Located just west of the road heading towards Lake of the Woods Resort are a number of painted brown buildings cloistered together amongst the pine and fir trees. These wooden structures were built by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. These buildings once housed a fire guard station, a visitor center, maintenance buildings and residence cabins. The cabins were utilized as housing quarters for members of the work station crews. Today, these buildings are no longer used in their original capacity but most have been converted into other uses. The cabins are now rented out to guests of Lake of the Woods Resort. Other buildings are used as storage. There is even an old gas pump still standing in front of a gas barn now used for storing equipment.
The following verbiage is taken from the NRHP nomination form to describe the significance of this historic place and reads:
The Lake of the Woods Ranger Station (now Work Center) typifies the construction projects undertaken by the Civilian Conservation Corps and signifies the aid to the local community provided by the emergency work-relief program through employment of youth and experienced craftsmen, purchase of building materials and camp supplies, and personal expenditures of enrollees. The property represents the Forests Service's presence in the locality, as the headquarters for field operation, and denotes, via the physical facilities required to carry out the agency's expanding responsibilities, the critical transition in the Service's development from custodial superintendence to extensive resource management. The Lake of the Woods Ranger Station exemplifies the rustic architectural idiom developed by the Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, to impart Forest Service identity and to represent its purposes and ideals; and signifies the agency's particular interpretation of a singular expression of early twentieth century American architectural thought. Possessing very high qualities of design and execution, the Work Center is an excellent example of an architectural locution invested with special aesthetic and associative values by the agency that created it.
The Lake of the Woods Ranger Station manifests the principles of comprehensive site planning initiated by the Forest Service during the Depression, through spatial arrangement, functional organization, architectural unity from complimentary building materials and forms, and landscaping to integrates the building site and complex, and signifies an important advance in administrative site development.
I was able to locate a website (University of California, Berkeley) devoted to preserving the many CCC projects around the country and located a writeup on this place that reads:
One of the most conspicuous reminders of the CCC program located along any state highway in Oregon is the Lake of the Woods Work Center. Situated about 30 miles northwest of Klamath Falls on OR-140, these structures were built from standard plans provided by the U.S. Forest Service architects. The ‘pine tree’ cutout, a symbol associated with both the USFS and the CCC, is clearly seen on the ranger station. Beyond the highway are Forest Service campgrounds originally developed by enrollees from Camp South Fork near Butte Falls during the 1930s.”
–“CCC Landmarks: Remembering the Past”
There are numerous campgrounds located around Lake of the Woods. It's impossible to determine which campgrounds were built by CCC members without confirming other sources. Nonetheless, the buildings here still stand and still have the trademark pine trees on a few of them. The ranger station is now a rental cabin (the main picture is of this building). The other pictures I've uploaded are of the majority of the buildings in this small area. A few cabins were being rented and I didn't want to intrude on their privacy. There is a small parking lot in front of the former ranger station. My posted coordinates place you in the parking lot to begin your journey.
I'll also be purchasing a copy of the CCC Landmarks: Remembering Our Past publication and if I find additional information to contribute to this waymark, I'll incorporate it here.
My posted coordinates will place you in the parking lot in front of the former front office and now a leased cabin as part of the Lake of the Woods Resort.