Bentley puts Goshen back on the map
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
A new sign posted along County Hwy J23 between Diagonal and Creston directs people to “Goshen Lake and RV Park” owned by Billy Bentley just ½ mile south on a gravel road. The campground offers 12 drive through camping sites with electricity and water.
Just one mile northwest of Diagonal, a small campground emerged from a farm field to offer visitors a quiet, relaxing camping experience.
A sign posted along County Hwy J23 between Diagonal and Creston directs people to “Goshen Lake and RV Park” just ½ mile south on a gravel road.
Calling the phone number listed on the sign connects you with Billy Bentley, a Diagonal native who now resides in the two-story red farm house he was raised in.
“My grand dad had this farm years ago,” says Bentley, “he originally put that pond in during the 60’s.”
Bentley sometimes finds himself down by the pond, sitting and watching the deer and geese coming in. Although he lives one mile straight west of there, he finds the area by the water relaxing.
In 2012, Jerry Stephens helped Bentley reshape and stock the pond with fish.
“He came in and did 99% of the dirt work,” Bentley stated.
Some friends of his have been camping there for a few years, and the campground has always been a little dream for Bentley.
He installed water lines last fall and added electric connections to 12 drive through camping sites this spring.
Bentley then worked with the Ringgold County Engineer to improve the dirt road from County Hwy J23 to help get travelers to the campground. The county graded the road and hauled rock in, paid for by Bentley himself.
The campground is accessible from both ends of Diagonal, heading west from the curve at the south end of Broadway Street or from County Hwy J23 just west of Diagonal.
Goshen Lake and RV Park is now open for others to enjoy for $25 a night between May 1 to October 30. Bentley already has six campers coming in Labor Day weekend.
Bentley refers to his closest neighbor, Liz Wiley, as the “Park Ranger.” She is helping him check in on anyone camping at the RV park to make sure they are taken care of.
“I’m not trying to take business away from the City of Diagonal,” stated Bentley.
Bentley just wants to share the quiet, peaceful feeling he experiences down by the water with others.
“How do you put a price on that,” says Bentley.
He’s currently in the process of building himself a little cabin on the northeast corner of “Goshen Lake” in his spare time. Bentley admits he stays busy doing something, whether driving for Willard Trucking, baling hay, mowing grass, or working on his little cabin where part of Goshen used to exist.
According to Bentley, a railroad used to run across the area where the dam on the south side of “Goshen Lake” is now. He’s still finding pieces of broken pottery and other things that are surfacing from days gone by.
“The railroad went clear to Clearfield,” said Bentley, “on the east side of the road was where the stock yards were at.”
Although the town of Goshen only existed for ten years after being established in 1880, Bentley is bringing the community back on a small campground just a mile from the west end of Diagonal.
The original town was said to exist one and three-fourths miles west of Diagonal, along a branch line of the Chicago Burlington and Quincy railroad.
After a second railroad was established in 1885, the diagonal crossing of the two tracks created a hub of activity as people changed trains.
According to an article appearing in the Goshen Gazette dated Thursday, November 17, 1887, locating a town at the crossing where it ought to be from any stand point of reasoning, a thriving, prosperous city is just as certainly assured. We would then combine the territories of the 2 towns surrounding us.
Diagonal was officially incorporated in 1888, and Goshen remained active for two more years until 1890.
