Paradise Campground (Paradise Camp) - Willamette National Forest OR

City:: Willamette National Forest, OR
Site Type:: Parks and Recreation, Campgrounds and Cabins, Picnic and Other Facilities
New Deal Agencies:: Work Relief Programs, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Started:: 1937
Completed:: 1937
Designer:: William Parke
Quality of Information:: Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

Paradise Campground is less than a mile and a half from the McKenzie Ranger Station on the south bank of the McKenzie River. This camping area was laid-out and improved by Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees from CCC Camp Belknap in 1937. When constructed it included both the current Paradise Campground and the adjacent Paradise Day Use Area. At the time, “Paradise Camp” was meant to serve as many as five-hundred campers.

Today the Campground’s 64 campsites serve visitors to the Willamette National Forest. The campground offers access to the McKenzie River as well.

Source notes

"Camp Belknap," CCC-Vancouver Barracks Report - 1937. pp. 114-117 & 146.

"Paradise Campground," Willamette National Forest. US Forest Service Website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/willamette/recarea/?recid=4380

Rakestraw, Lawrence & Mary (1991) History of the Willamette National Forest. USDA - Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region. p. 111.

Silvermoon, Jon (1984) Cultural Resource Inventory, Site Evaluation, and Mitigation Report for the McKenzie Ranger Site Development Project and Belknap Civilian Conservation Corps Camp. District Archaeologist Report, Willamette National Forest, McKenzie Ranger District. July 18, 1984.

Site originally submitted by Jim Reed on September 10, 2022.
Additional contributions by Judith Kenny & Tom Hubka.