Where luxury Meets Nature

Camp Aramoni Delivers A Boutique Camping Experience

By Julie Barichello • Photos by Matt Hass Photography

The walls breathe at Camp Aramoni.

The boutique campground is home to 11 safari-style tents manufactured in South Africa by Bushtec Safari. Inside the tents – each the size of a small cabin – the canvas walls gently swell and exhale in time with the breeze.

Camp Aramoni is a marriage of luxury and nature where guests can sleep with the sounds, scents and sensations of the outdoors while enjoying the conveniences of an upscale hotel. Guests can open netted windows, lie on an Avocado-brand mattress and watch a chandelier sway overhead.

“When guests stay with us, we try to provide a level of service they wouldn’t normally have at a campground,” said Stephanie Bias, general manager of Camp Aramoni. When guests book a tent, they don’t have to pack any gear or food. “Just pack your overnight bag, and we do the rest.”

There’s nothing primitive about the camping experience on the grounds nestled against the Vermilion River. Every tent has wifi access, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, a mini fridge, a safe and provided toiletries. Mini bars also will be available this season. Breakfast and dinner at The Barn, an on-site dining hall, are included in the room fee.

“We also offer room service,” Bias said. “When you stay with us, you can text our staff at any time. If you want a drink brought to your room, or extra towels, or anything, we’re available 24/7. When guests are here, it is important to us that we’re at their service and they can contact us whenever they need to.”

Despite the luxury, the grounds still boast a rural charm. Camp Aramoni is in the unincorporated community of Lowell, a locality so small it doesn’t have its own ZIP code but instead piggybacks on nearby Tonica’s ZIP code.

The glamping, or “glamorous camping,” site is the innovation of Stephanie’s mother, Jennifer Bias. After their family took a glamping trip at a farm in northern Illinois, Jennifer was inspired to build a luxury campground in her home region of Starved Rock Country.

“We’re a family-owned business,” Stephanie Bias said. “My family found the property in 2017. … My mom’s cousin lives next door. She was talking about how fun it would be to have a glamp ground, and [her cousin] said, ‘You know, there’s a hundred acres that’s been for sale for 40 years. You should come out and look at it.’”

The 96-acre property is the site of the former Ristokrat Clay Products Company, a brickyard where workers handled about 12,000 bricks a day from 1870 to 1981. The meadow where the tents stand is where the company used to excavate clay for the bricks.

“When the brickyard closed in 1981, the EPA came in and filled the pit,” Bias said. “This meadow was out here for 40 years untouched.”

The location offered prime woods and a meadow alongside the river a short distance from the rapids – Vermillion River Rafting company is based less than a minute’s drive up the road. However, the property required a substantial cleanup operation. Over the years, the grounds had collected various debris, such as 400 tires in need of proper disposal.

Despite the detritus, Jennifer Bias visualized the land’s potential. From 2017 to 2021, the Bias family reformed the site into a nature haven where guests can hike trails, canoe on a pond, ride bicycles and even take fishing lessons on a stocked pond with provided gear and bait. The campgrounds conducted a soft opening in 2021 and opened for its first full season in 2022.

Remnants of the brick industry still stand at Bricks & Stones, Camp Aramoni’s event venue next door to the campground. The facility used to house Ristokrat’s blacksmith shop but has been converted into a popular destination for weddings, retreats, baby and bridal showers, reunions and more.

Three of the former brickyard’s 23 kilns still stand on the Bricks & Stones grounds. Four towering pillars, originally part of a brickyard conveyor system, also stand on the premises.

“We left the pillars for two reasons. One, they go 12 feet down and we could not move them,” Stephanie Bias noted with a laugh. “But they do look cool, so we added Edison bulbs. People like to have their wedding ceremonies there, and dancing. We’re very flexible with the property.”

Bricks & Stones is open to both the public and Camp Aramoni guests from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays during the campground season, which runs April through October. The venue operates as a restaurant on Wednesday nights serving casual but high-quality meals.

Like the lodgings, dining at Camp Aramoni is a luxury experience. Chef Carson Barger cultivates a menu that includes many herbs and vegetables raised on site, plus locally sourced and seasonally foraged ingredients.

“A lot of the stuff that grows here is actually edible,” Barger said. “We’ve harvested goldenrod to make tea. We’ve harvested nodding onion to make vinegars. We’ve harvested serviceberries, and used clover for garnish. … This is the perfect climate for mushrooms, and we get them throughout all the seasons.”

Guests have the option of dining at The Barn on the campgrounds or at Bricks & Stones on Wednesdays.

“A lot of people do like to come up to Bricks & Stones because there’s live music. There’s more energy,” Bias said. “Others prefer a more intimate dinner and stay down at the campgrounds.”

The campgrounds are closed to the public; only guests have access to the premises. Bias said that’s a highlight for people who want to connect with nature without the crowds that flock to nearby Starved Rock and Matthiessen state parks.

“When you’re here at any given time, there’s not going to be more than 40 people,” Bias said.

The privacy provides guests a peaceful opportunity to experience the outdoors. For some visitors, it’s their first time encountering nature up close. Bias recalled a conversation with an elementary school-aged girl who lives in downtown Chicago and was awed by the sight of a star-sequined sky for the first time in her life.

“We want people to come out, experience nature, unplug,” Bias said.

Ultimately, that’s the Camp Aramoni mission. It’s a place to relax. To connect with the outdoors. To indulge in a slice of luxury.

Camp Aramoni is a place to breathe.

C S R n TO BOOK A TENT AT CAMP ARAMONI, visit www.camparamoni.com. The 2023 camping season is open through Nov. 13. Room rates start at $450 on weekdays and $550 on Fridays and Saturdays. A two-night minimum stay is required.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Camp Aramoni is alongside the Vermilion River, which originally was known as the Aramoni River. The word Aramoni is from the Miami-Illinois Native American lexicon and describes the red clay people of their nation used to decorate their bodies. The Ristokrat Clay Products Company later excavated clay on the grounds for brickmaking.

Postcard Starved Rock Country

It’s pretty much the “cowboy way” at the Broken Horn Rodeo, an annual attraction at the La Salle County 4-H Show and Junior Fair. This participant works to wrangle a steer in the rodeo’s steer wrestling competition. This year’s rodeo is 7 p.m. Friday, July 14. Learn more about upcoming county fairs in the calendars on p. 18 and p. 20.