MAY 2022 Ghost Towns and History of Montana Newsletter From the Daily Missoulian, May 23, 1913 HISTORIC ALTA RANGER STATION In 1891, responding to the depletion of public ranges and timber lands and to the degradation of water resources by erosion, Congress passed the General Land Law Revision Act authorizing the President to establish forest reserves on public lands. By 1893, 13 million acres had been reserved in seven western states and Alaska. On February 22, 1897, President Grover Cleveland established thirteen new reserves, including the first Montana reserves--the Flathead Reserve in northwestern Montana and the Bitterroot Reserve in western Montana and northern Idaho. These early reserves were administered by the General Land Office (GLO) in the Department of the Interior. The role of the GLO's forest rangers was primarily to prevent timber theft and illegal grazing on public land. Accessed via: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov Faced with the responsibility of patrolling thousands of acres in the Bitterroot Reserve, rangers Nathaniel E. "Than" Wilkerson and Henry C. Tuttle built a small cabin on Hughes Creek to serve as a ranger station. The Hughes Creek area was at that time the site of a small but active mining district. Using a horse borrowed from miner Pete Bennett, the rangers cut and skidded their own logs and spent their own money to purchase "hinges, nails, a window, and flag to fly over the building." The one-room cabin measured 13 x 15 feet, with V-notched corners and a sod roof. Completed in two weeks time, Alta Ranger Station was officially dedicated on
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