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Crowd webOn Friday, January 3, Trophy Gardens RV Resort in Alamo celebrated its 40th Anniversary in the RGV.

Trophy Gardens was never supposed to be an RV Resort. Initially, it was to be a housing development. When that fell through, Charles and Darrel Yoder of the Cadillac dealership in McAllen and John Phillips of the Alamo Bank decided to develop the property as an RV Park.

There was nothing on the property. At that time, route 495 was a two-lane road. Across the street was a grapefruit grove, and farmland was all around.

In the hot summer of 1984, plumbing and electricity were installed, and a few buildings were built, mainly to support construction. On November 1, the property was complete enough to begin registering guests. A ribbon cutting ceremony took place on January 4, 1985, officially opening Trophy Gardens RV Resort.

Candy Dewey cake Angela and Jim Johnson Act Dir webFrom the first open house, where interested Winter Texans were given free food and shown around the property, Trophy Gardens grew, finding in the second season that every open site in the park was filled. Over the last four decades, Trophy Gardens has been a part of the Alamo community, not only having individuals return year after year, but also families returning generation after generation.

As a part of the 40th Anniversary celebration, current guests and staff at the park reminisced about its history, shared stories of how some of them came to be a part of the community, played a slide show depicting many of the fun activities and adventures its residents enjoyed over the years, and even viewed a videotaped message from the park’s first manager, Bonnie Christian. Although Bonnie could not be with us during the celebration due to family commitments, she will be back in Trophy Gardens later this month, her 40th year at Trophy Gardens. The trip down memory lane ended with a challenging Trophy Gardens trivia as cake was served.

TG fols in Alamo Shirts 1 webIn addition to the current park manager, Dan Rockwood, involved in the celebration were several Alamo officials, including Mayor Garza, multiple commissioners, the Chief of Police, the Fire Chief, and the head of the Chamber of Commerce. It was a great honor for all these people to take time from their busy schedules to join us. To quote from the City of Alamo Facebook page, “For four decades, this special place has been more than just a park; it’s been a home, a family, and a cornerstone of Alamo’s Winter Texan community.”

It could not have been said any better.

Submitted by Angela and Jim Johnson, Trophy Gardens Activity Directors

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