Updates

Beaverhead National Forest

The Beaverhead Forest engineer informed me that the residence at the old Jackson Ranger Station was torn down in 2016. During the winter of 2015 apparently the heat went out and pipes burst, resulting in serious water damage and mold in the building. It had been used intermittently for employee housing, but was unoccupied when the furnace quit. The barn, warehouse, and garage remain.

Bitterroot National Forest

Darby Ranger Station – according to a local retiree, the old garage and gas house were sold and moved to private property in town. An old photo at the ranger station shows a typical garage of those days with multiple bays.

Custer National Forest

The old Jesse Elliott Ranger Station is being renovated with the hopes that it will be in the cabin rental program soon. It was named after a former ranger and historically, there have been several different spellings used. The Forest Service now uses “Jessie Elliott” as the acceptable spelling of this facility.

Mike Bergstrom, archaeologist on the Custer Forest, provided the following information about the Jessie Elliott Ranger Station in 2017: We really don’t know the whole story behind naming of the Jessie Elliott Ranger Station on the Sioux District.  We believe this stone building was built by William/Willis (“Wild Bill”) Edmond Elliott.  His mother’s name was Permelia (Brown) Elliott and he had a daughter, Jessie May.  Several years ago, when we were gutting the interior, we exposed the chiseled initials “JPE” on one of the stones.  Stone masons who helped rebuild two collapsed walls told us that it was common for stone masons to leave initials somewhere on a building.  One possibility is that Willis honored his mother and daughter by their initials?  Jessie married Jack McMillan in Haley, North Dakota.  She died in 1908 two weeks after the birth of her daughter Nellie and is buried in the Haley Cemetery 

Gallatin National Forest

  • Main Boulder Ranger Station – according to retiree Carl Ronneberg, Ranger Kaufman’s diaries indicate that additions to the main station were built in 1909 and 1923.
  • Deer Creek Cabin – was originally a special use cabin built by someone named Todd in 1960. In 1993 it was turned over to the Forest Service. It is in the cabin rental program.
  • Dome Mountain Ranger Station – information from John Taylor’s book “ A job with room and board” noted that the foundation was laid in the fall. Come spring it turned out that it had been build near a rattlesnake den and there were rattlesnakes all over the yard.
  • Bangtail Guard Station– there were two buildings here and they were burned down by the Forest Service in the 1990s.
  • In the upper Gallatin drainage there were a number of guard stations which are no longer there: Cache Creek Guard Station at T9S R3E section 5. It first appeared on a 1937 forest map and showed on a 1960 map as well, it does not appear on the 1980 map. This is at the end of road #135.
  • There was a Sage Creek Guard Station at T9S R4E section 23 appeared on maps in 1928, through 1960. By the publication of the 1980 map this was gone. At an unknown point in time(between 1960 and 1980) it was sold and moved to the nearby Elkhorn dude ranch. The foundation is still on the original site.
  • Taylor Creek Guard Station – T9S R3E section 12. This facility appeared on Forest Service maps through the late 1920s.
  • The Flathead Ranger Station in the Bridger range is still there and buildings are reportedly in pretty good condition. This location, however is now on private property having been part of a land exchange.
  • The Troy Ranger Station apparently had broken pipes resulting in water damage. It was subsequently burned down by the Forest Service.

Deerlodge National Forest

Little Whitetail Ranger Station: In addition to the location listed in “Home on the Range” (T3N R4W section 6, on Pony Creek), the 1912 map shows an earlier ranger station location several miles south, in section 28 T3N R4W, along Fitz Creek. These are both in the Whitetail Deer Creek valley north of Whitehall.

Helena National Forest

Boulder Nursery Ranger Station (now part of the Deerlodge Forest) – Ranger Brandborg’s diary from 1917-1918 noted that he came here on April of 1917 to dig up 44 feet of piping to ship to Earl Welton, then ranger at the Checkerboard Ranger Station. And in the spring of 1918, he hired George Murphy and Basil Brown to work at the nursery. In his diary in 1918, Ranger Brandborg mentions trips to town from the Glendale Butte ranger station indicting that the new station in Radersburg had not yet been built.

Kootenai National Forest

  • Raven Ranger Station – Information from retiree Forest Hayes who worked at Raven in the 1950s noted that the fire cache had been the ice house and that ice came from Crystal Lake south of Happy’s Inn along Highway 2. Forest Service employees who worked through the winter cut and hauled ice. He also mentioned that the addition to the cook house was really just framed and covered with log siding and was built while he was there in the 1950s, probably in 1958. This addition was constructed because Dolly Holmgrom was hired as the cook and there were not accommodations for women in the bunk house or above the office.
  • Swamp Creek Ranger Station – Forest Hayes provided information on this station, noting that it was mainly used for storage when he worked at nearby Raven in the last half of the 1950’s. He remembered that there was a barn and pasture on the south side of the highway and a log dwelling on the north side of the highway. Both had Forest Service locks on them and the saying was that first things went to the Raven barn, then to Swamp Creek, then to the dump. There was a wooden tub water powered washing machine at Swamp Creek. The Forest had no idea what eventually happened to the buildings at Swamp Creek.

Lolo National Forest

  • The Clearwater Crossing Guard Station burned in the Fish Creek Fire during the summer of 2015.
  • Graham Creek.  From Year of the fires: Graham Creek Ranger Station (page 185) Will Morris sent a party to a nearby logging camp for provisions then hurried to the Graham Creek Ranger Station to phone Weigle for help (Lolo National Forest).
  • Franklin Guard Station in the Rattlesnake, according to John Taylor’s book “A Job with Room and Board”, was named after area resident Arthur Franklin who lived a mile beyond the guard station. He was highly educated and had a large library and no apparent source of income other than a remittance from family back east. Old time buffalo hunter Coyote Bill said that Franklin was tied in with a band of horse thieves.
  • Red Pepper Jack Ranger Station was named after Red Pepper Jack who was a squatter on this site and apparently was also tied in with the above mentioned horse thieves. It was used as a way station for squatters and horse thieves. According to the book “A Job with Room and Board” when the band of thieves was broken up and Jack sent to prison the Forest Service acquired the cabin.
  • Rainy Creek/Taft Ranger Station – information from Stephen Pyne’s “Year of the Fires” indicates that Ranger J.E. Breen saved the lumber here and perhaps a building. The remainder of the town vanished in flame. This would likely indicate that the photos of this ranger station in “ A Home in the Woods, Montana’s Westside Ranger Stations” were taken after the 1910 fires and that the buildings probably date to after that time as well.