Spotted Bear Ranger Station
Flathead National Forest Backcountry Administrative Facilities Historic District
In 1921, the U.S. Forest Service USFS moved the original Spotted Bear headquarters compound, established in 1908 near Spotted Bear Lake, to this site. The Ranger District managed timber sales and was very successful in fire suppression. Following the establishment of the South Fork Primitive Area in 1931, and the Pentagon Primitive Area in 1933, recreation also became a focus. The station was home base for packers and their pack strings, typically eight mules tied behind a “bell mare”. Everett M. Hart and Victor Holmlund, skilled carpenters who often worked summers for USFS, built the station’s 1923 office, 1926 warehouse, and 1927 ranger’s cabin. These well-constructed log-bearing buildings feature full dovetail notches at the joints and unique half-story walls, which extend about five feet beyond the edge of the ground floor at front and rear. Besides creating additional interior space, the overhangs effectively shelter the entrances in bad weather. A fourth historic building, moved here in the 1950s, is a 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps CCC bunkhouse. It bears the characteristics of the “temporary” construction typical of that era.