About Us

Ouachita Mountain Recovery was established on July 1, 2007. It seems
some like minded people (Gerry and Cindy Sickler and Joe Fortenberry) were
brought together at just the right moment.

Gerry and Cindy had thirty acres in “The Ouachitas” and were contemplating
some kind of a spiritual retreat in this beautiful setting for their friends and
guest. After several years of work on this and it just not coming together
they concluded that it was simply the wrong direction. Someone mentioned
that maybe they should open a recovery center where alcoholics and addicts
might go recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.

As soon as the direction changed, things just seemed to start falling into
place. The Sicklers as well as Joe Fortenberry had a vision of a place where
people could come to get out of the stress and strain of life as they knew it.
A place of peace where they could concentrate on getting better. So “The
Mountain Came to Life”.

We knew that the most successful method of recovery came from “The
Program” as outlined in the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous though it is by
no means the only method of recovery. We also knew that people who are
alcoholic or addict very often have forgone their insurance, were homeless,
had lost their careers, families, cars, drivers license, etc. and could see no
hope. They were at the bottom. We also knew that many times there were
problems with law enforcement etc. Placing the persons’ recovery first we
concluded (after due diligence) that our center had to be a non-profit
501(c)(3) corporation that received no insurance compensations, state or
federal funds. In order for these people to have a chance there could not be
anything or any interference with the recovery process. This would mean of
course we would have to have funding from other sources. We all agreed.

We began. Gerry and Cindy graciously donated their 30 acres on a perpetual
FREE lease to the Corporation. They had water, electricity, septic, a home
and a cabin (not yet habitable) already on the property. This is what we
started with. I, Joe Fortenberry, and our first resident began immediately to
finish the cabin so we would have a place to live. Shortly thereafter a small
donation was made so that we might get additional housing for more residents
and we did so by making a down payment on manufactured housing and
financing the rest with Gerry’s good credit. Well, that filled up quickly and so
we rented the neighbors old “dilapidated” place and fixed it up so we could
have more residents. Eventually I bought a motor home from my sister on
payments so we could have still more residents. We didn’t seem to be running
out of people in need –just housing and money. This where we are at today.