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.
Originally the Carpentry Shop, this is now known as the Saw Shop.
Built in 1934 by Civilian Conservation Corps crews, this chinked log structure was built on a concrete slab foundation. It is 18 feet X 26 feet and l6 feet high. It has a gable roof with board and batten siding in the gable ends and a cedar shake roof.
This small log building is near the centre of the site, between the office and the large shop/warehouse.
Stillwater Ranger Station
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