Gifford Pinchot National Forest

	USDA Forest Service Gifford Pinchot National Forest
For Immediate Release: June 26, 2008
Contact: Cheryl Mack (509) 395-3421 or Rick McClure (509) 395-3399

Historic Guard Station Open to the Public During Forest Centennial Event July 5

TROUT LAKE , WA – As part of the Forest Centennial in 2008 an old two-room mountain cabin, built by rangers in the early days of the Forest Service, will be open to the public on Saturday July 5. The Gotchen Creek Ranger Station, built in 1909, is located nine miles north of the community of Trout Lake on the south side of Mt. Adams, within Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

The cabin will be open from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. Heritage Program staff from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest will be on hand to provide historical information.

Nancy Ryke, District Ranger for the Mt. Adams Ranger District, said, “I hope that visitors will take the opportunity during this weekend when we recognize the birth of our nation to connect with their public lands, especially since this year marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and Gotchen Creek Ranger Station is our oldest surviving building on the Forest.”

A recent inventory of over 1,500 existing historic Forest Service buildings in Washington and Oregon showed that the Gotchen Creek station is one of only four ranger stations built before 1910. The cabin was strategically placed on an old wagon road that served as a principal entry point to the Forest from the east. In the early days, tens of thousands of sheep passed by the station on their way to grazing allotments. Rangers based at the cabin counted sheep and conducted horseback patrols of the surrounding country.

The historic ranger station is located on Forest Road 8225.060, with access from Forest Roads 82 and 8225 north of Trout Lake.

The site is featured on a special centennial tear map of the Forest which visitors can use to navigate the Forest this year and which also lists a number of historic sites around the Forest for people to visit. These are now available at all Forest offices on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and at local visitor information centers.

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US Forest Service
Gifford Pinchot National Forest - Vancouver, WA
Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument - Amboy, WA
Last Modified: Thursday, 26 June 2008 at 19:35:43 EDT