Freedom Acres Swinger Resort Opens Wide

This article originally ran in the August 2014 issue of AVN magazine. Freedom Acres, the longtime swing nightclub located on the I-15 where it makes its lazy turn north as it joins the 215 on the way to Las Vegas, has purchased the nearby Deer Park Nudist Resort and is turning it into a landed swing club. “We let the AANR [American Association for Nude Recreation] affiliation go,” Freedom Acres Events Coordinator Jeff James told AVN. “We are no longer a family-friendly place. We’re catering to the swinger community, and we welcome the adult industry to visit and to shoot here.” The property has a long history as a nudist park, stretching back to 1937 when the Oakdale Guest Ranch was established on the site, formerly a truck stop on Route 66. In the late ‘60s it was the home of nude beauty pageants, a tradition that continued in the ‘70s after the park was sold and renamed Treehouse Fun Ranch. In the ‘80s it was renamed Deer Park Nudist Resort and with the recent change in ownership it is now Freedom Acres resort. The property officially debuted last month with a grand opening party on July 12. “The property is rustic,” James, a retired adult performer, told AVN. “We’re kind of rough around the edges, and we’re in the middle of nowhere. We’ll never be Mandalay Bay, but we’re awesome.” According to James, the 1960s occupancy license from the Bureau of Land Management defined the property as a swingers on-premise club, with sex and alcohol. “It’s never changed purpose, so we’re grandfathered in. The city can’t say anything about it.” (Devore is a community designation within the city of San Bernardino.) The 44-acre property includes a restaurant with pool room and adjacent steam room, hot tub, shower room, sauna and locker room with large make-up area. Although much of the restaurant building is designated a “no-play area,” that rule does not apply to production shooting. “Production has no limits to where you can produce,” James said. The property has two swimming pools, a small one designated clothing-optional and an Olympic-sized one designated nude-required. The Olympic pool is heated to 91 degrees year-round and is 5 feet deep at the center and 3 feet at the ends. “There’s one basic rule: Don’t cum in the water,” James said. “We don’t want any pop shots in the water because nobody wants to swim through that.” Three large tents at one side of the pool have mattresses on wooden platforms that can be used for shooting, and a raised platform running the length of one side of the pool can be used for shooting down into the pool area. A fire road leads to a cleared space behind the olympic pool with weatherproof electrical boxes ready for full-size production trucks. A large parking area can store production trucks not in immediate use. RV spaces are available for production personnel who want to bring them, and rental accommodations include RVs, mobile homes, apartments and rustic cabins furnished with air conditioner, king-sized bed, toilet, sink, dorm fridge, microwave oven and coffeemaker. Future plans include a bandstand and grassed terraced performance space, a photo studio, tattoo parlor, and expansion of the camping facilities. The shuffleboard and tennis courts are scheduled for renovation and upgrading, and the volleyball court —a mainstay in traditional nudist settings—is scheduled to be upgraded and filled with sand for beach volleyball. Optimum shooting times are weekdays. “Monday through Friday the place is pretty much a ghost town,” James said. “In the wintertime, it’ll be amazing to have people out here.” The nearby Freedom Acres club is also available, with settings including bar area, disco, lounge, dungeon and multi-level play areas available. The club also has a full restaurant kitchen that can be used for shooting or preparing food for craft table and crew meals. “The wonderful thing about our facilities is there aren’t any rules,” James told AVN. “If you want to shoot outdoors, we have all you could possibly handle. If you want to do an interior shot, you can do that. You can use the rental spaces. You can leave your equipment lying around wherever you want. If you want to shoot a scene in front of the windows, you can do that and not worry about police driving by. If the talent is done shooting, they can walk outside naked. If they want to have friendly sex on the corner they can. If they want to socialize, they can. “This is Pornucopia. Porn City. You can go anywhere you want, do anything you want, without worrying about police officers, without worrying about helicopters spotting you shooting, without worrying about fire marshals. This is all private property. Once you pay for the package, you can come in, shoot all you want, as long as you want, wherever you want, with whoever you want, utilize all the facilities all the time. “I know what production people are looking for. I kept my eyes open on sets and heard ‘You can’t do that because somebody’s going to see’ or ‘We can’t do that out in the open.’ Production crews don’t have to worry about that here. We give a safe place to shoot and a safe place to hang out.” James was a performer from the late 1980s “to 1999-2000,” he told AVN. “I shot for Vivid, Evil Angel, Hustler, I did a lot of magazine layouts. We were back in the day when we did ‘story porn.’ It was a great life.” James has since become active in promoting the swinging lifestyle and working as a body painter. “That’s my way of giving back. I loved going to the AVN shows. Never won an award but I think I was up for newcomer of the year. Now I go out to colleges and lecture at human sexuality classes about what it’s like to be a porn star. They consume our product and they have a lot of questions.” James is the events coordinator and adult industry liaison for the resort. “If they are shooting out here, it is my responsibility that they have what they need. If they have a problem with electricity, let me know, I’ll figure it out. If they want facilities services, I’ll go get them. If they need food, I’ll make sure that the kitchen is up and running. If they need makeup, we’ll make sure that there’s somebody there or we can tell them where to go get it. That’s my job—to make their job easy.” Freedom Acres Resort is located at 1924 Glen Helen Road in Devore. The office phone number is (909) 880-0803 and adult industry professionals are invited to leave a message for Jeff James. He will call back to give further information or arrange an appointment to see the property. “If you don’t want to shoot right now, come out and check it out,” James said. “Production people, shooting people, camera operators. Come hang out with a bunch of adults, in an adult place. It’s a venture that we’re pouring our hearts into. This is something that we believe in, and we’d like the adult industry to be a part of it.”For more details on the property, visit FreedomAcresResorts.com.