History
Sna-Z Spot Campground was established in 1954.The property located on Gardner Lake in Salem, Ct. and was originally purchased by Jennie and Edward Snarski and Helen and Peter Zaleski. The waterfront area was cleared and leveled to create a beautiful treed waterfront that still remains today. The first camper came with a large tent to do some fishing, spent the night, and came back every year for the next 40 years. Sna-Z Spot grew by "word of mouth" .... friends told family and friends about this beautiful hide away nestled in the woods of Salem. Over the years generations returned and summers at Sna-Z Spot became a way of life for many families.
Our family traditions and rural flavor have remained over the years. Sna-Z Spot continues to be managed by family members and we pride ourselves at still being a unique, private campground located on beautiful Gardner Lake.
Our family traditions and rural flavor have remained over the years. Sna-Z Spot continues to be managed by family members and we pride ourselves at still being a unique, private campground located on beautiful Gardner Lake.
Newspaper article continued
Happy Campers call Sna-Z-Spot home
No electricity and no running water, part of the appeal, say campground owners
By: Christine Woodside, Day Staff Writer
Salem-There are no vacancies at Sna-Z-Spot, where the curved edges of trailers dating back 40 years seen to have taken root in the shade. At Helen Zaleski’s and Jennie Snarski’s Gardner Lake haven, there is no electricity, no telephone, and no running water. The sisters-in-law surveyed the campers last year to see if they wanted any changes. The consensus was no.
Campers don’t want it snazzy. Sna-Z-Spot sits on six and a half acres of the 97 acres Snarski and Zaleski own between Old Colchester Road and the lake. There are 115 campsites on neatly mowed clearings. The rates are so low the owners won’t allow them to be printed. They also made clear that they don’t have openings. But it’s more than just a campground. For a dozen years in the 1960s and ‘70s about 1,200 Democrats would flock down the long gravel drive for an annual fall bash that would last until the wee hours. “They almost closed the Capital down every time we ran it,” said former state Rep. Rubin Cohen of Colchester. Cohen had known the Snarski family for years and he loved the wide open area down by the lake, so he always had the party there. Democratic partiers included former governors Ella Grasso and Abraham Ribicoff. A portable generator fueled strings of lights that illuminated the revelers as they ate kielbasa, black bread, shrimp, hotdogs- everything but lobsters, Cohen said.
“Every so often the generator would conk out and everything would go black,” Zaleski recalled. Sna-Z-Spot still comes alive on the weekends, though the increasingly elderly group of regulars are quieter these days. Often porch sitting is favored over boating, fishing, and swimming. “Years ago, say 30-some years ago, 35 years ago or whatever it would be, that crowd used to have fun. They’d be partying all night,” Zaleski said. “Music and everything. It seems that right now that whole crowd is most of the time in bed at 9 or 10 o’clock now.
They’re all in their 70s and 80s. They’re not dancing or anything.” said Zaleski, who is 76. “They used to dance in the grass and sit up and play cards late. Sometimes I’d hear the noise way up at my house here.” As the years go by, descendants of the original campers are coming- some with conveniences like car phones. The name “Sna-Z” has nothing to do with flamboyance. Forty-one years ago, Zaleski played around with names until suddenly it hit her-she could take the letters “Sna” from Snarski-her maiden name and her sister-in-law Jennie’s married name. And she could combine it with “Z” for Zaleski. But what to put after that? Even before she had that answer, she telephoned her sister-in-law in the middle of the night to tell her. Snarski groans, smiling, as she tells the story Hangin’ out.
When June comes, the two women, now widows, put on their shorts and spend a lot of time away from their Old Colchester Road homes down at Sna-Z-Spot. They hardly ever spend the night down at the campground anymore. This summer, Zaleski is lending her trailer to a friend. Zaleski is trim in her short shorts. She runs over to chat with campers on the road or calls out to them. Snarski, 70, is more reserved and matter-of-fact.
The campground, for all of its success, always has been something of a sideline for both. Zaleski had a career managing sewing factories in Norwich, New London, and Woonsocket, R.I. She was a selectwoman for a term in the 1970s, Democratic registrar of voters for 13 years, and she is president of the auxiliary of the Gardner Lake Fire Co. Snarski managed Snarski’s Liquor Store for 23 years before turning it over to her brother-in-law, Raymond. Now, in retirement, they still run their own houses, operate the campground, and keep up strong friendships with their campers.
Visiting each other is part of the routine at Sna-Z-Spot. “We’re all friends here,” said Angele Barry, a native of France and former opera singer who comes down to her trailer from Coventry with her dog. She sighed. “It’s quiet. There’s no place like this.” It takes little imagination to step back a bit to the 1950s, when the women and their late husbands- with no particular commercial goal in mind- started clearing underbrush to open up the water view.
In fact, when Helen and Peter Zaleski and Jennie and Edward Snarski bought the land on Oct. 13, 1954, they didn’t know what they were going to do with it. “You couldn’t walk through. It was bullbriars,” Helen Zaleski said. They bought it from two couples from Darien who had gotten it from farmers. The couples shared one of the big houses on the property but they never did anything with the area down by the water. “They didn’t get along as good as we do,” Snarski said.
A few years after the sisters-in-law and their husbands took possession, a visitor from Glastonbury, Jake Urbansky, asked if he could set up his Army tent near the lake. His casual request settled the land’s destiny. Urbansky, 84, was nicknamed “The Mayor” on his 80th birthday at the campground. He remembers camping elsewhere along the lake, “and we met Eddie, Jennie’s husband, and he says, ‘What are you camping over there for? We’ve got a lot of land. Come down and have a look at it,’” In later years, Urbansky and some of his friends built two additions onto his trailer so that now it looks like a miniature split-level house set nicely amongst the mature trees.
The trailers are in their fixed positions and are opened and closed each season just like summer cottages. Most of them have propane-gas refrigerators and stoves and gas lights. Many have outdoor stone fireplaces. Zaleski’s old friend and Sna-Z-Spot camper, Richard Shannon, does three-quarters of the outdoor maintenance. “He was like a son of ours,” Zaleski said. “He always worked with my husband.”
One Friday as a sunny afternoon melted into evening, Lela Bangs of New Britain sat chatting on Angele Barry’s porch, an add-on to Barry’s trailer. She had stopped by with empty plastic bottles hooked on one hand. She was on her way to get water at the old-fashioned hand-pump. Zaleski and Snarski sank down in the porch furniture too. Barry is one of their best friends, as is a descendant of the first dog she brought to Sna-Z-Spot years back. Snarski remarked that when she’d first heard Barry wanted to bring the dog, her response had been, “Over my dead body.” The four women laughed, and Zaleski said, “Now she’s my best friend.”
No electricity and no running water, part of the appeal, say campground owners
By: Christine Woodside, Day Staff Writer
Salem-There are no vacancies at Sna-Z-Spot, where the curved edges of trailers dating back 40 years seen to have taken root in the shade. At Helen Zaleski’s and Jennie Snarski’s Gardner Lake haven, there is no electricity, no telephone, and no running water. The sisters-in-law surveyed the campers last year to see if they wanted any changes. The consensus was no.
Campers don’t want it snazzy. Sna-Z-Spot sits on six and a half acres of the 97 acres Snarski and Zaleski own between Old Colchester Road and the lake. There are 115 campsites on neatly mowed clearings. The rates are so low the owners won’t allow them to be printed. They also made clear that they don’t have openings. But it’s more than just a campground. For a dozen years in the 1960s and ‘70s about 1,200 Democrats would flock down the long gravel drive for an annual fall bash that would last until the wee hours. “They almost closed the Capital down every time we ran it,” said former state Rep. Rubin Cohen of Colchester. Cohen had known the Snarski family for years and he loved the wide open area down by the lake, so he always had the party there. Democratic partiers included former governors Ella Grasso and Abraham Ribicoff. A portable generator fueled strings of lights that illuminated the revelers as they ate kielbasa, black bread, shrimp, hotdogs- everything but lobsters, Cohen said.
“Every so often the generator would conk out and everything would go black,” Zaleski recalled. Sna-Z-Spot still comes alive on the weekends, though the increasingly elderly group of regulars are quieter these days. Often porch sitting is favored over boating, fishing, and swimming. “Years ago, say 30-some years ago, 35 years ago or whatever it would be, that crowd used to have fun. They’d be partying all night,” Zaleski said. “Music and everything. It seems that right now that whole crowd is most of the time in bed at 9 or 10 o’clock now.
They’re all in their 70s and 80s. They’re not dancing or anything.” said Zaleski, who is 76. “They used to dance in the grass and sit up and play cards late. Sometimes I’d hear the noise way up at my house here.” As the years go by, descendants of the original campers are coming- some with conveniences like car phones. The name “Sna-Z” has nothing to do with flamboyance. Forty-one years ago, Zaleski played around with names until suddenly it hit her-she could take the letters “Sna” from Snarski-her maiden name and her sister-in-law Jennie’s married name. And she could combine it with “Z” for Zaleski. But what to put after that? Even before she had that answer, she telephoned her sister-in-law in the middle of the night to tell her. Snarski groans, smiling, as she tells the story Hangin’ out.
When June comes, the two women, now widows, put on their shorts and spend a lot of time away from their Old Colchester Road homes down at Sna-Z-Spot. They hardly ever spend the night down at the campground anymore. This summer, Zaleski is lending her trailer to a friend. Zaleski is trim in her short shorts. She runs over to chat with campers on the road or calls out to them. Snarski, 70, is more reserved and matter-of-fact.
The campground, for all of its success, always has been something of a sideline for both. Zaleski had a career managing sewing factories in Norwich, New London, and Woonsocket, R.I. She was a selectwoman for a term in the 1970s, Democratic registrar of voters for 13 years, and she is president of the auxiliary of the Gardner Lake Fire Co. Snarski managed Snarski’s Liquor Store for 23 years before turning it over to her brother-in-law, Raymond. Now, in retirement, they still run their own houses, operate the campground, and keep up strong friendships with their campers.
Visiting each other is part of the routine at Sna-Z-Spot. “We’re all friends here,” said Angele Barry, a native of France and former opera singer who comes down to her trailer from Coventry with her dog. She sighed. “It’s quiet. There’s no place like this.” It takes little imagination to step back a bit to the 1950s, when the women and their late husbands- with no particular commercial goal in mind- started clearing underbrush to open up the water view.
In fact, when Helen and Peter Zaleski and Jennie and Edward Snarski bought the land on Oct. 13, 1954, they didn’t know what they were going to do with it. “You couldn’t walk through. It was bullbriars,” Helen Zaleski said. They bought it from two couples from Darien who had gotten it from farmers. The couples shared one of the big houses on the property but they never did anything with the area down by the water. “They didn’t get along as good as we do,” Snarski said.
A few years after the sisters-in-law and their husbands took possession, a visitor from Glastonbury, Jake Urbansky, asked if he could set up his Army tent near the lake. His casual request settled the land’s destiny. Urbansky, 84, was nicknamed “The Mayor” on his 80th birthday at the campground. He remembers camping elsewhere along the lake, “and we met Eddie, Jennie’s husband, and he says, ‘What are you camping over there for? We’ve got a lot of land. Come down and have a look at it,’” In later years, Urbansky and some of his friends built two additions onto his trailer so that now it looks like a miniature split-level house set nicely amongst the mature trees.
The trailers are in their fixed positions and are opened and closed each season just like summer cottages. Most of them have propane-gas refrigerators and stoves and gas lights. Many have outdoor stone fireplaces. Zaleski’s old friend and Sna-Z-Spot camper, Richard Shannon, does three-quarters of the outdoor maintenance. “He was like a son of ours,” Zaleski said. “He always worked with my husband.”
One Friday as a sunny afternoon melted into evening, Lela Bangs of New Britain sat chatting on Angele Barry’s porch, an add-on to Barry’s trailer. She had stopped by with empty plastic bottles hooked on one hand. She was on her way to get water at the old-fashioned hand-pump. Zaleski and Snarski sank down in the porch furniture too. Barry is one of their best friends, as is a descendant of the first dog she brought to Sna-Z-Spot years back. Snarski remarked that when she’d first heard Barry wanted to bring the dog, her response had been, “Over my dead body.” The four women laughed, and Zaleski said, “Now she’s my best friend.”