The Story of Honeyman
THE HONEYMAN ARCHIVE
HONEYMAN STATE PARK, OREGON PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT (OPRD)
THE TREATMENT OF VOLUNTEERS IS NOT PERIPHERAL — BUT CENTRAL — TO INSTITUTIONAL LEGITIMACY
PRESERVATION NOTE
This page preserves the original narrative account of what happened at Honeyman State Park. It is the story as I first wrote it — before the full archive, before the evidentiary structure, before the institutional analysis that followed.
The comprehensive record — documents, recordings, correspondence, and the complete chronology of institutional decisions — now lives at oprdvolunteerabuse.org.
This narrative remains here to show where the documentation began, and how the story unfolded before Oregon State Parks attempted to contain it.
THE STORY OF HONEYMAN
WHAT THEY DID. WHAT I SAW. WHAT I CARRIED.
I arrived at Honeyman State Park not to fill a shift, but to hold a field —
a sovereign man in alignment, in service, not to authority, but to coherence.
I came prepared. I came committed. I came clean.
And from the moment I showed up fully — visibly queer, pierced, calm, integrated —
they didn't know what to do with me.
THE FIRST FRACTURE
It began with a power outage.
I texted Kati, the park supervisor, early in the morning —
clear, respectful, naming the perception issue with guests.
She responded dismissively.
I followed up, naming how her tone made me feel.
Not as a complaint — as a human reflection.
That should have been a moment of connection.
Instead, it marked me.
From that day forward, the tone of the park shifted.
Ryan, the park manager, came into the Welcome Center —
not with curiosity, but with rehearsed authority.
He unearthed first-week errors, presented them like a case file.
It wasn't feedback.
It was pretext.
My supervisor, Logan, vanished — conveniently unavailable.
Leaving me to navigate power dynamics as a brand new volunteer.
Then reappeared only once I had navigated the situation on my own —
this would become a pattern.
I stayed calm. I stayed kind.
I asked for a reset.
They said yes —
but the narrative was already seeded.
And they would return to it again and again,
Over the next two months.
DISTORTION AS POLICY
I applied for a job at Honeyman —
not out of desperation, but because I liked the park, the rhythm, the work.
That application was never acknowledged.
Instead, I was met with awkward silence, thin smiles, retreating contact.
So I withdrew the application, but even this got met with suspicion.
So when I shared my truth —
my background, my journey, my sacrifices —
Logan didn't receive it.
Instead, he tried to manage my perception.
And would later weaponize it.
And then disappear again.
And then they manufactured a situation —
When I asked to be trained by a certain park ranger, to prevent distortion,
Logan said yes, but then didn't follow through.
They wanted to see me fail.
They wanted me to feel uncomfortable.
They wanted me to leave.
I wrote him the trust email —
clear, principled, accountable.
Instead of responding directly,
they convened a meeting.
THE ORCHESTRATED CONFRONTATION
Ryan and Kati summoned me to the day-use area.
A picnic table, a public setting, the illusion of calm.
What followed was a scripted performance of coercion.
For over an hour...
They framed my emails as threats.
They pathologized my clarity as "unprofessional."
They refused to offer specifics, yet insisted I was a problem.
They demanded I extend positive intent —
even as they openly admitted —
they'd never once offered me the benefit of the doubt.
Ryan told me I'd need to "chew glass" —
and framed it as leadership wisdom.
But what he meant was submit.
I recorded the meeting —
because I already knew what was coming.
THE FINAL MOVE
Weeks passed. I kept working. Professionally. Precisely.
No infractions. No escalation.
But they couldn't leave me intact.
Ryan called, days before I was scheduled to leave.
He wanted another meeting.
When I asked why, he said I was "still" being a problem.
Still.
Not because of my actions — but because of my presence.
Because I had not fractured.
I named it for what it was —
I told him he was a bully.
and in that moment, the performance unraveled.
He came to my RV.
Dismissed me without paperwork.
Accepted my keys with a reasonable tone,
masking deliberate erasure as protocol.
That was their final maneuver:
Ensure I did not leave on my own terms.
Ensure I carried a mark.
Ensure the narrative stayed theirs.
But I had already built the archive.
WHAT THEY DID
They misread my coherence as confrontation.
They punished integrity because it disrupted their comfort.
They used silence as strategy.
Tone as weapon.
Policy as shield.
They created an environment where depth was reframed as danger.
Where presence was unwelcome unless it could be controlled.
Where authenticity was pathologized — and then expelled.
This was not incompetence.
This was not miscommunication.
This was institutional harm, deliberately executed by people who chose
performance over presence,
control over contact,
narrative over truth.
WHAT I DID
I held my shape.
I named the distortions.
I documented everything.
I built this record.
And now, it stands —
not as retribution,
but as mirror.
To anyone reading this — inside or outside the institution:
This is what it looks like when coherence survives collapse.
This is what it sounds like when the signal outlasts the noise.
I am still here.
And the archive speaks.
LEXICON TERMS REFERENCED
- sovereignty: Self-governance rooted in alignment with truth and coherence
- coherence: Internal alignment between values, words, and actions
- integration: The state of being whole, undivided, and authentic
- truth: What is real, regardless of what is comfortable
- shape: One's essential form, integrity, and structural coherence
- distortion: The deliberate misrepresentation or warping of reality
- mirror: Reflection that reveals what is, without judgment
- collapse: The breakdown of coherence, integrity, or institutional legitimacy
- signal: Clear, truthful communication
- noise: Confusion, distortion, and institutional deflection
- the archive: The preserved record that speaks truth to power
Full documentation, recordings, and chronology available at oprdvolunteerabuse.org
rswfire published a narrative account documenting his experience as a volunteer at Honeyman State Park under the Oregon Parks & Recreation Department. The document describes a sequence of institutional actions beginning with a text exchange with park supervisor Kati about a power outage, which rswfire identifies as the first point of friction. Following that exchange, park manager Ryan initiated a review of first-week errors framed as a case file rather than feedback. rswfire's direct supervisor Logan was repeatedly unavailable during critical moments, a pattern rswfire identifies as deliberate. rswfire applied for a paid position at the park, which was never acknowledged, and his subsequent withdrawal of the application was met with suspicion. A request to be trained by a specific park ranger was approved by Logan but never followed through. rswfire sent a trust-establishing email, which led to a formal meeting at a picnic table in the day-use area with Ryan and Kati. rswfire describes this meeting as a scripted confrontation lasting over an hour, during which his written communications were framed as threats, his directness was labeled unprofessional, and he was told to extend positive intent while being told he had never received the same. Ryan used the phrase 'chew glass' as a framing of expected compliance. rswfire recorded the meeting. Weeks later, despite no infractions, Ryan called to schedule another meeting, citing ongoing problems. rswfire named the behavior as bullying. Ryan then came to rswfire's RV, dismissed him without paperwork, and collected his keys. rswfire had already been building a documentary archive throughout the process. The document serves as the original narrative account, with the full evidentiary record housed at oprdvolunteerabuse.org. A lexicon of terms used throughout is appended. The document is framed as a preservation of the origin story before institutional containment efforts.
Signal Reflection
No reflections available
Reflections provide narrative insights into signals