English: Inside a man camp: Looking at a sample room in a mobile home set up as a man-camp near Watford City, McKenzie County, North Dakota.

Man camps can house anywhere from 200 to 2,500 people. Most are around 500 to 1,500 beds. In North Dakota, oil workers, nearly all of them single men in their 20s and 30s, are the target resident. Man camps can take several forms:

• Some are small plots of concrete, set side by side in long rows, on which a small camper-trailer is placed. Each trailer (which sleeps one or two people) is hooked up to water and electricity. Flush latrines are provided. • Some are mobile homes, with small 12 x 15 foot rooms with little more than a shower bathroom, coffee pot, and small closet. Each room is hooked up to water, sewer, and electricity. • Some are manufactured cabins, small 12 x 15 foot rooms with little more than a shower and bathroom, tiny desk, coffee pot, and small closet. Each room is hooked up to water, sewer, and electricity. Larger cabins sleep two per room, but most are singles. The cabins may be stand-alone, or paired in duplexes. • Some are single-story dormitories, with small 12 x 15 foot rooms with little more than a tiny desk, coffee pot, and small closet. Some dormitories have shower and bathroom in each room, but others have large, shared showers and toilets at one end of the structure. Each dormitory offers water, sewer, and electricity.

Some man camps provide a "dining hall" where a buffet meal is served for breakfast and dinner. Some also provide an "entertainment hall" with several big-screen TVs, many video game terminals, many DVD and blu-ray players, etc. , available for the use of residents. But some provide slightly more cooking ability in the room (via a microwave, hot plate, or kitchenette), and do not provide communal dining. A large number provide no entertainment whatsoever.

Increasingly, public drunkenness and drunk driving are encouraging communities to strictly regulate man camps. Man camps, in turn, often seek to provide more on-site services for the residents, such as entertainment halls, to keep residents on-site instead of driving around drunk or getting into trouble. Most man camps strictly regulate behavior (e.g., no drunkenness, no prostitution).