The Old “Tack Room”

The Old “Tack Room”. ... a witness to change. This simple frame building , listed on the National Register of Historic Places - is one of the oldest Forest Service structures in the country. Known for many years as the “tack room,” it has served a variety of purposes since its construction in 1911., After President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed much of the Applegate River watershed as a National Forest in 1907, Forest Service rangers arrived to manage its resources. During the scorching summer of 1910, Ranger Horace Whitney made do with a miner’s long-abandoned log cabin for shelter at nearby Star Gulch. The following spring, he returned with his new bride and found “two carpenters just completing a one-room, combined office and living quarters in the middle of the alfalfa patch” on the District’s new compound. Whitney’s one-room building - the one standing before you now - was the first administrative headquarters for the new Applegate Ranger District., The little building proved too cramped to serve as a year-round home. During the next few summers, the District Ranger and his family preferred to “rough it” in a tent; in the winter, they resided in town. In 1914 a two-story ranger’s residence was built on the slope across the Upper Applegate Road. This home also served as the office until the Civilian Conservation Corps built a new ranger station in the 1930s (visible directly across the road from you)., Because of its small size, the original building - demoted from “office” to storage shed - was easily moved to several locations within the station compound over the years. From Word War I until the mid-1940s, long-time District Ranger Lee Port kept his saddles and other horse “tack” in it. Long after the day of the horse-mounted ranger had passed, the structure held tree-marking paint and other supplies to lay out the District's timber sales., The Applegate Ranger District as witnessed a great deal of change since 1910, when a ranger spent most of his time riding the range in the high country, building trail, and fighting fire. In a small but real way, the old “tack room” has been part of that transformation. Today it serves as a tangible reminder of the early years and of the many changes that have come to the area since then.