Woodall's History and Timeline

1935 Karl Hale Dixon founded Dixon Publishing and produced the first issue of Trailer Travel Magazine. 1937 The first Directory of Trailer Parks & Camps was published. It contained about 2200 listings and sold for 24 cents per copy. 1939 R.A. Woodall began working for Dixon and was named president of the company. 1940-1946 No publications were produced due to World War II. 1946 R.A. Woodall purchased Dixon Publishing and changed the name to Woodall Publishing Company. 1948 The first edition of "Woodall's" was produced. It was a directory with a combination of mobile home parks and campgrounds that allowed overnight stays. 1965 R.A. Woodall passed on to the great campground in the sky. Curtis Fuller bought controlling interest in the company. Curtis Fuller split the directory and produced two separate publications: Woodall's Mobile Home Park Directory, Woodall's Tenting Park Directory & Woodall's Campground Directory. 1976 Woodall's buys Campground Management from Rajo Publications. 1978 Woodall's introduces the RV Buyer's Guide. 1979 Curtis Fuller sold the circulation of Trailer Travel magazine to Holiday Travel magazine in NY (now owned by Reader's Digest). This ended Woodall's involvement in the magazine. 1984 Woodall's recognizes the scope of the tenting market by producing the first edition of Woodall's Tenting Directory. 1985 Marked the 20th edition of Woodall's Campground Directory and the purchase of the company by George N. Goldman. 1985 Woodall's Celebrates 50 years of service to the Camping Industry. 1986 Woodall's publishes its Campground Directory 50th Anniversary edition. 1991 In January, the Company was purchased by Pfingten Partners. In March Woodall's acquired four regional consumer publications: Trails-a-Way, Camperways, Camp-orama, and Southern RV, all previously owned by Compass Publishing and an RV tour and rally program now called Woodall's World of Travel. 1995 Woodall's is purchased by Affinity Group, Inc. out of Denver, CO and Camarillo, CA. 1997 In February, Woodall's became part of the Internet world with its own website at www.woodalls.com. 2000 In April, Woodall's and Affinity Group offices moved Corporate Headquarters to Ventura, CA. 2005 Woodall's celebrates 70 Years of Service to the RV & Camping Industry. 2005 Woodall's launches its Internet-based Club - WoodallsDiamondClub.com 2006 Woodall’s initiates Win with Woodall’s Sweepstakes. 2007 Woodall’s launches sample run of CD-ROM in 10,000 copies of 2007 North American Directory. 2008 Woodall’s Tenting Directory merges with Woodall’s Camping Life Magazine. 2008 Woodall’s 2008 North American Directory CD-ROM is included FREE with every edition sold. 2008 In June, Ann Emerson is promoted to Publisher of Woodall Publications Corp. 2009 Woodalls.com goes through a site redesign and launches in mid-September.