History
Camping World began in 1966 with a small store in Beech Bend Park, an amusement park outside of Bowling Green which billed its campground as the world's largest. Campers at the park were requesting a store where they could buy supplies, so David Garvin — son of the park's owner — took out a loan and opened the store. Garvin amassed a large customer list as the years went by, which proved to be a windfall later when he added a mail-order division to the company. That division thrived, fueling the company's growth for years to come.
In 1997, Garvin sold the company to the current owners, Affinity Group Inc., of Ventura, California.
In 2005, Garvin announced plans for a huge development near Franklin, Kentucky called "Garvin's." The development, described by Garvin as "a combination of Disney World, Camping World and Bass Pro Shops," will feature a large Camping World store with RV 250 service bays; a five-story, 650,000 square foot (60,000 m²) permanent RV trade show and exhibition area; a "free range" campground with dry-camping sites; a camping museum; and much more. Due to the recession however the venture never got off the ground and much of the land proposed for development was sold at auction in October 2011.
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