Camp Sherman, OR

Camp Sherman is an unincorporated Jefferson County community arranged along the Metolius River and the roads that follow the basin. The river is the clearest geographic fact, but the school gives the place a second center: the first schoolhouse was built near First Creek in 1888, and today’s Black Butte School still serves K–8 students from its Camp Sherman campus. A general store and post office round out the small year-round service map.

Summer changes the scale. The community’s permanent population is small, while visitors and summer residents gather around the river, forest roads, and nearby Black Butte landscape. The river is also a practical landmark, guiding visitors between the store, school, trails, and forest roads. Black Butte School’s history includes an 1888 log school, a 1917 replacement, and the mid-century building designed by Wayne Korish that was remodeled after a 2023 bond measure. Camp Sherman’s identity comes from that overlap: a working school community on the Metolius, with seasonal recreation and forest stewardship woven into the same few roads.