Stillwater State Forest Headquarters - Olney, MT - Ranger Stations on Waymarking.com

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Stillwater State Forest Headquarters - Olney, MT

in Ranger Stations

Posted by:  T0SHEA

11U E 679458 N 5379432

Stillwater State Forest, Montana's first state forest, came into being in 1918. In 1922 construction began on Stillwater Ranger Station, one of Montana's first. It remained the state's only major ranger station until 1954.

Though it operates under a different name, this place serves the same purpose as a ranger station, which is to administer the Stillwater State Forest and provide an information centre for tourists, hunters and anglers. The ranger station is on the west side of Highway 93, less than a mile south of the little town of Olney, MT and about 15 miles north of Whitefish, MT, in Flathead County.

Of eleven buildings on the site there are seven which contribute to the Stillwater Ranger Station Historic District near Olney, MT. The first to be erected on the site, the main office and ranger's sleeping quarters, was built in 1922, while the last to be built, in 1969, is a large workshop built upon the foundation of a 1933 building, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which burned in 1968.

The office and sleeping quarters, built in 1922 (one of the first two buildings built in the state's forests by the Office of the State Forester) was originally used for storage and telephone communications. Old telephones and a small switchboard are still in place within.

A history of the headquarters, from the NRHP plaque at the site, follows.

The Stillwater Forest and its ranger station mark a milestone in the history of state forestry. The Enabling Act of 1889 laid a tenuous foundation for today’s system by granting Montana two sections of land in every township, stipulating that the income generated must be used for education. It soon became apparent that effective management of 500,000 widely scattered acres was impossible. The Office of the State Forester, created in 1909, advocated consolidation of state holdings as the solution. In 1912, the State Forester proposed to swap the Forest Service 60,000 acres of state-owned sections for a like amount here in the Whitefish and Stillwater drainages. President Woodrow Wilson approved the exchange in 1918. Stillwater became Montana’s first state forest. Through the efforts of State Forester Robert McLaughlin, the first log structure at Stillwater Ranger Station was built in 1922. At McLaughlin’s urging, the 1925 legislature designated the Stillwater Forest a managed site.

After 40,000 timbered acres burned in 1926, the Stillwater Ranger Station became a year-round facility for timber management and fire protection and was the only major ranger station in the state system until 1954. Ranger Pete De Groat built the main log residence in 1928, and CCC forestry crews added several more buildings in the 1930s. Maurice Cusick, supervisor from 1936 to 1967, built four others. Today, these historic log buildings constructed of local materials are a tribute to Montana’s early forestry and conservation efforts.
From the NRHP Plaque