Graves Creek Ranger Station: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Olympic National Park, National Park Service

Dolan, Susan; Franks, K.

The Graves Creek Ranger Station Historic District is located within a heavily forested area near the East Fork Quinault River in the Quinault District of Olympic National Park. The ranger station complex is located in a level clearing surrounded by mature deciduous and coniferous trees, predominantly Sitka spruce, Western redcedar, Red alder, Big leaf maple, and Vine maple. Behind the ranger station the topography rises abruptly and forms a narrow ridge approximately 30 feet high. A small stream located south of the ranger station runs east and west and forms the district’s eastern boundary. The cultural landscape of the historic district retains a number of landscape characteristics and features including natural systems and features, spatial organization, vegetation, land use, topography, buildings and structures, constructed water features, and small‑scale features. Graves Creek Ranger Station Historic District is significant for its association with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal CCC program, with the National Park Service’s early administration and development of the park, and for its distinctive architectural style. In addition to the Park Headquarters complex, the Graves Creek Ranger Station is the only example of late Rustic Style architecture within the park. The cultural landscape of the Graves Creek Ranger Station Historic District is significant for its association with the National Park Service’s early administration and development of Olympic National Park and New Deal activities, and as an example of a distinctive architectural style. The period of significance for the district is 1933 – 1942. This period encompasses both the establishment of the elk forage experimental plot and the construction of the ranger station complex. The district retains landscape characteristics and features that represent the development of the national park and Civilian Conservation Corps program activities that occurred during the period of significance. The Graves Creek Ranger Station was one of the first National Park Service‑built structures within the new national park. Constructed as part of the primary park development program initiated by Superintendent Preston Macy, Graves Creek was the only ranger station built by the National Park Service using CCC labor during the first phase of park development. The ranger station was built to compliment an existing system of ranger stations inherited from the U.S. Forest Service. The development of the Graves Creek Ranger Station relied heavily on the financial and labor assistance provided by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Public Works Administration (PWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and CCC Depression‑era programs. These programs also provided labor and funding for the U.S. Forest Service’s implementation of the Olympic Elk studies. The Graves Creek Ranger Station Historic District continues to exhibit the qualities of its original design and method of construction. Built between 1939 and 1940, the two contributing buildings in the historic district ‑‑ a ranger station/residence and a garage/woodshed ‑‑ are representative of the types of buildings and structures that were being built in national parks throughout the west in a late Rustic Style. These buildings embody the characteristics of the Rustic design philosophy applied in a modern way, which took advantage of new building technologies and methods while respecting and incorporating the philosophies of the Rustic design ethic. This architectural style is highly distinguishable from the Pacific Northwest vernacular style perpetuated by the U.S. Forest Service for their ranger station developments of the period. A comparison of the architectural style of the U.S. Forest Service‑developed North Fork Ranger Station with Graves Creek Ranger Station is a case in point.

Graves Creek Ranger Station: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Olympic National Park, National Park Service

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