Our Story
We are Doug and Karen Blackburn and we grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma. We have been blessed with a wonderful family, wonderful church families and ministries. Now we are so blessed to have this opportunity with Fishers of Men Family Resort. Roaring River has always been a very special place for us.
Karen’s story:
My family has been coming here from the time I was 7 till I was 20 years old for family vacations. We would stay at a place called Fisher’s Court, owned by RG and Louise Fisher. RG would give us rides on his “train” through the pasture lands around his place and Louise would always have fresh baked goods and coffee at the gazebo every morning. They made us feel like family! We met wonderful people every year at Fisher’s Court who had kids our age and we would reserve a week together year after year. Another of my favorite memories is that all year long my dad would save his change in a tootsie roll can bank and that would be mine and my brothers spending money to buy candy and things from the store at Fishers Court or the store at Roaring River. As a child, my memory of that bank was that it was huge! After I was married, my dad gifted me with that bank. He laughed as he gave it to me because it was smaller than I remembered it! It was still a special gift to me!
Doug’s story:
After coming with Karen’s family and learning to fish for trout with my father in law at Roaring River, I fell in love with the river and the fishing. Then I started coming on weekends with my best friend around 40 years ago. Our income levels were very different back then. We were going to college and working and just didn’t have a lot of money. We both had old trucks and we chose who would drive that weekend by who had the most tread on their tires. We would find the cheapest room and we would bring a bag of potatoes, a can of grease and cornmeal. If we caught trout, we would have fried trout and fried potatoes. If we didn’t catch trout, we would at least have fried potatoes to eat. We only had just enough money to buy our gas to get to Roaring River and back home. . I have been telling this story for years to others about Roaring River. One of the pictures posted in the slideshow is of the stringer of trout caught when my best friend and I came back a couple of years ago. We didn’t get to come as often as we used to through the years because of life, but now that we’ve grown older and having such a great time on the river together and Karen and I now living in Cassville, we plan on making it a much more regular event.
Our story:
As our life has developed, we started bringing our kids and grandkids to Roaring River spending time at the hatchery feeding the trout, playing in the parks, swimming and having family picnics. The tootsie roll can that was talked about in Karen’s story was passed down to us and now Doug puts all his quarters in that same can so our grandkids can feed the trout. This is still taking place even now. We love the beauty and the feeling of family that roaring River and Cassville represents to us. Our hope at Fishers of Men Family Resort is to pass on God’s love and the peace and happiness that we have experienced here through the years to others. We use the verse Mark 1:17 of Jesus calling us to be fishers of men and telling us to follow Him because, as fishers of men, we want to show the gospel of Jesus to others by serving those who choose to come spend time with us here at Fishers of Men Family Resort. We hope you will feel the love of Jesus and the peace that he brings us when you stay here with us.
