To whom it may concern:

I went camping at "BOYKIN SPRINGS RECREATIONAL REGION" in Piney woods area northeast in Texas. There are some problems with this campground i wish to discuss on here that need to be "improved". It is very sad about the state of this campground. In fact, the other campgrounds in the "ANGELINA NATIONAL FOREST" area are also falling apart. I will split up what i, as a veteran camper of 40 years, found good, bad, and ugly with this particular campground:

THE GOOD:

-As advertised, there was a bath-house with 1 working shower.
-There is swimming, but it was moved. There needs to be more signs pointing to the new swimming area (will be discussed in "THE BAD" below.

THE BAD:

-The campsites are in bad shape. Many have missing parts of picnic tables. In fact, the campsite i stayed at, #37, was very good, but the campsite across the way, #26, has a pile a trash in it. Im glad i did not camp in that site.
-Many of the pinic tables are basically only a frame. There is no seats to sit in or allowance of sitting in the sites.
-More signs are needed to express where the new swimming area was located and to show people back to the exit. I was asked while camping there a couple of dozen times from people asking how to get out of the camp. Increasing the signs located around the premises about how to get to the exit and where to find the new swimming area should be addressed.

THE UGLY:

-Many of the supposedly "handicap accessible" things at the campground are non-existant. Access to the spring and the old cementary should have some sort of accesible access for those of us older people. My mother wanted to see the spring after having chemotherapy at the hospital for her cancer. On her "To do list" (bucket list since she is dying), she wanted to see the spring in the park. Unfortanetly, due to poor maintenance, there is neither no stairs nor ramp leading down to the spring in the park. I am appauled by this and now my mother missed her chance to see the spring because she is gonna die soon.

-Again, my mother wanted to walk on the "famous" sawmill trail, located at the park. It supposedly leads to a place where one of my ancesters worked in a old industrial plant there. Again, due to no bridges even being fixed, this was a farce. Again, my mother cannot visit it due to severe neglect of the trails and the bridges on them. I may write to the US PRESIDENT about how the parks are being maintanied here. Even the other trail in the park, which i tried to walk on, called the "LAKESIDE TRAIL" is over-grown and leads to another broken bridge on the trail.

-The bathrooms were appaling. There were only cleaned once per the 8 days i stayed at this campground. Ther was poop on the seats and used toilet paper on the floor. There were so many bugs in the bathroom, there were frogs in there eating them. Again, my mother felt these should be taken care of better. I agree. I had better bathrooms when i served in the army than i went and used in this park!

PLEASE SAVE THIS PARK AND FIX THE ABOVE! Thanks!

Just revisited Boykin Springs cg to see what we could see. Our conclusion is this once lovely cg still needs a lot of work. We could find no one who would talk to us about plans. But not giving up.

Frankly, the whole Angelina NF needs work and the only way it will be done is if we, members of the national forest community, demand something be done. Call the forest and let them know you do care! Call or write anyone you can think of to let them know what is going on!

Much of the trash you spoke of in your mention appears to have been removed but I was very disappointed to see how little else has improved. Okay, they are recovering from Rita but it has been five years. Desoto NF dealt with Katrina and is much better shape. I wonder is it the forest folks, the local community, or a combination of both that has held Boykin Springs cg back from returning to something close to its former glory? Money is often the excuse but not always the reason.

No answer but I'll keep you posted.

I don't know about Texas, but here in California the federal government recently spent a whole lot of money building new office facilities and National Forest Headquarters. It doesn't look as though priorities are pointed in our direction.