The site has been vacant, and now they're returning it back to the wild
PELLSTON, MI -- Several of the walls have tumbled down at the old Camp Pellston prison work camp.
As you may know, Camp Pellston has been closed since 2002.
After The Department of Corrections abandoned the site, The Department of Natural Resources took over.
Now, the site is being torn down and will be turned back to its natural state, and with that there are some natural goodbyes.
"They’d pile it up, and I'd pick it up with a state log truck, and deliver it to prison camps all over Lower Michigan," explained Bill Bailey.
Bailey's service at Camp Pellston was 20 years strong. He worked at the prison camp until the day it closed back in 2002, loading the wood the prisoners cut from the deep Emmet County forests, and delivering it to the six other prison camps for their use as firewood.
Bailey had to see the teal-colored, weather-warped old facility one more time -- before it's gone for good.
"I’m just glad to see they're finally doing something with the facility, it was getting pretty run down and something needed to be done," said Bailey.
He says there are many memories of what is now a ghost-town camp. Like the murals inside -- he remembers the one inmate who painted them all. But over the years, vandals broke in, and the site has deteriorated.
"We had some donations that helped us out here, some private donations, from people who wanted to see it gone or tired of seeing it," said Shannon Harig, a DNR Forester.
But soon, the paintings will be dust in the wind. The Department of Natural Resources will level the site, and return it back to its natural state.
“Hopefully this thing will be one big grassy field, and we won't be able to see any remnants of a prison camp," said Harig.
The wood will be used for power, and the metal will be scrapped.
"We try to do the best we can on the recycling end of it," said Ed Tobey of American Waste.
“It'll be nice to see it back to grass again," said Bailey.
The hope is to return the site to the wild by the end of this summer.
