The High Desert Museum’s newly restored, historic High Desert Ranger Station opens on July 1, a centerpiece in the story of America’s forests, their role in western American life and the policies that shaped the High Desert forests of today.
During the last five years, the Museum worked with the U.S. Forest Service and Nevada’s state Historic Preservation Office to save the station, moving it from a remote location in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.
With help from a small, dedicated corps of volunteers, the Museum restored and furnished the station with early 1940s detailing and artifacts.
This story will be brought to life as U.S. Forest Service retirees, the "OldSmokeys" of the agency's Pacific Northwest Region, will be on the station’s front porch, talking with visitors about wildfire prevention and the evolving roles of the Forest Service.
This marks the culmination of work led by the Museum’s Curator of Western History Bob Boyd. Boyd, a fellow Museum staff member, and Museum volunteer Les Joslin, who began working with the Forest Service in the one-room station in 1962, moved the building to the Museum last summer.
Joslin detailed how his time at the station shaped his personal conviction for caring for the land and serving people in his book, Toiyabe Patrol – Five U.S. Forest Service Summers East of the High Sierra in the 1960s, available at the Museum store.
“Those five Toiyabe patrol summers were both inspiration for and confirmation of the person and the public servant I strove to be and think I came to be,” according to Joslin, one of the "OldSmokeys" who will be at the station, talking with visitors on July 4 and regularly throughout the summer. “Those five Toiyabe patrol summers stand out as one of the great adventures of my life.”
Curator Boyd said, “Across half a century, this station served as a base for Forest Service staff to manage the forests and resources of a vast landscape of the American West’s arid basin and range country. Their missions were diverse and challenging. Work ranged from managing bands of desert mustangs and grazing allotments to cattle ranches to creating and servicing campgrounds and recreation sites.”
The station’s formerly remote location had been contributing to its demise. It had not been in use for almost 20 years, was 40 miles from the nearest Forest Service administrative site, and was being increasingly vandalized.
The Civilian Conservation Corps built the station in eastern California at Bridgeport, Calif., in 1933. In 1962, the Forest Service moved it to the Reese River Valley in central Nevada.
According to the architectural historian for the region’s National Forest Service, this station is the only surviving building of its type that has not been subjected to major renovation or modification over the past 75 years.
The project was made possible through contributions by Forest Service retirees, individuals interested in preserving and interpreting forest history and business donations of labor, materials and equipment.
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The High Desert Museum is nationally acclaimed for inspiring stewardship of the natural and cultural resources of the High Desert. It offers close-up wildlife encounters, living history performances, Native American and Western art, music, nature trails, tours and classes for all ages. It is on 135 acres in a pristine forest, five minutes from Bend on South Highway 97.
The Museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission rates are: adults, $15; ages 65 plus, $12; ages 5-12, $9; ages 4 and younger, free. High Desert Museum (541) 382-4754, www.highdesertmuseum.