A History of Service - Montana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Interpretive sign west of Lolo, Montana. Sign deals with the history of the Lolo Ranger Station.
Text of Sign: A History of Service
The site before you has had a busy past. The Earl Tennant recreation site is yet another chapter in the history of this peaceful flat next to Lolo Creek.
The Lolo Ranger District of the Lolo National Forest was established in 1907. A year later, the Mud Creek Ranger Station, the first headquarters of the Lolo Ranger District, was built about seven miles west of here, near Lolo Hot Springs. The Mud Creek Ranger Station played an important role in the early development of the Forest Service in the Lolo Creek and Lochsa River areas and served as an important staging station for crews fighting the three-million-acre forest fire of 1910.
In 1934, 50 acres of land was donated to the Forest Service by the Anaconda Copper Company to be used for a new ranger station. That same year, the Forest Service requested $11,250 for the construction of a new ranger station, administrative building, garage, barn, machine shed, pasture fence, water development, and landscaping. The March 7, 1934, Missoula Sentinel reported, “A complete new station, with most of the buildings underway, is being erected on Lolo Creek in the Lolo District, of which Ranger Earl Tennant is in charge.” The barn just west of here is one of the original 1934 buildings.
Ranger Tennant was the last ranger at Mud Creek and the first ranger at the Lolo Ranger Station. The new ranger station was relatively remote. U.S. Highway 12 was still a dirt road. A five-kilowatt generator provided electricity and the buildings had only limited service. According to Ranger Jack Puckett, ranger from 1956 to 1957, “if two of the residences used their toasters at the same time, the fuses blew and the generator shut down.” Commercial electricity was brought to the ranger station in 1962.
In 1967, the Lolo Ranger Station was shut down and the Lolo and Bonita (25 miles east of Missoula) ranger districts were combined wit the Missoula Ranger District. The old Lolo Ranger Station became the Lolo Work Center and was used to stage fire crews, house Forest Service employees, and as a storage site. From 1972 to 1982 it was a base camp for Youth and Young Adult Conservation Corps crews. In the early 1980’s, the main office from the old Mud Creek Ranger Station was moved to the Lolo Pass Visitor Center. After that the Lolo Work Center was phased out. The Earl Tennant Recreation Site was established here to support the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.
Lolo Creek has been a historic travel route for centuries. For Native Americans it was the trail to buffalo and salmon. For Lewis and Clark it was the way to the Pacific Ocean. For the Nez Perce it was the escape route for Chief Joseph and his people. Stagecoaches later carried people to the hot springs and to see the large rock formations, or hoodoos, nearby, and Forest Service packers hauled supplies from here into two backcountry ranger districts.
In 1962, the highway was finally completed to Lewiston, Idaho. Today Lolo Creek offers access to national forests and to the Lewis and Clark and Nez Perce national historic trails and is a popular camping, hunting, fishing, and firewood cutting area.

Describe the area and history: Sign is located along U.S. Hwy. 12 at the Earl Tennant Recreation Site.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/28/2014 phoecherl wrote comment for it 10/09/2010 Volcanoguy visited it

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