- You know, I was probably 16 or 17, got my friends said, you know, "Let's go check this out.

I mean, a hot spring at the end of the Clackamas River, we got to check this out."

Came up around the corner at the trail and saw the buildings and the bath houses, and the people and the water flowing, and the sun coming through the trees.

It was amazing.

Who would've imagined a place like this existed anywhere?

- [Narrator] To hear Mike Rysavy describe the place, you wouldn't think he's talking about Bagby Hot Springs.

That's because not long ago, Bagby had an entirely different kind of reputation.

- We'd run into everything.

We had gang activity, drugs, the alcohol, rapes, assaults.

- [Narrator] Larry Reed is the assistant recreation manager for the Forest Service here.

He remembers when Bagby was the place people were afraid to go.

- A lot of the officers would want to come in teamed up.

Most officers didn't feel comfortable even parking their vehicle and hiking in and leaving the vehicle.

You weren't sure if your vehicle was going to be intact when you come back out.

Because it does have a reputation.

You mentioned Bagby, there's a story.

- [Narrator] Even Mike's experiences backed that up.

The same night he met his wife, Tamara, at the Hot Springs, vandals stole his vehicle from the parking area and torched it.

- [Mike] Reports of my car on fire were just before dawn, so about four o'clock in the morning.

I found it three miles down the road burned to the ground.

Wheels were melted in half.

- [Narrator] Others might have given up on the place, but not Mike.

Instead, Bagby became his mission.

He and a handful of volunteers formed the Northwest Forest Conservancy, a group dedicated to protecting Bagby.

They started by cleaning and restoring the rundown buildings.

- [Mike] I think that everybody needs to find a place that they care about.

- [Narrator] Mike and his team maintain trails, educate the public, and bring the beauty back to the station that stood abandoned for years.

- The roof was put on 2001 on the cabin.

We replaced the roof on the shed in 2006.

We're also working on replacing the floorboards.

So we've got a lot of work cut out for us.

- [Narrator] With the high number of visitors today, it's easy to forget that Bagby Hot Springs used to be an isolated and little-visited outpost in the middle of an old-growth forest.

- There's some interesting stories about people being lonely up at their lookout towers or at their other posts in the forest.

Maybe one person would've a fiddle, another person would've a drum, another person would've harmonica.

The switchboard operator in here would put all the lines together on a party line and they could each play their individual instruments all together and feel like they were all playing together and kind of a big happy family.

- Sorry.

Okay, okay (laughing).

- Oh, dear.

The whole thing is going to break.

- Oh my God.

- [Narrator] A clean and restored Bagby makes troublemakers feel less welcome.

And today, families are returning.

But stepped-up law enforcement has also played a big part in cutting down crime.

Forest officers now patrol the parking lot, are on the lookout for vandals, and cite those who don't buy the required Northwest Forest Pass.

Their mere presence here is a big change from years ago.

- Our signboards used to get destroyed weekly.

This one here at the trailhead, I haven't had to really deal with it in a couple of years.

We knew when we started into it that we were looking at least five years to get some type of turnaround.

This just doesn't happen overnight.

So we went into it not expecting a miracle, but each year, we would see changes and less activity.

It's kind of like a city block taking back their block from crime.

The Forest Service finally decided, you know, we need to take control of this and, you know, get it back going.

- [Narrator] Once a month, Mike's volunteers are here for three days straight, both in the parking lot and at the hot springs.

- [Mike] A lot of people have said they come up here because they know that we're going to be here.

They appreciate having us here, not only to watch their cars, but to take care of the place.

And my take is, of course, that, you know, the work that we're doing up here is the positive influence.

- I think it has a beautiful historic character about it that's really wonderful.

It looks clean and safe to me.

- Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, very clean.

Cleaner than most of the spots I've been to, and very safe.

There doesn't seem to be any weirdos or anything here.

- Initially, it's very hot getting in.

It burned my tush a little bit.

But once I got the cold water combo, it felt pretty good.

So now we're just hanging out and soaking up the healing waters of Bagby.

- Knowing that they could come up here, that volunteers would be on site, that they could not even have to worry about going to the hot springs or soaking.

Go on a nice day hike, go and check out a historic trail, a historic building, learn how people lived 100 years ago, and make it a place where families want to come.

What a change that creates, because now you've got families and kids running around, and it makes it very uncomfortable for people who want to cause trouble.

(water flowing) - [Narrator] There was a time, evenings were when the party started and the trouble began.

But at least on this Saturday night, that too seems to be changing.

- I like it at night, especially during the summer.

It's hot during the days, but everyone is really friendly.

If it's crowded, you share tubs.

You come back and you see your car is intact, "Oh, thank goodness."

(water flowing) - [Narrator] As dawn breaks, volunteers like Norma Pruitt are out there doing their part to make sure Bagby doesn't return to the vandalized and lawless place it was in the '90s.

- People leave their garbage, but, you know, that's just a thing that we figure it's something that we have to do.

Sure, I have to pick up cigarette butts, and beer cans and bottles and stuff.

But to me, it's worth it.

Walking along that river with, you know, just listening to the river running down its course.

It's loud, but, oh, so beautiful.

So beautiful.

If I could, I would move up here and live.

But then how would I get my food.

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