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Show NPS Form 10-900-a Utah WordPerfect 5.1 Fonnat (Revised Feb. 1993) OMB No. 10024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. JL Page..3... Indian Canyon Ranger Station, Duchesne area, Duchesne County, UT Narrative Statement of Significance The Indian Canyon Ranger Station, built in 1914 as part of the Ashley National Forest, is an extant reminder of the early days of the Forest Service in Utah. After the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, the Division of Forestry was formed for the management of the land and timber sales. The United States Forest Service, as we now know it, was officially established by President Theodore Roosevelt on July 1, 1905, being placed under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture. Rangers were required to closely monitor the land, but because of the remoteness of the forests, buildings were acquired or constructed to house the rangers and to establish a federal government presence on the land. The Indian Canyon Ranger Station is the earliest remaining ranger station from the Uinta National Forest, and one of the earliest remaining structures on the Ashley National Forest built specifically by the Forest Service to house a ranger. And, although it has been vacant for at least two decades, it is still in good condition and has seen little alteration from its original conception . For this reason it is a good example of the facilities in Which these overseers of the forests lived during the first few decades of the Forest Service. Although the Indian Canyon Ranger Station site is now a part of the Ashley National Forest, up until 1954 this section of forest belonged to the Uinta National Forest. 2 The Uinta National Forest was officially named in 1906, after previously being known as the Uintah Forest Reserve. The Forest Reserves were created by President Grover Cleveland on February 22, 1897, upon recommendation by Gifford Pinchot, a government appointee under the Secretary of the Interior, that government stewardship of forest lands was required if the forests were to survive. On February 1, 1905, the Forest Reserves were transferred to the Department of Agriculture, and shortly after the name "Forest Service" was adopted. The site for the Indian Canyon Ranger Station was apparently chosen because of its central location for administrative purposes of the district. It was also near a stage stop on the route between Duchesne and the rail station located at Kyune. The land was originally withdrawn from homestead entry in December of 1906 but construction on a ranger station did not commence for another seven years. The dwelling was completed in 1914, at a cost of $1052.85, but was the only building on the site for another seven years until the barn was constructed in 1921, at a cost of $431.73. Constructed before formalized Forest Service plans were implemented, the dwelling is unique in its architecture, with no other similar Forest Service buildings existing in Northern Utah. A wood-frame latrine was constructed in 1926, and a wood-frame and bevel-siding garage/storeroom in 1935 at a cost of $1706.86. 3 These two structures became dilapidated beyond repair and were removed in the c.1970s. The 1936 "Descriptive Sheet" for the site states that at that time the dwelling had no interior bathroom, and exactly when the bathroom was added is not known, although it 2 "Inventory of Historic Forest Service Buildings." Memo to Ashley National Forest Supervisor, December 6, 1976_ Also see Uinta National Forest Boundary Maps in Shaun R. Nelson, ed. History of the Uinta National Forest: A Century of Stewardship_ Provo, Utah: Uinta National Forest, 1997. 3"Descriptive Sheet: Indian Canyon Ranger Station." May 7, 1936_ Ashley National Forest Building Files . ..x See continuation sheet |
