Some families measure their history in generations. The DeWitts, as the story has been told and carried forward within the family, measure theirs closer to centuries — a lineage of Upstate New York farming and land stewardship that stretches back long enough that the exact founding chapter has become part oral history, part documented record, and entirely part of who the family understands itself to be today.
A Name With Deep New York Roots
The DeWitt surname carries genuine weight in New York state history — it’s a name with documented ties to some of the earliest Dutch-descended families who settled and worked land across the state in the colonial and early American periods, and it appears throughout New York’s historical record in county names, town names, and family lines that trace back multiple centuries. Whether or not every branch of every DeWitt family in New York shares a single common ancestor, the name itself is inseparable from the story of how the state’s agricultural land came to be settled, cleared, and farmed by generation after generation of families who stayed.
As the family’s own history has been passed down, the Champlain Valley DeWitts trace their presence in the region back roughly 250 years — a span that would place the family’s arrival in the area in the earliest decades of the young nation, working land in the shadow of the Adirondacks and along the edge of a lake that has always been as much a part of the region’s identity as the mountains themselves.
Farming the Champlain Valley Across Generations
The Champlain Valley’s agricultural character has always been shaped by the specific combination of lake-moderated climate, fertile bottomland soil, and a growing season that’s demanding but workable for a family willing to commit to it across generations. Dairy farming, in particular, has been a defining agricultural identity for this stretch of Upstate New York for well over a century, and families who built their livelihoods around dairy operations developed a specific, generational relationship with the land — the daily rhythm of milking and pasture management, the seasonal rhythm of haying and winter preparation, and the multi-generational rhythm of passing a working farm from parents to children in a way that few other occupations require.
The DeWitt family’s own agricultural story reflects this broader regional pattern — generations who worked the same land, adapted the operation to changing agricultural economics across different eras, and maintained a connection to the property that outlasted any single generation’s tenure on it. That kind of continuity is increasingly rare in American agriculture broadly, where family farms have consolidated or been sold at a pace that’s reshaped rural communities across the country. Families who’ve maintained an unbroken multi-generational connection to the same land are, in a real sense, holding onto something that a lot of rural America has already lost.
“There’s something different about land that’s been in a family for that long. It’s not just property at that point — it’s the place where your grandparents worked, where your parents grew up, where the stories about specific fields and specific years get told and retold. That’s what a quarter-millennium of the same family on the same ground actually means.”
From Working Farm to Family-Run RV Resort
The transition from a traditional working farm to a family-run RV resort reflects a pattern that a lot of long-standing New York agricultural families have navigated in recent decades, as the economics of small and mid-sized farming have shifted and families have looked for ways to maintain their connection to the land while adapting to a changing rural economy. For the DeWitt family, that transition meant finding a use for the property that honored its agricultural roots and its position along Lake Champlain, while opening the land to a new kind of use: welcoming travelers and campers to experience the same landscape the family has called home for generations.
This isn’t an uncommon story in the broader Adirondack and Champlain Valley region — families with deep agricultural roots repurposing land for tourism and recreation as the regional economy has diversified beyond farming alone. What makes the DeWitt story specifically meaningful is the continuity of family ownership and direct involvement across that transition, rather than the land passing out of family hands entirely during the shift from agricultural to recreational use.
What the Legacy Means for Guests Today
For guests staying at Lake Champlain RV Park today, the DeWitt family’s long history with the property isn’t just a nice backstory — it shapes the actual character of the place. A family that has genuinely lived on and worked this land across generations brings a different relationship to it than an absentee corporate ownership structure typically does. The specific knowledge of the property, the local landscape, the lake’s moods across seasons, and the surrounding community that comes from generations of direct, lived experience translates into the kind of hospitality and local insight that a guest can genuinely feel, even if they never hear the family history explicitly during their stay.
It also means that the resort’s continued operation carries a weight of responsibility that a family with this kind of history takes seriously — maintaining land that previous generations worked and cared for isn’t just a business consideration, it’s a continuation of a specific, multi-generational commitment to a particular place in Upstate New York.
Roots: family history traces the DeWitt presence in the Champlain Valley back roughly 250 years, according to the family’s own passed-down history.
Heritage: DeWitt is a name with deep documented roots in New York’s Dutch-descended settler and agricultural history, appearing throughout the state’s historical record.
Legacy work: generations of Champlain Valley farming, including the dairy agriculture that has long defined this stretch of Upstate New York.
Transition: from working farm to family-run RV resort, reflecting a broader regional pattern of agricultural families adapting to a changing rural economy while maintaining land ownership.
Today: continued direct family involvement and ownership, bringing generational local knowledge and a genuine long-term connection to the land and the region.
To read the full account of the family’s history and how it connects to the resort today, visit the DeWitt family legacy page. For more on the people and the story behind Lake Champlain RV Park as a whole, the About Us page gives the fuller picture of the family and the resort today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long has the DeWitt family lived in the Champlain Valley?
According to the family’s own passed-down history, the DeWitts trace their presence in the Champlain Valley region back roughly 250 years, placing the family’s roots in the area to the earliest decades of the United States as a nation. This multi-generational span reflects a pattern common among some of Upstate New York’s oldest agricultural families, whose ties to specific parcels of land and specific regional communities have persisted across many generations, even as the specific use of that land has evolved over time.
What is the history behind the DeWitt name in New York?
DeWitt is a surname with documented roots tracing to the Dutch-descended families who were among the early settlers of New York during the colonial and early American periods. The name appears throughout New York’s historical record, including in place names and county history, reflecting how deeply intertwined Dutch-heritage families have been in the state’s settlement and agricultural development. While not every family carrying the DeWitt name shares an identical lineage, the name itself is closely associated with New York’s long agricultural and settlement history.
Was Lake Champlain RV Park originally a working farm?
The DeWitt family’s history in the Champlain Valley includes generations of agricultural work on the land, reflecting the broader regional pattern of dairy and general farming that has defined this stretch of Upstate New York for well over a century. Over time, as the economics of small and mid-sized farming shifted, the family transitioned the property’s use toward welcoming travelers and campers, while maintaining direct family ownership and involvement throughout that transition rather than selling the land to an outside operator.
Why do family-owned RV parks feel different from corporately owned ones?
Family-owned properties with a genuine multi-generational connection to the land, like Lake Champlain RV Park under the DeWitt family, typically bring a depth of local knowledge, personal investment, and hospitality that’s harder to replicate at properties without that history. Owners who have lived on or near the property across generations tend to have direct, lived familiarity with the local landscape, the lake’s seasonal patterns, and the surrounding community — insight that shapes the guest experience even when it isn’t explicitly discussed. This kind of ownership also often reflects a different relationship to long-term property stewardship compared to short-term investment ownership models.
Is farming still common in the Champlain Valley today?
Agriculture, particularly dairy farming, has historically been a defining economic activity in the Champlain Valley region of Upstate New York, shaped by the area’s lake-moderated climate and fertile bottomland soil. While the number of active family farms across the broader region has declined over recent decades, consistent with national trends in agricultural consolidation, farming remains part of the area’s economic and cultural identity, and many families with historical farming roots — including families like the DeWitts — have found ways to maintain their connection to agricultural land even as the specific use of that land has diversified into areas like tourism and recreation.
