The
Star Ranger Station, located along Upper Applegate Rd, contains structures that were built at various times in the past 100 years. One of the structures is the Star Ranger Station, or 'Tack Room' that sits just north of the current ranger station. There is a historical placard next to this structure that mentions this 'tack room' being moved numerous times over the years, before finally being relocated to its current site. There is also mention of the various moves this structure made in the National Register of Historic Places datasheet. The placard next to the structure that reads (with moved references in bold):
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The Old "Tack Room" ... a witness to change
This simple frame building - listed on the National Register of Historic Places - is one of the oldest Forest Service structures in the country. Known for many years as the "tack room," it has served a variety of purposes since its construction in 1911.
After President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed much of the Applegate River watershed as a National Forest in 1907, Forest Service rangers arrived to manage its resources. During the scorching summer of 1910, Ranger Horace Whitney made do with a miner's long-abandoned log cabin for shelter at nearby Star Gulch. The following spring, he returned with his new bride and found "two carpenters just completing a one-room, combined office and living quarters in the middle of the alfalfa patch on the District's new compound. Whitney's one-room building - the one standing before you now - was the first administrative headquarters for the new Applegate Ranger District.
The little building proved too cramped to serve as a year-round home. During the next few summers, the District Ranger and his family preferred to "rough it" in a tent; in the winter, they resided in town. In 1914 a two-story ranger's residence was built on the slope across the Upper Applegate Road. This home also served as the office until the Civilian Conservation Corps built a new ranger station in the 1930s (visible directly across the road from you).
Because of its small size, the original building - demoted from "office" to storage shed - was easily moved to several locations within the station compound over the years. From Word War I until the mid-1940s, long-time District Ranger Lee Port kept his saddles and other horse "tack" in it. Long after the day of the horse-mounted ranger had passed, the structure held tree-marking paint and other supplies to lay out the District's timber sales.
The Applegate Ranger District as witnessed a great deal of change since 1910, when a ranger spent most of his time riding the range in the high country, building trail, and fighting fire. In a small but real way, the old "tack room" has been part of that transformation. Today it serves as a tangible reminder of the early years and of the many changes that have come to the area since then.
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The NHRP datasheet on this structure says the following excerpts (with moved references in bold):
Significance: The Star Ranger Station Building, built in 1911 as the administrative headquarters on the Applegate Ranger District of the Rogue River National Forest, is significant for its association with the development of the Forest Service in southwest Oregon, and particularly in the Applegate Valley. Submitted as part of a multiple property submission, "U.S. Forest Service Historic Structures on the Rogue River National Forest, Oregon," Star Ranger Station Office represents its associated historic context, "Early Forest Service Administrative and Natural Resource Management on the Rogue River National Forest 1907 to 1932." The building meets the registration requirements outlined for vernacular agency structures in the registration document. Constructed in 1911, it was established near the beginning of the historic period. The Star Ranger Station Office retains its integrity of setting, design, and materials, and it evokes direct historic associations with its historic context. Although the building's location has shifted several times, including once within the historic period, it retains a prominent location on the site in proximity to the main road, reflecting its early status as an important Forest Service facility in the Applegate area. The Star Ranger Station Office embodies the characteristics of its type through its setting, design, and materials. The building has been declared eligible to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A as an important, tangible representative of early Forest Service administrative activities in southwest Oregon. One of the earliest Ranger Stations built within the Rogue River National Forest, it is one of the oldest Forest Service structures in continuous use in the nation. The Star Ranger Station Building is now the oldest Forest Service building extant in Southwestern Oregon (LaLande, August 2, 1999).
Additionally eligible to the National Register under Criterion C as an excellent representative of early vernacular National Forest structures, the Star Ranger Station Building retains a substantial portion of its integrity of setting, design, and materials and
it evokes direct historic associations with its historic context. It exemplifies the simple, vernacular style used for early Forest Service administrative buildings.
History: The Star Ranger Station compound is located in an area where extensive placer mining took place during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Evidence of hydraulic operations - mining cuts and tailings piles are visible about 0 .3 miles south of
the Ranger Station.
The present Star Ranger Station compound was included in the Ashland Forest Reserve proclamation of 1906, and was removed from homestead or mineral entry as part of an administrative site withdrawal in 1914 (Rogue River National Forest, Item I-9). The earliest "Ranger Station" at the site was located in an abandoned log cabin on the Star Mining Claim on the south side of Star Gulch. Ranger Horace G. Whitney used the cabin until the winter of 1910-1911. Whitney left the Applegate Valley to be married, and upon returning to Star Gulch in the spring of 1911, found:
... two carpenters just completing a one-room, combined office
and living quarters in the middle of the alfalfa patch at Star Ranger
Station. Later on the place was fenced and a barn was built. (LaLande 1979)
This structure, now known as the old Star Ranger Station Building or "Tack Room," was situated on the east side of Upper Applegate Road south of its present location. It served both official and residential functions until Forest Service employees built a larger "Ranger's house on the wooded slope above the Upper Applegate Road during the winter of 1914-1915.
The compound facilities at Star Gulch became inadequate for Forest Service administrative/residential needs by the early 1930s. The agency utilized Companies 5463, 290 and 926 of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) stationed at nearby Camp Applegate F-41 to build new structures at the Star Ranger Station complex. The CCC construction activity occurred between 1934 and 1936 (Brown [1971] 1934-1937; RRNF. Historical Photograph Collection, ·File #V -4). Thirteen buildings and rockwork features were among the improvements included in the Civilian Conservation Corps site development at Star Ranger Station.
During the 1930s the original Ranger Station Building was moved across the Upper Applegate Road to a position on the hillside near the CCC-built barn, where it served as a "tack room" for storing saddles, pack frames, and other equipment. During the first half of the twentieth century, because of its mild climate, all of the Forest's horses and mules were quartered at Star Ranger Station each winter. Later, the building was moved again, back across the road to a location at the rear of the new office building.
The Forest Service built additional facilities after 1950, including residences, an office building, and a water treatment building. A number of the pre-1940 structures at Star Ranger Station were removed from the site between 1955 and 1970. (The few remaining CCC-built structures, utilitarian in design, have previously been found ineligible to the National Register of Historic Places with concurrence of the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office). The Star Ranger Station Compound site underwent major revision in the late 1970s and 1980s, and the agency completed a modern, expanded office building on the site by 1990.
In about 1992, the Star Ranger Station Building was relocated to a site fronting Upper Applegate Road near the northwest comer of the expanded office structure. The site makes it clearly visible from the county road and easily accessible from the compound parking lot. The structure was re-roofed and restored to its ca. 1920-1930 appearance on the exterior. Plans call for eventually fitting the building as an interpretive site exhibiting history of the Applegate Valley and the Applegate Ranger District. Restoration may include arrangement as an early Ranger's office with appropriate furniture, equipment, and maps.
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There are also very-old-looking warehouse buildings tucked away and to the south of the current ranger station that were also built by the CCC, but they aren't listed in NRHP, although they look to be preserved and not in use.
*NOTE* I used the approximate coordinates from this structure's last location before it was moved to its current location below.