The times they are a-changin', according to Michael Clark, owner of the resort formerly known as Fife's, which for 27 years was the mecca for gay tourism on the Russian River.

Not only has Clark, an openly gay man, changed the resort's name to Dawn Ranch Lodge, but he has also officially redefined it as a wedding venue – with packages starting at $20,000 – and a resort "open to everyone." The lodge's new Web site – still at www.fifes.com – features a photo of a heterosexual couple at their wedding and notes that Dawn Ranch has hosted a number of events over the years, such as the Russian River Food and Wine Festival. However, no mention is made of it being part of Lazy Bear Weekend, one of the most popular summer events for gay men in the area.

Harry Lit, the producer of Lazy Bear, told the Bay Area Reporter that Fife's had participated in the July event for the past several years.

"This is our 11th year and Fife's came in on the third year," Lit said, adding that other resorts in the area also participate in Lazy Bear activities.

Clark's decision to change the resort has rattled some residents in the area.

Guerneville real estate agent and coffee shop owner Bob Young, who sold the resort to Clark in 2001, said he has received over 100 calls and e-mails complaining about the changes at Dawn Ranch Lodge. There is even somebody calling for a boycott with an ad on Craigslist.

"There's a lot of anger out there. Basically, he's telling the gay community, 'you're not wanted anymore,'" Young said.

David Cole, who with his partner David Shafer owned Fife's for 10 years until they sold it to Clark, told the B.A.R. that he was "very disappointed" to hear about the changes.

"I find it inexplicable," said Cole, now 72 and living in Palm Springs. "This really impacts the community."

Hoping to sell

Clark, 48, a Napa Valley native and former interior decorator, said the resort is in the middle of a complete renovation. He is remodeling the cabins that were inundated in the New Year's flood and turning the former gym and roadhouse into two conference rooms for mid-week meetings. He is also eliminating the popular camping sites to make way for weddings, which he is marketing at $20,000 to $25,000 for a complete package.

Then, he hopes to sell the 15-acre site and open a small Napa Valley inn where he will be "advertising to gays and lesbians," he said.

"I basically want to put this behind me," he said of the property.

Clark said he is currently negotiating with people – whom he did not identify – who want to buy Dawn Ranch Lodge, and they have asked him to get it open and running before they take it over. He hopes to have some cabins ready for Women's Weekend in mid-May, and then open the rest of the resort for Memorial Day weekend.

In a phone interview Tuesday, April 18, Clark said he would continue to support various gay and lesbian organizations, albeit on a much smaller scale. For example, he's in discussions with organizers of Women's Weekend to host a wine dinner that would benefit San Francisco's Lyon-Martin Women's Health Services. Asked what the difference was between that type of event and doing a party for Lazy Bear, Clark said it was a smaller number of people.

"We're still doing events, but on a much smaller scale," he said. "The wine dinner would be limited to 50 people."

Betty Sullivan, who's helping Clark with Dawn Ranch's participation in the May 18-21 Women's Weekend activities, praised Clark for his contributions to the community. She said that he hosted events and worked with her for the two Women's Weekend events that took place last year and benefited Lyon-Martin.

"In my view he's been supportive," Sullivan said, adding that she is aware of the current controversy surrounding the resort. "In my opinion, people have not looked at the contributions he's made to the community. He deserves a lot of credit."

Clark said he's aware some people aren't happy with the changes he's made.

"I sent out an e-mail last week saying why would I want to alienate the gay and lesbian community," Clark said. "By no means is that my intention."

In his e-mail, he said the name change came about after the devastating floods of at the end of last year.

"I wanted to give the resort a new beginning," he stated.

Regarding the elimination of the camping sites, Clark told the B.A.R. the sites just weren't generating enough revenue.

"It worked out to $12.50 per person, per night," he said of the camping rates. "It does not bring in enough cash."

Often, campers would buy food and beverages off-site, rather than patronize the resort's restaurant and bar, adding to the lost income, Clark said.

Clark said his resort isn't the only thing that has changed – gay tourism has changed, too.

"Things are changing because we are changing," Clark said. "The community we once knew in the 1980s is not the same. They really worked to support gay and lesbian businesses.

"I've read lots of studies. Ten percent of national travel is gay and lesbian and only 2 percent of them will stay at a gay establishment. You can stay wherever you want [now]. The biggest establishments in Napa Valley are going after gay and lesbian money."

Clark said he tried to run the former Fife's as a gay and lesbian resort for the first two years, advertising only in LGBT publications, but the large overhead made him look toward other ways of bringing in income.

"In 2004, we realized we needed to start advertising to make the resort open to everyone. I started advertising in Sunset , etc. to bring in another market," he said.

Cole, the former owner, disagrees with Clark. When he owned the resort, he made millions of dollars, he said, though he also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars cleaning up the resort after he purchased it and again after the disastrous floods of 1995.

"It was 10 years of hard work," said Cole, who bought Fife's in 1992 from the trust of the late Peter Pender, who started the resort.

Fife's was in poor condition when Cole took it over, he said, but he and Shafer put an estimated $350,000 to $400,000 into fixing it up.

After the 1995 floods, Fife's was closed for 14 months. But Cole said he put more money into it "to keep it gay and viable."

For some of the time Cole owned Fife's, it was home to popular circuit parties produced by Gus Bean.

Bean did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment.

Why weddings?

The wedding business, Clark said, evolved from some of his LGBT customers recommending the place to their straight friends.

"Gays and lesbians started sending straight friends who wanted to get married. Last year we did three straight weddings and a lesbian commitment ceremony," he said.

Of course, the newly renamed resort welcomes LGBT customers, but it will no longer be the site for major gay events, like the Lazy Bear pool party that raises tens of thousands of dollars for charity every summer.

"Because I need to make changes for business reasons, I am not going to do any big events. They require too many employees and they make too much mess. I had to haul away the trash myself from last year's Lazy Bear party – 20 pickup truck loads – because no trash hauler would come in to do it," he explained.

Asked about the trash issue at last year's Lazy Bear, Lit said it was his understanding that an employee at Fife's quit just before the weekend party, and that no one at the resort made arrangements for taking care of the situation.

Tuesday, Clark denied that and said the trash hauling was arranged last year, but that he's had ongoing trouble with the garbage company when it comes to disposing of refuse. He was not critical of the Lazy Bear attendees.

"The guys who come to Lazy Bear are great," he said.

According to Clark, weddings – whether they are gay or straight – bring only 100 to 200 people to the site, while the crowds for big gay events number in the thousands.

Lit said he accepts Clark's new approach to business at the former Fife's, even though Lit is "sad that we couldn't have our events there."

"And if anybody should be upset, it should be me," he quipped.

But when one door closes another one opens, and the new owners of the Brookside Lodge, across the street from Dawn Ranch Lodge, have offered their grounds for the Lazy Bear pool party.

"They're a straight couple, but they want to court the gay community," Lit said.

Still, Lit has nothing but praise for Clark, despite the changes.

"The bears have been very good to Fife's, and Fife's has been very good to the bears," he said. "Bears just want to have fun. He never charged us [to rent the party grounds] and he donated rooms to us. Michael has been nothing but gracious to us, as have many of the resorts."

But there are those who disagree with Lit's assessment.

According to Young, the problem with Fife's had more to do with how it was run rather than its identity as a gay resort.

"I think it's been a management issue there since day one," he said. "The Triple R [Russian River Resort] does well."

"Michael, to me, is all over the place," Young continued. "He doesn't want to cooperate with Lazy Bear. He doesn't want parties. At one point he wanted to build condominiums at Fife's. He's wasting 27 years of branding. Now the resort is a start-up business. Nobody's ever heard of the place. A name change will take it off the map."

But other business owners on the Russian River believe there is life after Fife's, and are already looking at how to adjust to the loss of the flagship gay resort.

"It sort of shot us in the foot," said Steve Sartain, who last year opened Bob 'n Boy, a hamburger joint on Guerneville's Main Street. "I think it's going to hurt business a little, but not a lot. We get a lot of locals [at Bob 'n Boy']. If he feels that's what he has to do, then more power to him. I hope it works out for him."

Ken McClain, who runs The Highlands resort in Guerneville with his wife, Lynette, sees the changes at Dawn Ranch Lodge, and in the gay tourism business, as inevitable. Although they don't identify their hillside cabins and campsites as a "gay resort," the McClains have a "99 percent" gay and lesbian clientele.

Cynthia Laird contributed to this article.