The Bear Creek Guard Station
From Al Stangenberger, College of Natural Resources, U.C. Berkeley:
The photos are of the old Bear Creek Guard Station, which is just over the hills to the south of Summer Camp [The UC Forestry Summer Camp is in Meadow Valley, west of Quincy, CA]. Bear Creek drains into the Middle Fork of the Feather River.
The station was built in the early days of the USFS when rangers patrolled on horseback. It was a really nice spot. Rudy Grah took me up to see it a year or so before he died.
The Bear Creek Guard Station in 1915, built with hand-split ponderosa pine shakes. Note the open, park-like forest. The forest structure was the result of many hundreds of years of regular, seasonal, anthropogenic (Maidu Indian) fires.
The Bear Creek Guard Station in 2005. Note the invasion of the older forest by a thicket of younger cohort pine, Douglas-fir, and white fir, the result of 90 years without forest stewardship or Indian fires.
A careless guest used the stove and didn’t do it correctly.
Al writes:
Too bad, it was a really nice artifact. The stable building still survives.
For many of us, a tragic loss and poignant memories of Summer Camp, Rudy Grah, and the Plumas NF.
And for many others, perhaps, a lesson in history and forest development pathways. Without stewardship, ancient treasures will be lost.
Thank you for the memories and the lesson, Al.
by bear bait
Excellent suggestion. I have forwarded it to the UC Forestry Summer Camp directors. Let’s see what happens.
Looking at the understory encroachment, and the fuel load, it would appear the fire demise of the cabin was imminent.
On the other hand, a ranger built the cabin. I wonder if there is ranger in all of the USFS who has the slightest inkling of knowledge or ability to replicate the cabin single jacking it. In the Use Books of the USFS beginnings, a ranger had to be well skilled in the area of trail building, cabin building, timber cruising, forest inventory work, and had to provide their own horse, pack string and boat if needed. A far cry from today.
So building a new cabin using the old methods might be a skill that aspiring foresters at Cal might benefit from acquiring. Have them build a new cabin. Hand briar, froe and mallet, slick, axe, sledges and wedges, scribe, adze, and hand drill. Re-invent the wheel. But understand. Gain understanding. Learn a few tid bits of self sufficiency. And the feel of working wood. The touch, the smells, the strength of worked wood. Might build connections that would benefit society more than “let is burn” policy, and endless lawsuits to stop fuels reduction projects.