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Summit Springs Ranger Station

Posted: August 2nd, 2019, 9:54 am
by jvangeld
This isn't a trip report, it is a request for information. While looking at a historic map of Gifford Pinchot National Forest, then called Columbia National Forest, I saw that there was supposedly a Ranger Station at Summit Springs. You can see it by going to this page and zooming in on the SW corner of the forest.

https://content.libraries.wsu.edu/digit ... ps/id/116/

So I am wondering if anyone knows anything about it? Was the ranger station and toolbox actually built, or was it just planned? Are there any traces of it left? Thanks in advance!

Re: Summit Springs Ranger Station

Posted: July 20th, 2020, 3:00 pm
by K.Wagner
It's been a couple of years now since I have been in the area. I do recall reading somewhere that there was a cabin there for a few years. There is some evidence near the trail. I am remembering maybe parts of a wood stove and maybe a coffee pot????. As for the actual cabin, I couldn't find anything. The meadow is very pretty. I have a picture of it somewhere, but can't find it now .....
Are you familiar with the user route up to Quartz Creek Ridge from FR9085?

Re: Summit Springs Ranger Station

Posted: April 21st, 2021, 6:56 pm
by jvangeld
Thanks Kelly, sorry I didn't get back to you. That is interesting. There are the remains of another cabin just South of the Miner's Creek mines. I usually visit the mines first. Then I come back on the trail. Shortly after it leaves the salmonberry stands there is a Y intersection that leads uphill for several hundred feet. The first time I visited it was pretty obvious, but the next time, possibly in 2017, it was pretty hard to find the boards under the bracken.

It turns out that there was a "Summit Guard Station" just above Bluff Mountain Trailhead. I've been there a number of times, but had no idea there used to be a lookout above it. At the accuracy level of the old map, this very well might be what it was referring to.

http://willhiteweb.com/washington_fire_ ... se_221.htm

And, no I am not familiar with a user route of Quartz Creek Ridge. Is it pretty interesting?