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STORIES -> Success Stories - Partnerships with Forest Service

Elk Lake Guard Station Stands Watch Over History

Historic Elk Lake Guard Station on the Deschutes National Forest got a new lease on life when Forest Service personnel and Passport in Time* (PIT) volunteers restored the old landmark through a series of PIT projects spanning 1998-2001. In service for most of seven decades, the 1929 log cabin was in great need of repair. Its strategic location along the Cascade Lakes National Scenic Byway now makes the old station an ideal visitor center. Visitors who stop for information on area recreation opportunities take a peek at the old guard station and learn a little local national forest history. PIT volunteers staff the historic station throughout the summer. During the summer of 2002, they welcomed 1,233 visitors.

Chris Lipscomb, a Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District archaeologist and PIT project leader, emphasized the need to preserve the old log cabin. "The guard station was one of the few historic cabins in the Bend, Oregon, district still intact. We didn't want to lose it, but if we didn't start maintaining it soon, we would."

Repairing the old cabin was hard work. Care was taken to make sure restoration efforts were true to the original design. Several experts were called in to train Forest Service staff and PIT volunteers in everything from stripping logs to rebuilding porches.

Les Joslin, a retired naval officer who serves as a Forest Service wilderness ranger and teaches wilderness management for Oregon State University, spearheaded the project. Author of the 1995 book Uncle Sam's Cabins: A Visitor's Guide to Historic U.S. Forest Service Ranger Stations of the West, Joslin has a strong interest in heritage resources. He worked closely with Lipscomb and others to put together a restoration and utilization plan for the project.

"I worked my way through college on the Toiyabe National Forest in the 1960s," Joslin said, as he explained his passion for Forest Service history. "This old guard station tells the story of the Forest Service's century of service to the nation in a way visitors can see."

An interpretive sign in front of the cabin explains the history of the guard station:
In the early days of the National Forest System, the forest guards who were sometimes posted at guard stations were the forest ranger's right-hand men in the field. Guard stations were satellites of ranger stations.

When, in 1920, a wagon road connected Bend and Elk Lake, recreation boomed in the area. National forest campgrounds were built, summer home sites were leased, and Elk Lake Lodge was opened. IN 1924 there was an Elk Lake post office. The forest ranger in Bend soon needed a forest guard in the area to serve visitors, maintain facilities, and protect resources.

This forest guard needed a base, and in 1929 the Elk Lake Guard Station log cabin was built. At first, because funds were scarce during the Great Depression, this station was not staffed. From the later 1930s through the 1990s, however, forest guards and other Forest Service employees and volunteers served the public from this small station. Their job grew as the population grew, access improved, leisure time increased, and more forest visitors came.

In 1997, the Forest Service decided to retain this old guard station - along the popular Cascade Lakes National Scenic Byway - as a visitor information center and historic site. During the next few years, Forest service employees and volunteers resorted the cabin and rehabilitated its grounds.

Now, as you visit Historic Elk Lake Guard Station, you get a feel for how the forest lived and worked during the middle decades of the 20th century - in a very different time not long ago.

Today, Historic Elk Lake Guard Station offers visitors a connection with local history and the land. "Cabins like this let people see how our Forest Service pioneers lived and *worked," Lipscomb commented. "We need places like this. They are disappearing so fast, we are losing our history."

For more information, contact:
Robin Gyorgyfalvy, Director of Interpretive Services
Chris Lipscomb, Archaeologist
Bend/Fort Rock District, Deschutes National Forest
Telephone: (541) 383-4000

* Passport in Time is a Forest Service program that provides opportunities for individuals and families to work with professional archeologists and historians on National Forest System heritage resource preservation projects.