A History of the Architecture of the USDA Forest Service

"How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book"

—Henry David Thoreau's, Walden

1905-1917: From the Ground Up, or the Predesign Phase

When the Forest Service was established in 1905, employees carried out their duties in rented rooms in towns, in abandoned homesteads, and in tents in the field. Resources were so limited that these rangers even had to provide their own horses. The few Government-owned buildings that existed were small, poorly designed by the employees on the ground, and inadequate for conducting day-to-day business. [1] These administrative buildings were largely reflective of the rangers' personal preferences, as well as the materials, tools, and time available to them. Thus, these buildings, which had no apparent stylistic influences on appearance or construction, could be described as "pioneer." The special relationships between the barn, cabin, and corrals were similar to those of typical homestead layouts.

What is believed to be the oldest ranger station in the Forest Service, and certainly in Region 1, is located on the Bitterroot National Forest. Alta Ranger Station, as it is called, was built in 1899 for the Department of the Interior's General Land Office by pioneer forest rangers Nathanial Wilkerson and Henry C. Tuttle, who paid for the materials from personal funds that were never reimbursed. This sturdy 13- x 15-foot one-story log cabin (figure 1-1) served as a ranger station for 5 years. In 1904, it was sold to a private owner. [2]

Figure 1-1. Alta Ranger Station, Bitterroot National Forest, Region 1, built in 1899

The earliest post-1905 Forest Service building that is still standing is the Wapiti Ranger Station on the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. This log-cabin ranger station was originally constructed in 1904 as two buildings: a three-room living quarters and a separate office. The buildings were joined by enclosing the space between them sometime before 1908 (figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2. Wapiti Ranger Station, Shoshone National Forest (1908)

During the early years, a forest ranger's living conditions were fairly primitive, and expenses and meals were usually paid out of the rangers' own pockets. In 1905, District Ranger Raymond Tyler, assigned to the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve, submitted the following request:

Living accommodations in the Reserve have always been poor. The cold winter rain and snow of late spring and fall make it unhealthy to live in tents during the season. Our horses shiver in the icy winds and grow poor. If we bought hay we had little or no means of keeping it dry. When snow and bad weather come a ranger is compelled to live at some hotel and stable his horses, which is very expensive and more than I believe the Department expects. Therefore I ask that the Department allow some appropriation and ranger labor to build a house and barn.

Ranger Tyler's pleas for assistance were apparently heard. The following year, a house with three bedrooms, a kitchen, and a large sitting room was erected. The total cost of the house was estimated at $150. This building was perhaps the first Government-owned facility on what is now the Eldorado National Forest. [3]

Rangers such as Raymond Tyler relied heavily on Gifford Pinchot's The Use Book of 1905 for guidance which stated:

Eventually all the rangers who serve the year round will be furnished with comfortable headquarters. It is the intention of the Forest Service to erect the necessary buildings as rapidly as funds will permit. Usually they should be built with logs with shingle or shake roofs. Dwellings should be of sufficient size to afford comfortable living accommodations to the family of the officer. Rangers' cabins should be located where there is enough agriculture land for a small field and suitable pasture for a few head of horses and a cow or two, in order to decrease the often excessive expense for vegetables and food. He will be held responsible for the proper care of the buildings and the grounds surrounding them. It is impossible to insist on proper care of camps if the forest officers themselves do not keep their homes as models of neatness. [4]

Pinchot's instructions were straightforward enough, but a centrally located administration, poor communications, lack of personnel, and misinterpretation of new regulations often resulted in a lack of uniformity in field operations, including plans for improvements. Also, appropriations for improvements were more often based on arbitrary spending limitations established by Congress rather than on need.

Pinchot also established a ranger exam to eliminate undesirable ranger candidates. Applicants were expected, among other things, to be able to handle an axe and were tested on their knowledge of cabin construction. The Washington Division of Engineering was created in 1908, the same year that forest administration was decentralized into eight Districts, each with its own Engineering Division.

The design and feeling incorporated in the earliest administrative buildings placed importance on ideologies as well as function. Gifford Pinchot promoted the agency, its mission, and its policies, and Forest Service architecture played an important role in Pinchot's vision.

In Colorado, Ranger James Cayton selected the site in a secluded clearing near a spring for his yearlong station (figure 1-3). From his diary written 30 years later:

In September 1909 Forest Ranger Jolly Boone Robinson and I first started the improvements at this station. They consisted of a log barn and a three-room house. Ranger Robinson was given the task to cut and peel green blue spruce trees while I went out to work on my district.

When I returned, I took my bride of just a few days to the station site, where we lived in tents, cooking over a camp fire, then later on an old cook stove. We built the barn first and put the shingle roof on it, then moved into it as there was nearly two foot of snow on the ground and snowing most of the time. We chinked the barn, then dug a hole in the dirt floor, mixed the mud and daubed it on the inside. The barn made quite comfortable living quarters as compared to tents.

We laid up four rounds of logs for the house before we discontinued work for the winter. The next summer with the help of two others we completed laying up the logs for the house, installed partitions, put on the shingle roof and put in the doors and windows.

During that summer season of 1910 my wife and I put the chinking in the house and daubed it with mud. We also built the brick chimney, she being the hod carrier. That summer we moved into the Ranger Station, making it a year around headquarters from then until 1919 when I resigned and we went to California for her health. [5]

Figure 1-3. Cayton Ranger Station, Region 2 (1910)

Much of the rural architecture before 1900 was constructed with no formal architectural style. Utility, time, and the availability of materials were the principal forces behind their method of construction and appearance. Formal architectural expression and detailing were generally adapted variations of the local vernacular architecture. Depending largely on the availability of milled lumber, houses and offices were wood-frame or log construction.

Temporary guard stations were often established at intervals of 1 day's ride on horseback from the established office in town (figure 1-4). These were used for fire patrols and overnight camping. Some were constructed exclusively for a timber sale. Important considerations for site placement included the availability of water, protection from the elements, accessibility to mail delivery, and existing or potential access to telephone lines.

Figure 1-4. Log shack used as a temporary camp near Silers Bald, Wayah Ranger District, Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina (1916)

After 1907, with creation of district offices (now regional headquarters), supervisors' headquarters, and ranger stations, more emphasis was placed on regional standardization of architecture. Originally, Forest Service architecture was epitomized by the simple log cabin, but that building type was superseded by rustic wood-frame structures of more conventional building techniques. The Forest Service intended to project an image of cleanliness, efficiency, and dedication to the public it served, and a crude log cabin did not fit that image. Exceptions were in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, where log construction continued to be popular and was more economical.

Limited funding forced early forest rangers to prioritize improvement work. Eldorado National Forest Supervisor Kelley reported:

Improvements constructed now are more necessary for the efficient development of the forest and their [the rangers'] work in conjunction with fire plans, but in ranger district management I believe there is one thing a ranger should study out thoroughly and that is what improvements work should be done in the district. In making recommendations for permanent improvements, the prime issue is protection and the relation that the recommended improvement bears to it. We all know that our improvement appropriations are small and we must overlook a few little things and pay more attention to larger projects such as telephone lines, pastures, barns and houses, but I believe telephone lines are the most important. December 1912. [6]

In 1913, improvement appropriations for the California District totaled $60,000 for fiscal year 1914. The following year's allotments were increased by $5,000, but both construction and maintenance were covered by these funds.

Final authorization for new construction required approval from the Washington Office. Standard architectural plans were nonexistent prior to 1917; the development of floor plans, exterior appearance, and materials were left up to the individual ranger, with only a dollar limitation controlling the finished building. Most of the work was done by Forest Service employees using the knowledge, skills, and labor available at the local unit. [7]

On remote forests and sites located away from population centers, rangers designed and built the structures themselves. But there were examples where the buildings were constructed by private contractors due to lack of personnel on each forest and the lack of carpentry skills.

Looking at the remaining examples of these early buildings around the Nation shows certain trends. In the Rocky Mountain areas from Canada to Mexico, there is a predominance of log structures; on the West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington), the buildings tend to be more wood-frame structures built from milled lumber. East of the Mississippi River, most of the national forest lands were purchased, and many of the Forest Service buildings were existing structures from the farms bought to make up the forests.

During this earliest era of the Forest Service, there were no known architects, private or public, involved in developing building plans or architectural style. Very few of the buildings from this earliest period have been preserved, and those that remain have been added to, remodeled, or changed their function. Most of the information about them comes from historic letters, reports, and oral traditions. Figures 1-5 through 1-9 demonstrate the style typical of this era.

Forest Service Buildings of the 1900's and 1910's

Figure 1-5. Martin Creek Ranger Station, Santa Rosa Ranger District, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Region 4 (Nevada) (1912)

Figure 1-6. Rangers on the Sierra National Forest construct the Jerseydale Ranger Station in the early 1900's. Dolly and Dick, the Reserve's work horses, assisted.

Figure 1-7. Supervisor's Office, Bridge Station, Sierra National Forest, Region 5 (1912)

Figure 1-8. Falls Ranger Station, Region 1 (1911)

Figure 1-9. Boathouse, Priest Lake Ranger Station, Region 1 (1911)

Notes

1. Dana E. Supernowicz, Contextual History of Forest Service Administrative Buildings in the Pacific Southwest Region, p. 4.

2. USDA Forest Service, The National Forests of the Northern Region: Living Legacy, p. 230.

3. Ibid.

4. USDA Forest Service, The Use Book, p. 108.

5. Les Joslin, Uncle Sam's Cabins, pp. 64-67.

6. Supernowicz, pp. 5-6.

7. Ibid.