The Reinvention of Heartland Lodge

In 2024 one of the Midwest’s most popular upscale wingshooting lodges, Harpole’s Heartland Lodge, changed hands when Gary Harpole sold the Nebo, Illinois, business to Tim Duoos of Sarasota, Florida. At the time of the purchase, Duoos was aware of Heartland’s reputation for great bird hunting and a warm, “down home” lodge ambiance, but he also realized that by improving some key components of the guest experience, he could take the operation to another level. Fast-forward to 2026, and there have, indeed, been some big changes at Heartland, so we thought it would be a great idea to sit down with Duoos and Hunting Manager Zach Jumps to discuss how they have transformed the business. Here is what they had to say.

SSM: The decision to buy the lodge was obviously a big one, but you made the leap. How has it been?

Tim Duoos: Taking on Heartland has certainly been a big endeavor, but we fully expected it to be. Fortunately for us, we have prior experience in the destination-based hospitality market, so getting from point A to point B has been less of a struggle and we are to the point now where we have been able to improve most of the thing we wanted to upgrade. We are now down to the finishing touches.

SSM: You seem to be working on quite a few things. What’s the endgame?

TD: The endgame is for Heartland Lodge to be one of the finest wingshooting destinations in America. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a great place before, but we feel that the changes we have made—and will make—are bringing the lodge to an elite level. Our goal is for guests to be completely blown away with their experiences here.

SSM: So what are the big changes you have made so far?

TD: We have renovated many parts of our main lodge, the luxury cabins and the Sunset Valley structures. We’ve painted, redone bathrooms, upgraded kitchens, refurbished furniture, replaced linens and a bunch of other touches that will make the place more elegant and updated. We have also built a new indoor dog kennel and bird-cleaning shed. The kennel will be awesome for guests who want to lodge dogs there—particularly considering that we’ve moved it to the main campus so that it is very easily accessible from the main lodge—and the cleaning shed will allow for faster and better-quality bird processing. And we are not done yet? We are pouring concrete for a new facility that will harbor a wonderful pro shop and also serve to replace the lodge offices, which currently reside in a double-wide that doesn’t do justice to the property. Best of all, the new place is designed to include a post-hunt “watering hole” general hangout area for our guests. It will have a cool gun-club vibe and be conveniently located right across from the main lodge.

SSM: How about the hunting and shooting programs? Any changes there?

Zach Jumps: We have done two important things that will improve the quality of a Heartland Lodge bird hunt. First, we have added hundreds of acres to our hunting grounds, which were already pretty expansive. Second, we have done some habitat work, such as planting native grasses, that will improve the quality of our hunting grounds. Heartland has always had good bird cover. We have simply tweaked it so that there is more—and better—habitat than before. I also want to point out something that we intentionally did not change, and that is our guide staff. Throughout the years, Heartland guests have really been happy with their guides, and we are happy to report that we have retained just about all of them. And we have also made some big improvements with the clay shooting with a new 5 Stand, and we are in the process of moving our walk-through course to a better location near the lodge. We will also be replacing the old [clay-throwing] machines with new ones.

SSM: Have you made any changes in the hospitality department?

TD: Absolutely! Probably the biggest thing we have done is that we brought in a person to oversee the hospitality component of the operation. She implemented a lot of training programs for our lodge staff, which, to their credit, had the ability and desire to go from good to great. The results have been fabulous, and they might very well be the most noticeable changes that Heartland has undergone. In addition, we are sending photographers out with larger hunting groups so that each guest will have a photographic memento of his or her visit. We are also developing a better environment for folks who enjoy cocktail hour. In fact, each room gets a bottle of Charlie’s Choice, a lodge-branded red wine, as a welcome gift upon check-in.

SSM: What have been the biggest challenges so far?

TD: Some of the building projects took longer than expected, because of the remote nature of Heartland’s location. Some also went over budget, but that’s actually been a little easier to swallow, because we understand that it’s practically the norm these days with building projects and also because the quality of the work has been worth the wait.

SSM: What are you currently most excited about?

TD: We are having a grand opening in the fall of 2026, which is going to be an incredible milestone for us. At that point we will have completely reinvented Heartland Lodge to look and feel more like a luxury wingshooting lodge, and it will be very apparent to guests the minute they set foot on the property. We had already made some major improvements for the fall of 2025, and based on the rebooking rate, which is one of the highest in Heartland history, guests really liked what they experienced. But both the ownership and the staff are super eager to show our guests the finished product next season.