South Fork Forest Camp

Excited to be able to visit the facility with all the people involved with this kind of rehabilitation. The idea of collaborating men with forest means to me a natural and nurture experience. Even though I have never seen the accomplishments, I am anxious to be able to be apart of it through my son's new beginning

I remember riding in the car with my mom as she'd drive right by the turn off to this place when I was a small child. Often times it would be at night and although I was probably between the ages of 5-10 and easily frightened during these particular trips, I also loved "making"myself scared by imagining things and I always made it a point to imagine the "South Fork Prison Camp" leaning road sign as extra dark and ominous as our headlights would just barely illuminate the mud spattered lettering during a typical Pacific Northwest downpour on our way home from an overcast day trip to the beach in Seaside. I honestly couldn't imagine anything more scary at that time in my life and I cherished every opportunity I had to see it so I could be scared out of my wits imagining all manner of horrors and atrocities that were definitely taking place not a mere 2 or so miles down that pitch black unpaved tunnel of trees as well as the monsters likely perpetrating said atrocities. Fast forward 15-20 years later and who would have guessed I'd find myself locked up there after some really bad post college decisions and I come to learn first hand that it's the one of the coolest most laid-back places I've ever visited, prison or not, where I developed some tight bonds with both staff and fellow inmates for whom I had a deep respect given that in order to stay, you essentially will have had to have proven yourself to be an exceptional person with admiral work ethic and principles, who has the discipline needed to have already gained an elite level of physical fitness, strength and cardio, possessed and cultivated a superior intellect in order to learn quickly and often unsupervised, exercise and follow all known safety procedures relevant to the job at hand (the work we did consisted of 4 x 10 hour work with a 3 day weekend of planting trees up and down the 45-75 degree grade slopes of the Tillamook Forest, Wildland fire fighting, Trail building without tractors and running a chainsaw with a crew to name a few- all for about a dollar a day) and finally doing these things all while possessing an exemplary amount of integrity since there are no walls, fences, or razor wire nor security keeping us there. It was basically prison on the honor system. You could literally just walk away to freedom during a good 75% of what becomes your daily routine and nobody would know until you had more than enough to be considered as a head start. I truly had it all wrong as a kid. Place was kinda miraculous. Best kept secret in the Oregon department of corrections.

Easy to get to, nice staff, one guest in particular is pretty amazing. That's why we visit. Beautiful area.

My son attended this work camp and he came out a changed man!

Frankie boy free my brother and free my homie Thomas much love guys let's get it