Baker Ranger Station: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Great Basin National Park

National Park Service; Regions 8, 9, 10, and 12 Cultural Landscapes Program

The Baker Ranger Station landscape is a historic vernacular landscape that lies east of State Highway 487 in the northern portion of Baker, NV. The boundary of the Baker Ranger Station encloses approximately two-and-a-half acres, just south of the Great Basin Visitor Center. Great Basin National Park (GRBA), a unit of the National Park Service (NPS), lies in central-eastern Nevada, in White Pine County, protecting 77,180 acres. The park has been occupied for over 12,000 years, and the natural setting continues to contain a rugged landscape, with various features from desert valleys and snow-covered peaks. The Baker Ranger Station District was a US Forest Service administrative headquarters for the Baker Ranger District. After the headquarters moved, the site continued to be used as an administrative site to house staff and for utility purposes. The landscape includes four wood-frame buildings that date to the period of significance. These buildings are single-story gable roof structures painted white with green trim. In addition, the complex consists of a cement semi-cellar single-story gable roof structure painted white with green trim dating from the mid-1940s, an aluminum shed from the 1960s, and a log hoist from the early 1990s. Baker Ranger Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. SIGNIFICANCE SUMMARY The Baker Ranger Station is significant in the areas of social history, politics/government, and conservation under Criterion A and architecture under Criterion C. The landscape reflects a property important for its association with Forest Service administration as a center for implementing and enforcing federal conservation and land management policies. It is also an example of Depression-era construction, designed based on the Forest Service Improvement Handbook and specialized suggestions for Region Four and built with the assistance of alphabet soup agencies such as the WPA and CCC. The period of significance covers the duration of this construction by the Forest Service from 1933 to 1936. ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION SUMMARY AND CONDITION Under National Register guidelines, historic properties must possess integrity for all periods of significance. All resources from the historic period contain the necessary integrity. The landscape characteristics at the Baker Ranger Station district that convey historic significance are spatial organization, vegetation, topography, buildings and structures, circulation, views and vistas, and small-scale features. The site retains all seven aspects of integrity: location, workmanship, materials, design, setting, feeling, and association. The landscape is in good condition.

Baker Ranger Station: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Great Basin National Park

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