Agency-listedMunicipalFree
Chautauqua Park (Beloit)
Drive-up · public land · KS · 39.45500, -98.11350
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →The land manager lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Beloit's Chautauqua Park, on the Solomon River just south of downtown, allows free camping for up to 10 days in any 60-day period. The county tourism office describes 30 electric and water hookups and a sewer dump station, which makes this an unusually well-equipped free stop. Restrooms are open roughly April through October. Donations are appreciated. The deal these towns offer is simple: camp free, and they hope you buy fuel, groceries or dinner in town. Be a good guest and it stays free for the next traveler. Town rules change often and we have not visited -- confirm current rules with the town before you go.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Chautauqua Park (Beloit)
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,364 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Chautauqua Park (Beloit)NIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Chautauqua Park (Beloit) · public land · KS
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel1 mi
- GGrocery1 mi
- MMechanic6 mi
- DDump12 mi
- ShShower12 mi
- @Mail16 mi
- +Urgent care16 mi
- HHardware17 mi
- OOutfitter23 mi
- LLaundry23 mi
- RxPharmacy24 mi
- EVEV fast charger25 mi
- AAir-up51 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: fuel & food sit about 1 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Water, Propane. Plan those before you head up.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Chautauqua Park (Beloit)
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land
Elevation
1,364 ft
Ground slope
0.6% · flat
Nearest rail line
~0.1 mi · main line
State
KS
Coordinates
39.45500, -98.11350
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Chautauqua Park (Beloit) · public land · KS (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureSolomon River · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial river
- Also mapped (OSM)Mulberry Creek (stream) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townBeloit · ~0.4 mi
- Nearest rail line~0.1 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelCasey's General Store · ~1.2 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~11.8 mi
- GroceriesCasey's General Store · ~1.2 mi
- PharmacyMankato Professional Pharmacy · ~23.5 mi
- Hospital / clinicMitchell County Hospital Health Systems · ~0.9 mi
EV charging — from Chautauqua Park (Beloit) · public land · KS — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger25.4 mi straight-line E — Heartland Energy Services, Concordia, KS · EVGATEWAY · CCS · 4 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 5 within 50 · 41 within 100 · 98 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)36.5 mi — LOVE'S 647 - KS #647 DC1, Belleville
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO50.3 mi — Casey's Salina (Salina, KS), Salina
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)1.9 mi — Dairy Queen - Beloit KS - Tesla Destination · Tesla Destination · J1772, NACS (Tesla) · 3 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-08-27 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles.
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 376602 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Chautauqua Park (Beloit) · public land · KS — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- No mapped restroom within 30 miles — plan to pack it out.
Coming out here — Chautauqua Park (Beloit) · public land · KS
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Solomon River as a perennial river, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 0.6% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- Rail line mapped ~0.1 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in it.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Chautauqua Park (Beloit) elsewhere
Other camps near Chautauqua Park (Beloit)
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Jewell State Fishing Lake~19.0 mi
Who holds the land at Chautauqua Park (Beloit)
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Chautauqua Park, manager on record: City of Beloit (local government). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Chautauqua Park (Beloit)
Source
municipal park records
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
Coordinates: OSM way 228034365 'Chautauqua Park' (leisure=park, GNIS 472348), centroid. Camping rules: Mitchell County official tourism site, https://www.discovermitchellcounty.com/explore-live-grow/chautauqua-park/ , fetched 2026-07-20, quote: 'Camping facilities can be used free for up to 10 days in any 60 day period' and '30 electric & water hook-ups, and a sewer dump station'. Not stated on a City of Beloit page, so confidence is 'med' rather than 'high'. Verified 2026-07-20.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Chautauqua Park (Beloit)
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Chautauqua Park (Beloit)
Finding water out here →Fire rules & restrictions →Off-grid communication →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →