History
The Chelan National Forest was established in 1908. It was the largest of the twenty national forests in the Pacific Northwest Region. To facilitate work in the forest, the Forest Service built ranger stations at strategic locations in the northern Cascade Mountains to house full-time employees and provide logistics support to fire patrols and project crews working at remote forest sites. One of those ranger stations was located in the small, unincorporated community of Stehekin at the head of Lake Chelan. Stehekin was particularly isolated, having no connection to the outside world except by horse trail or a fifty mile boat ride up the length of Lake Chelan.
The Stehekin ranger station was established in 1910 as part of the Chelan National Forest. Originally, it was located north of the Field Hotel at the head of Lake Chelan. The first ranger station had two buildings. The first building, the office, was a simple log cabin, 22 feet (6.7 m) by 22 feet (6.7 m). The other building was an 18 by 22-foot (6.7 m) horse barn. This ranger station was abandoned in 1927 because of rising lake waters. A new ranger station was built at Purple Point well above the lake near Stehekin’s boat landing. The Purple Point ranger station served as the headquarters for the Stehekin Ranger District until the early 1940s, when the Stehekin District was merged into the Chelan District.
The Stehekin District’s first ranger was E.O. (Jack) Blankenship. He arrived in 1910 and served as ranger until 1920, when he resigned from the Forest Service to become general manager of the Golden West resort hotel in Stehekin. Blankenship was replaced by George Wright who filled the ranger position until 1926. He was, in turn, replaced by Roy L. Weeman. During Weeman’s long tour as district ranger, the Forest Service enjoyed a particularly good relationship with the Stehekin community. In 1931, the Chelan National Forest Supervisor's Inspection Report on the Stehekin Ranger District credited Weeman with "maintaining good relations with his public," who were noted in the same report as being particularly "hard to handle." Horace G. Cooper replaced Weeman in 1935 as ranger, and served for one year. In 1936, Richard P. Bottcher arrived. He also stayed only one year. Bottcher was followed by William O. Shambaugh in 1937 and then Bob Foote in the early 1940s. Foote was the last district ranger to live full-time in the Purple Point ranger residence.
In the early 1940s, the Stehekin Ranger District was merged into the Chelan District. As a result, there was no longer a need for a full-time ranger station at Stehekin, and the district ranger was reassigned to the town of Chelan, Washington at the south end of Lake Chelan, where the headquarters of the combined district was located.
While the district headquarters moved to Chelan, the Purple Point facilities and the surrounding forest lands remained under the stewardship of the Forest Service for nearly three more decades. That changed in 1968 when the United States Congress established the North Cascades National Park and the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area. As a result of this action, the Purple Point ranger station and the forest land around Stehekin were transferred to the National Park Service.
Read more about this topic: Purple Point-Stehekin Ranger Station House
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