while guests staying on Indian Point are already enjoying their day in the park.

Seriously, think about that for a second. Our guests will leave their rooms at 9 a.m. – in the parking lot by 9:10 a.m. – catch the next tram by 9:20 a.m. and playing by 9:30 a.m. for park opening. Tourists staying in Branson won’t even make it to the intersection at the IHOP before 9:30 a.m. and will spend the next 60-90 minutes fighting stop and go traffic, all while Indian Pointers are laughing, playing, partying and riding. 

Leaving the park is pretty much the same nightmare day after day. Ours are home 20 minutes after they leave the park. Guests staying off of Indian Point probably will make it back home before midnight (or maybe not…)

Indian Point also features the largest portion of Table Rock Lake. Yes, there are large areas by Kimberling City and yes the lake looks lovely over there – but there is nothing there!!! Trust me, I know what I am speaking about – my very own mother and father lived there for years. Great city, great people, zero anything else. The only “franchise” line anything there is a Subway sandwich shop as I recall and that’s it. I don’t believe there is even a restaurant of any measure. Just a very clean, quiet, polite city with nothing else to offer.

Same goes for Nantucket and Stormy Point. Located literally in the middle of nothing and built one on top of each other – I don’t know what to make of the community other than to say it would not interest me to pay such an astonishing amount of money and be so far removed from everything.

Even the Crown Jewel of Branson – Big Cedar – is located miles from anything, not to mention it requires 6 mortgages and 25 paychecks to stay and eat there…. which leads us back to the premise of this blog. 

When we moved here in 2003 it really caught my attention that one of the best qualities of Indian Point was its proximity to everything and affordability for blue collar families. Nowhere else in Branson could you find such a convenient location to the lake, the park, shopping, groceries, fuel – you name it – and still be able to leave without a huge hit on your credit card. It simply didn’t exist. 

We had the Wig Wam Resort – Rockwood – Wolf Ridge – Antlers – Uncle Johns – Golden Arrow – Hunter’s Friend – and DreamCatcher that were all highly affordable (kitchenettes under $100/night) and now we are down to 2. Hunter’s Friend and Marina Inn. 

All of the other resorts have sold and been converted to lodges and condos and charge astonishing amounts per night. It is true that these condos and lodges will sleep many more people and for some guests that is ideal for them. But for families who don’t want to stay with 23 other people in the same unit and can’t afford the extreme expense of a condo – where do they go? What if you are simply a husband/wife with a couple of small kids? Your choices are becoming more and more scarce by the year. Even an “affordable” condo on Indian Point now goes for $200/night and up.

The choices are growing slimmer by the day and the days of affordable nightly rentals on Indian Point are becoming fewer and further between. They can either book with us and stay in a marvelous kitchenette or motel style room that comes complete with pillow top mattresses, 50 inch HDTVs, DVD players, free DVDs, great pool side room, Weber grills or they can save up and blow thousands of dollars on a cookie cutter condo that looks just like one of the other 499 located side by side, on top of one another that are so in vogue now. 

When you book with us you are supporting a veteran owned small business. In fact, we are the quintessential small business owner husband/wife duo offering unparalleled quality lodging at an affordable price. We will continue to offer great rooms at a phenomenal price for as long as we are owners at Hunter’s Friend. If you are truly looking to support small business – book direct with us and create lifetime memories with reasonable rates.

As if we didn’t have enough to deal with. 2020 is turning into one for the record books. We start off the year with Covid 19, then they shut down Silver Dollar City and now we are facing record floods.

Yesterday the Corp of Engineers shut down the boat launch at Indian Point Marina. With lake levels exploding upwards (pool level of 931 feet and rising as of 29 May, 2020) we just have to shake our heads and ask “God? Is there anything else? If so, can we spread it out a little more?”

With our resort, we go as the lake and Silver Dollar City goes. Yesterday, the governor extended out the phase 1 reopening until the 15th of June, 2020. While this doesn’t really affect us one way or another (since the park is still closed) we can only go along for the ride and observe. 

But, closing the marina at Indian Point is actually a pretty big deal. Not only will it cause us problems for the foreseeable future with families looking to escape to the lake, it also impacts us for fishing tournaments. Just yesterday we had a cancellation for the Big BassTour that was scheduled for the first week of June. This event was originally scheduled to happen in April, then pushed back to June. Now, it has been rescheduled for  30 Oct – 1 November, 2020. 

Always trying to have a backup in place, we did speak to Jim Daly at White Wing Resort and he will help us to get our customers into the water. PLEASE remember this gentleman and his business. Very few direct competitors will help when situations arise – but Jim and his wife Laura are the exception. We always try to reciprocate when possible, but it always seems Jim comes through more for us than the other way around. 

We will do everything we can to offer you the best possible vacation with the least amount of stress for 2020. Give us a call and tell us how we may be able to help you and your family have fun this summer. We ALWAYS appreciate your business – but this year could really use the assist. 

All the best and God Bless to all.

Hunter’s Friend Resort
417 338 2849

We live just 2 miles away from Silver Dollar City and interact with the park quite a bit throughout the year. In the 16 years we have been here, nothing has generated the buzz and anticipation that Silver Dollar City’s newest attraction – Time Traveler – has. And has the wait been worth it.

Both of our kids are quite fearless when it comes to roller coasters. The bigger, the faster, the better. Naturally, going on the newest ride was a given. When we arrived, the lines for the ride weren’t too bad. The park always does well at moving the crowds through quickly and today was exemplary. 

Time Traveler hails itself as “The fastest, steepest, and tallest” spinning coaster on the planet. What that really translates to is “This is going to be fun!” 

Riders come right out of the barn into a 10 story vertical drop and somewhere along the way, a catch releases that allows the carriages to rotate (like a tilt a wheel). So you already have the fear of a typical roller coaster, but now you increase the intensity of the fright factor by allowing free flow turning seats.

30 minutes passed and now it was time for my kids to give it a go and off they went. I didn’t get to put a stopwatch to it, but the total duration of the ride was somewhere in the area of 2 minutes – respectable. The imprint of pure fear on my kids’ face afterwards lasted far longer. Disembarking from the ride, they were almost in a zombie trance for the next 30 minutes and declared it was the single most terrifying ride they had ever been on. Asking them if they were interested in riding it again brought an immediate “NO!” and they meant it. (Money well spent)

I congratulate the team at SDC on a job well done. You have truly made a masterpiece and I cannot see how it will not continue for decades to come to be a park favorite for future generations.

Then came a nice unexpected surprise, Thunderation….

Here is a little history about the owners of Hunter’s Friend Resort. 

Originally from San Francisco, Mike and Handan Kugler made the move to Branson in August of 2003. Handan was a graduate of Hotel and Tourism Management so it seemed like a natural fit for their first venture into small business ownership. Mike’s background in technology proved beneficial as Hunter’s Friend became the first place in the entire city of Branson to offer free high speed wireless (and wired) back in those days. Nowadays, free high speed internet is the norm, but in 2003, 4 and 5 Hunter’s Friend reigned supreme! (We even had an internet cafe located in the office with 3 stations!)

We set out with a vision of how we would like our little resort to be. One of Handan’s first proclamations was cleanliness. Her thinking was this: “We do not have the space to have large playgrounds, or waterslides. We are restricted to expanding our rooms due to size. But, we can absolutely guarantee the cleanest room our guests have ever stayed in.” (And she meant it.) 14 years later – 10 years top 5 and 4 consecutive Certificates of Excellence from TripAdvisor later, I think we have clearly demonstrated our commitment to excellence.

We loved to do things that no other resort on Indian Point was doing. We became the first (and only) Green Energy Award winner from the city of Branson. We (still to this day) are the only resort that has 50 inch or larger HDTVs in each of the rooms. (Literally EVERY room) We are the only resort that gives out free DVDs. We are the only resort that offers 1 GB high speed internet on Indian Point. If there was truly a proud moment for Mike though – it would be the fact that we are the ONLY resort in the state of Missouri (and probably the entire midwest) that has induction rangetops. These were special ordered and installed from Australia and have been the most unique addition to our business since we have owned it.

We are always looking for ways to separate ourselves from the competition but rule #1 still and always will apply. Give the guests the cleanest accommodations they could possibly find in Branson.