Stanley Museum (Valley Creek Ranger Station)
Stanley, Custer County
- Grants: 1992, 2012, 2013, 2014 Sister Alfreda Award Winner, 2017, 2021, 2024 – Replacing shingles on toolshed and office roofs
Location: Highway 75 between Stanley and Lower Stanley
The area known as Challis National Forest was established July 1, 1908, and this Stanley administrative site was occupied that summer. An early timber ranger station in Upper Stanley was built in 1909 and retained in use until 1932. The site is architecturally significant as an ex cellent and well-preserved example of Forest Service log architecture from the Conservation Corps period of the depression, as well as being emblematic of the Forest Service’s important cultural influence in Idaho, controlling approximately forty percent of its land (20,362,924.5 acres of National Forest land).
The service’s architectural tastes are reflected throughout the state and greatly contribute to the overall image of towns like Stanley. Log architecture as used by the Forest Service usually includes round logs, chinked in their interstices, and some variety of round notching with log ends extending beyond the corner joints. The Stanley Ranger station is a tightly-constructed version of this technique. Because of its importance, provision has been made for preservation and protection of the station as a well-maintained example of a style that will become increasingly rare in the ensuing years as the Forest Service deems it necessary to replace these structures.
The Stanley Ranger Station includes a one-and-one-half story log ranger station and a one-story log outbuilding. Both sit on concrete
foundations, and their round-log walls employ saddle notching with logs extending well beyond the joint. The 1933 station itself is
distinguished by its porches. A front porch with log railings is covered by a half-story gable, supported by tripled log columns. The left side entry is protected by a hipped roof veranda that wraps around the rear of the structure. All windows are four-over- four lights with timber frames. The L-shaped outbuilding behind the station has two first story entrances on the east side, as well as a loft hay door. An over hanging roof supported by cantilevered logs protects the one story. The doors have triangular hinges and display diagonal cross-bracing in their panels. This 1931 structure was originally a meat house.
Today the compound is managed by the Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association and is home to the Stanley Museum.
