Stanley Ranger Station

The museum calls this the Valley Creek Ranger Station and credits the 1933 log building to Ranger Merle Markle and his wife Kathleen, who lived in it as well as working from it; a New Deal survey credits the Civilian Conservation Corps instead. Tom Kovalicky was its last ranger, and it stayed a working station until 1972, when Congress created the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and a new station went up south of Stanley. The museum came a decade after the sign implies: the Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association took the buildings under a Forest Service permit in 1982.

What the plaque says

Stanley Ranger Station When Challis National Forest was established in 1908, this site became an administrative center. An early log ranger station stood here from 1909 to 1932. Expanding Forest Service responsibilities led to construction of a larger ranger station, as well as other buildings still preserved here. When a new ranger station four miles south of here replaced this one in 1971, this site became a Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association museum. 406 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Yankee Fork Gold Dredge — 15 mi
  A 988-ton floating gold dredge worked five miles of valley for twelve years, and spent more than it found.
• Galena Summit Overlook — 26 mi
  The Salmon River's first miles, seen from an overlook named for the couple who helped keep a mine out of the view.

More markers nearby

• Bear's "Ploughed Field" — steps away
• Yankee Fork Mines — 10 mi
• Emile Grandjean — 16 mi
• Sawtooth City — 22 mi