A former post-war public works project in West Frankfort hardly seems a likely spot for a destination wedding. However, Scott and Terry Williams have transformed a longtime 4-H campground into Eagles Nest at the Lake, a venue that consistently surprises and delights brides, grooms and guests.
It’s the latest venture for Scott, a self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades. “I’ve done it all,” he says. “I was raised in the restaurant business. … My dad was a master carpenter, so [I] learned how to build houses.”
His own career path took him multiple routes — coal miner, used car dealer, community college instructor, politician — with Scott often holding more than one position at a time. “I’ve done a little bit of everything,” he says.
His latest endeavor comes with a hint of irony for Scott. “My mom always told all of us five kids, ‘I hope you kids are smarter than us and never get in the restaurant business.’ Instead, I get in hospitality,” he laughs.
He and his wife purchased the campground, located on SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative lines, in early 2018. Together, they tackled repurposing it into a destination wedding retreat. With its multiple bunkhouses, bath houses, staff cabins, pole barns, a lodge and pavilion, that has been no small task.
“The pavilion was just open-air on posts [with a] breezeway … and the lodge was their dining hall,” Scott says. The lodge is now equipped with a commercial kitchen, but that’s not all that has changed. “I enclosed the breezeway and the pavilion with full glass overhead doors, so we can open it all up, weather permitting.”
Next on the list were the staff cabins. The couple transformed one into a bridal suite and two others to house bridesmaids and groomsmen, the latter of which is affectionately termed the “Eagles Hideaway.”
“We tried to keep a lot of the detail in those three structures,” says Scott. “We kept the look of the place, but we put in glass [windows], because they’re all fully conditioned. … You still can [use] the jalousie crank and open and close the shutters. It kept the character of the place.”
Scott says they have received a lot of positive feedback, but the most common remark is that the venue has been much more than what guests expected. One went as far as to apologize for her preconceived notion.
“We had one bride … a friend of her mom was helping decorate,” says Scott. “[The] friend came over to me, and she said, ‘When the bride said she was going to get married at the old 4-H camp, I said, ‘Oh, yuck.’ I owe you an apology. There is no yuck here.’”
Weddings aren’t the only events on the calendar at Eagles Nest. Summer concerts, corporate and family retreats, trainings, showers, anniversaries — all kinds of events can be booked.
“We [also] like to give back through churches and schools,” says Scott. “For the churches, we give them a Sunday afternoon, free of charge. [And] we have a couple of schools that do their prom here, and we give them a discounted rate.”
Although Eagles Nest now has 11 cottages available, work continues. In the future, Scott hopes to add more cottages, some treehouses and an area for RVs. “Everybody asks if I ever sleep,” he laughs. “That’s the dangerous part, because I can dream up a lot.”
