Old Mill Campground

CONS
- difficult to find, you can get to the city park that connects via a foot bridge over the Smoky River, but I had to ask how to get there from the path
- pit toilets
- grassy and therefore soft/not very level
- a little isolated feeling if travelling alone as I was

SO...why the 4 stars?

PROS
- Lindsborg KS is a legitimately adorable small town.
- Scandinavian everything, including architecture, food, signage
- Santzen art museum

Well worth it!

Actually called the Old Mill camp. This site is not free. $5 a night. $7 a night with electric. They have 50 and 30 amp service at 6 sites. Pit toilet and no water. Easy access for any size vehicle. No pull thru sights. Google maps will try to get you here by crossing the old bridge. The city has closed the bridge to vehicles. It is fairly easy to find the entrances road by looking at a map.

https://www.mcphersoncountyks.us/502/Campground

From the website:
<< The Old Mill Campground is a small park area, with mature trees and a gravel road looping through, along the Smoky Hill River. It has 24 thirty amp electrical hook-ups and a large area suitable for tent camping. Campsites are generally on a first come first served basis. For special holidays and special event weekends, reservations are recommended. Campers check in at the main museum building. There is a shelter house available for picnics and gatherings. The shelter house may be reserved for use by camping groups. There is no water available at the campground site, but city water is available outside the museum office. Picnic tables and grills are available. Fires are restricted to the fire rings, placed on gravel only. Digging new fire pits is prohibited.

Current Nightly Rates:
$5.00 without electric hook-up
$7.00 per night with electric hook-up
Rates are per camping unit. A camping unit is defined as one camper, RV or tent.
Contact the museum office at 785-227-3595 for more information >>

You check in and pay at the Old Mill Museum (120 Mill St) which is open M-Sat but closes at 5pm. There is no fee station at the campground so I don’t know how you pay on Sundays or after museum hours. When you pay at the museum, you’ll get a receipt to put on your windshield.

The campground is located off Hwy 81 just below town. The street is no longer called 1st St - I think it’s Svenson St now, but the map in Campendium does show the correct location.

There are no site numbers (or even obvious campsites) and the 6 electrical boxes are mounted telephone poles around the park and have four 30 amp outlets each, so campers have to figure out how to arrange themselves and learn to share.

It’s probably a good idea to find the campground, pick your spot and then walk over the footbridge to the museum to check in.

We arrived there on a Monday after a large group had had the campground reserved for the weekend. Either the group was very neat or the park crew was really on top of things because the place was very neat. Didn’t check out the pit toilets because I don’t have to. 🙂

Hard to find at night especially on a foggy one. Can’t beat the price!!!

We arrived on a Tues and there were only two other campers. Price was 10, not 7, as was last reported on Campendium. Electric only. Can get water at the Old Mill Museum, which is where you go to register and pay for site. As others said, you cannot drive over the bridge to get to the mill museum, as Google maps shows, but it's easy to drive around. Only takes a couple minutes. Nice shady sites. Didn't use the bathroom, so can't comment.

We only stayed one night and it's only electric, but I would do it again in a heart beat. Lindsborg is a really neat little town and the campground is just a walk away.

11/18-20/2020
We totally enjoyed this city campground & would stay again in a heart beat. Registration was at the “Old Mill Museum” &=we paid $10 per night. The campground is small with electricity & outhouse type restroom. I didn’t use it as we were traveling in a Motorhome, but hubby said it was just toilet as no running water on the premise. The Smoky Hill River borders the campground on the town side so it is connected to the town by 2 separate bridges on either end of the park. We enjoyed our evening walk to the lighted “Valkommen” bridge which also would lead to the Old Mill Museum. The other one was a walking/ biking trail system which also leads to town.

Lindsborg is known as “Little Sweden USA” which I enjoyed as my maternal grandfather immigrated here from Sweden. The highlight of our stay was the “Hunt For The Wild Dala”. We picked up a brochure from City Hall which had the location, name, sponsor, artist & explanation of each of the 36 Dalas. We found them displayed on the sidewalk, Swenson Park, Bethany Care Center, Bethany College, Bank, Library....there's even a roaming one that I had to call to get the current location. We even rented the junior/2 person Quadricycle from the Swedish Shop Hemslojd which was a blast. I shopped at Hemslojd as well. We ate our meals in our RV due to the China Virus/Covid-19, but on a previous visit ate an authentic Swedish meal at “The Swedish Crown Restaurant”.

Had a very peaceful night's stay here on the way from New Mexico to Iowa. We were arriving late so we called the museum office before 5 in order to pay for the site - $7 without electric - and given a permit number, though no one checked after we arrived. Only one other camper there on this spring evening and the campground is large so we were treated to a very private night along the river. Highly recommend!

When I say "scruffy, " I mean scruffy by Kansas standards, where everything this spring seemed freshly mown and pristine. This park is a bit off the beaten path when you approach it by road, but connects to town by a footbridge over the river more centrally. Just find a plug and park on the grass. Place was a bit overgrown, a few locals came to run their dogs (and one to detail his car with some kind of spray, thankfully all some distance from us). We were only folks there and it was one of the few times I felt uneasy b'c of that. Very basic plug in, no water, no restrooms except a scary looking toilet bldg we didn't dare venture into. Ran over roofing debris on road pulling out and got a flat tire. Local shop fixed it pronto for $20. Lindsborg wasn't as interesting as all the tourist brochures would lead one to believe, though we did enjoy walking from camp up to Museum to pay the next morning and walk around town.

Quiet park but wouldn’t recommend using the pit toilets, from the outside I didn’t even go inside because the area really needs upgrades. No pads or any idea where to park besides the electric poles and none are very level next to the poles. They are now charging $10 a night with electricity.