DRAFT-Historic-Overview-WFRC.pdf

West Fork of Rock Creek, Historic Overview Project Custer National Forest, Montana:

Project Report

DRAFT

Prepared by:

Prepared for:

Custer National Forest 1310 Main Street

Billings, Montana 59105

February, 2012 afitzpatrick Highlight

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Abstract

Background History of the Beartooth District

Research Methodology and Sources Consulted

Historical Overview of the WFRC Corridors

West Fork Road

Minor Roads in the West Fork Rock Creek Area

West Fork Rock Creek Trails

Historic Themes and Subthemes

Inventory Results

Changes in Original Objectives and Major Gaps in Historical Data

West Fork of Rock Creek Historic Context

Introduction: Setting and Natural Environment of the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Context 1: Forest Service Administration of the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Context 2: Travel Corridors in the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Context 3: Logging and Mining Activities in the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Context 4: Ranching and Agricultural Activities in the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Context 5: Private Visitor Services in the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Context 6: Recreational Cabins in the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Context 7 Camping and Recreational Activities in the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Suggested Research Directions

Summary and Conclusions

Endnotes

Bibliography

Interviews and Oral Histories

Written materials

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 1

PREFACE

In 2010, the Custer National Forest entered into a contract with a Consultant for the preparation of a comprehensive historic overview of a portion of the West Fork of Rock Creek canyon, located in Carbon County, Montana, west of the city of Red Lodge. The study area for the project was that portion of the West Fork canyon located within the Beartooth Ranger District of the Custer National Forest, but outside the boundary of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness area. Approximately fifteen miles in length, the steep-walled, scenic canyon has seen heavy historic use since the end of the nineteenth century, both for logging and a variety of recreational activities.

This document is the primary product of the consultant's study; its contents are specified by the contract between the Custer National Forest and the consultant. Included is a series of seven historic contexts (or themes), each addressing a significant theme in the Euro-American history of the canyon. These contexts form the basis for an accompanying National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the area, and combined they comprise an overview of the canyon’s post-settlement history. Additional information about the project and other supplementary material are also included.

Appendices to this document, bound separately, contain historic site forms, National Register of Historic Places nominations, and transcriptions of eleven oral interviews with individuals likely to be familiar with the history of the canyon.

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ABSTRACT

This comprehensive historic overview examines a portion of the West Fork of Rock

Creek canyon, located in Carbon County, Montana, west of the city of Red Lodge. The study area for the project was that portion of the West Fork canyon located within the Beartooth Ranger District of the Custer National Forest, but outside the boundary of the Absaroka- Beartooth Wilderness area. Approximately fifteen miles in length, the steep-walled, scenic canyon has seen heavy historic use since the end of the nineteenth century, both for logging and a variety of recreational activities.

A series of seven historic contexts provides an understanding of significant themes in the

Euro-American history of the canyon. A history of Forest Service Administration examines federal management of the area from the late 1800s as timber reserve to the present as National Forest. A chronology of the Beartooth Ranger District traces the changes in administrative organization of the area over time. A brief history of the development of both primitive and wilderness areas is included.

Travel Corridors in the West Fork Rock Creek Area are discussed, from early development of the West Fork Road as a way to provide access for extractive industries seeking timber, rock, and lime, in addition to access for area homesteaders. A look at the evolution of the road over time provides glimpses into how usage of the area shifted over time to a recreational focus. Other road developments in the area are discussed briefly. Area trail development is also examined.

The logging and mining activities context examines development of the Red Lodge coal field, and its demands on the timber industry in the West Fork Rock Creek canyon. The history of coal mining in the area, from the mid 1800s to the 1970s is discussed. The mining industry’s need for lumber caused a logging boom in the area during the 1910s, but the context looks at logging in the area both before and after this peak time. Other mineral developments, such as chromite, gold and silver, and lime production are discussed.

Ranching and Agricultural Activities in the West Fork Rock Creek Area examines how the development of ranching and agriculture in the larger region affected their development in both the Red Lodge and West Fork Rock Creek area. The history of homesteading and grazing in the canyon provides examples of the interaction of man with this particular environment.

Historic irrigation systems are detailed.

An examination of the development of privately-developed visitor services examines how both commercial and non-profit services developed in the National Forests, and how they developed in the canyon area of West Fork Rock Creek. Three specific developments are traced from their beginnings. The first is the development of Wild Bill Lake from the vision of Wild Bill Kurtzer to a wheelchair accessible day use area. The history of Camp Senia looks at its

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 3 beginnings as a dude ranch to its later use as private recreational residences. Last, the history of Timbercrest Girl Scout Camp is examined, from its beginnings as the former St. Vincent's Orthopedic Camp to present day.

The history of recreational cabins in the area is traced. This development is put in a larger national context of development of recreational residences on National Forest lands. The rise of the five recreational tracts in West Fork Rock Creek is examined. Architectural trends in both National Forest areas and in the West Fork Rock Creek drainage are described.

The last historical context looks at the development of camping and recreational activities in the West Fork Rock Creek area. This development is set within the larger context of recreational development in the western region. Recreational development in the West Fork Rock Creek area is discussed, including fishing, hunting, picnicking, sightseeing, hiking, skiing, and camping. The development of the campgrounds in the area is examined, including the contributions of the CCC.

These contexts help form the basis for a variety of supplimentary documents, included in this report or inseparately-bound appendices. These materials include National Register of Historic Places nomination forms; site records and site forms; transcripts of a series of eleven oral interviews; and other summary materials.

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 4

BACKGROUND HISTORY OF THE BEARTOOTH DISTRICT

The West Fork Rock Creek (WFRC) canyon is located in southwestern Carbon County, Montana, just west of the town of Red Lodge. The headwaters of the creek are high in the Beartooth Plateau, near Castle Mountain in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Area. The creek flows in a northeasterly and then easterly direction through a deep, narrow canyon, before entering the larger Rock Creek valley and merging with that stream. Nearly the entire WFRC canyon is located within the Beartooth Ranger District of the Custer National Forest, and the approximate upper half of the canyon is in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Area.

The eastern face of the Beartooth Plateau, including the WFRC area, has federally recognized for its natural resource values since the late nineteenth century, and has been part of a designated forest reserve since 1891. On March 30 of that year, the U.S. Government Land Office established the Yellowstone Park Timber Reserve, encompassing 1.2 million acres of land on the periphery of Yellowstone National Park. The first such reserve in the United States, included the Beartooth Mountain area east of Red Lodge, and most of the WFRC drainage. The Timber Reserve was greatly enlarged in 1902, and redesignated as the “Yellowstone Forest Reserve.”1

The early Forest Reserves were vast and minimally funded, and the lands under their control saw relatively little direct management. The creation of the United States Forest Service in 1905 saw the beginnings of federal effort to exercise greater control over the reserved forest lands. As part of this process, the old Forest Reserves were gradually transformed into a new network of National Forests, smaller and more actively managed than their predecessors. The new Beartooth National Forest was created on July 1, 1908, with its headquarters in Billings.

The forest included the Beartooth Plateau land formerly included in the Yellowstone Forest Reserve, as well as a portion of the Pryor Mountains to the east.2

The level of active federal management of the forest land in and around the WFRC area apparently began during the first decade of the twentieth century, coincident with the creation of the Forest Service. A 1906 photograph shows a small, primitive ranger’s cabin located at the approximate site of the future Rock Creek Ranger Station, near the mouth of the WFRC canyon.

The site included a log residence/office, a small barn, and an outhouse. Other, similar stations were also constructed elsewhere in the Beartooth National Forest, and by 1912 five such facilities existed. One station existed in the Pryors, while the others were all located near the entrance to major canyons penetrating the Beartooth Plateau.3

The Beartooth National Forest existed until 1932, when its designation was eliminated during an administrative consolidation. Most of the forest’s lands, including the Pryors, the eastern Beartooth Plateau and the WFRC drainage, became part of an enlarged Custer National Forest. Established in 1908, the Custer was originally headquartered in Miles City, and

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 5 consisted of isolated forest tracts in southeastern Montana and northwestern South Dakota; the 1932 consolidation significantly increased the forest’s size, and was an impetus for the relocation of its Supervisor’s Office to Billings.4

Under Custer National Forest administration, the WFRC drainage continued to be managed by a ranger stationed at the 1906 Rock Creek Ranger Station site. The facility was greatly improved through the construction of a new residence building in 1925, and a series of outbuildings during the 1930s. At some point during this era, the Rock Creek facilities were supplemented with a rented office space in downtown Red Lodge. These improvements coincided with a gradual consolidation of ranger districts in the Beartooth area; by the 1950s the Rock Creek Ranger District encompassed the entire southern half of the Beartooth lands under Custer National Forest management. Several administrative sites existed in the district at the time, though most were little-used; the Rock Creek Ranger Station served as the district's administrative center. It is the only Forest Service administrative site known to have existed in the WFRC area.5

As the 1950s progressed, the inadequacies of the historic Rock Creek Ranger Station site became more and more apparent to Custer National Forest administrators. Access to the site was problematic during difficult winters, and the facility became largely a seasonal work base, with the ranger living in town and wintering at the rented office there. This arrangement was became increasingly inadequate over time, as the ranger district’s year-round workload increased. The dilemma was finally solved in the 1962, when the Forest Service constructed a new ranger station complex at the south end of Red Lodge along U.S. Highway 212. The historic ranger station became a summer-only Work Center, a status it retains today.

The administrative structure of the Custer National Forest’s Beartooth lands underwent a final change on January 1, 1966, when the Stillwater Ranger District (headquartered in the village of Nye) was consolidated with the Rock Creek Ranger District.6 The combined unit, renamed the Beartooth Ranger District, was based at the new Red Lodge administrative facility and continued to use the former Rock Creek Ranger Station as a seasonal work base. The Beartooth Ranger District encompasses all of the Custer National Forest’s Beartooth Plateau lands, as well as in the Pryor Mountains. It is one of three current ranger districts in the 1.3 million acre Custer National Forest.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES CONSULTED

The consultant was awarded this contract on September 13, 2010, and project research and fieldwork began on November 1. The consultant's staff members began by conducting historic research at the Custer National Forest Supervisor’s Office in Billings, flagging potentially-relevant historical materials for later photocopying by CNF staff. Material reviewed in Billings included a diverse but often fragmentary collection of primary source materials relating both to the project area, and to the Custer NF in general. Material from the early years of the former Beartooth NF was relatively strong, including information on early timber sales.

Extensive information on Special Use Permits in the area was also available. The consultant also reviewed a small number of secondary sources available at the office, as well as some historic maps. The Custer NF provided the consultant with copies of site forms for all previously-recorded sites in the area, as well.

Field investigations began immediately following the completion of the research visit, and continued through November 8. Autumn fieldwork emphasized the revisiting of previously-recorded sites in the area, and most were successfully relocated. Additional investigations were conducted at Camp Senia, to support the development of an amended National Register of Historic Places nomination for the site.

The field investigations were accompanied by additional historic research in Red Lodge.

These included the subject and photograph files at the Carbon County Museum and Historical Society, as well as archived newspaper articles. Archived files at the Beartooth Ranger District office of the Custer National Forest were also reviewed.

Following the suspension of fieldwork for the winter, supplemental research was conducted at several other repositories. A visit to the Montana Historical Society library and archives uncovered a limited amount of relevant material, including some newspaper articles and material on early dude ranching. Libraries of the University of Montana in Missoula and Montana State University in Bozeman provided a fairly wide variety of secondary sources, both local and regional in context. Additional historic research was conducted online, at government document repositories, a newspaper archive, and the archives of the Forest History Association.

A subcontractor working for the consultant completed a series of eleven oral interviews for the project during the spring of 2011. These provided valuable historic information themselves, and some of the interview subjects also provided supplemental written material from their personal collections. (The bibliography for this document includes a list of these interviews.)

All substantive project research was completed by the spring of 2011. Project fieldwork resumed that summer, after a delay caused by extreme weather conditions in the Beartooth area.

A series of field visits between August and October 2011 emphasized the recordation of the linear resources in the project area, although limited additional research was also conducted to afitzpatrick Highlight afitzpatrick Highlight afitzpatrick Highlight afitzpatrick Highlight afitzpatrick Highlight

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 7 resolve specific research questions that had arisen during the fieldwork and writing processes.

Additional research was conducted in Red Lodge at the Carbon County Museum and the Custer National Forest offices, and current Custer NF staff members were interviewed.

A full list of the sources consulted is provided in the project bibliography, included in this document.

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 8

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE WFRC CORRIDORS

West Fork Road

The West Fork Rock Creek drainage was accessible by the 1890s by way of the Close

Road. The road began near the point where the current West Fork Road intersects with Highway 212, followed the course of the current road for a mile, then followed what is now the Palisades Campground Road, until it turned south/southwest at the base of the mountains, ending at the mouth of the West Fork Canyon and a lime kiln. This road provided access to resources such as timber, rock, and lime, in addition to access to homesteads in the area. In 1916, the county and Red Lodge citizens began to raise money for construction/improvement of a road from Red Lodge to where the Close Road ended. In a letter from Ranger A.M. Baum to the Forest Supervisor in Billings dated January 27, 1916, the ranger discusses the advantages of the road as providing access in the winter as the current road was inaccessible from first snow fall until late spring, being almost a mile shorter, and allowing access through ranch land where passage was sometimes denied. The new road was proposed to enter Forest Service land slightly south of the Close Road, bisecting Forest Service pasture land. This required closure of that section of the old road in order to reclaim land for pasture.7

This push for better road access echoed similar efforts across the United States, necessitated by increased automobile use. Beginning in the 1910s and 1920s, the automobile revolutionized tourism, providing a way for people to more easily access lakes, rivers, and mountain ranges for recreation. The Red Lodge area had two potential tourist draws nearby, Yellowstone National Park and the Beartooths. Discussion of building a road from Red Lodge to Yellowstone began to gain momentum by 1919, as Dr. John Siegfreidt began promoting his idea of the Black and White Trail between Red Lodge and Cooke City. He actually built several thousand feet of trail to a saddle on Mount Maurice. A variety of other people promoted the idea of a road from this point until a road project was approved in Congress in 1931. The Beartooth Highway was constructed from 1932 to 1934, and opened in 1936. The road as completed did not follow the Black and White Trail, which was abandoned.8

In the Red Lodge area, better access to the West Fork Rock Creek drainage became a reality by the mid 1920s. In 1920, Red Lodge area citizens, the Red Lodge Chamber of Commerce, and the Carbon County Commissioners began to raise money and solicit Forest Service cooperation to build the a road from Red Lodge through the drainage. Better roads from Billings to Red Lodge helped increase pressure for further access to the Beartooths. Construction of a road from Red Lodge into the Beartooths was seen as a drawing card for tourists and outdoor recreationists, as well as a way to open up timber land and a way to more easily fight forest fires. An article in the Billings Gazette dated March 27, 1920 discusses a Forest Service appropriation of $25,000 to help build the road from Red Lodge to Sentinel Falls, a point around three miles west of the West Fork Rock Creek Dude Ranch, Camp Senia. The road, as built by

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McManus and Company of Chicago, ended up as a roughly ten miles stretch, from Red Lodge to somewhere around Cascade Creek, falling short of the original proposal.9

The road was never extended to Sentinel Falls, but in the 1930s, members of the Civilian

Conservation Corps (CCC), helped extended the road slightly past Camp Senia. In 1933 a 60-man spike camp from the Rock Creek CCC Camp was based at Camp Nelson (near Cascade Creek). The CCC worked on extending the road toward the west to the Botts-Sotts Campground, located to the west of Camp Senia. This is as far as the road has ever been developed. Several road reconstruction projects were undertaken through at least the late 1970s. Two bridges were constructed in 1952 and 1953, both still in use today. Minor road realignment resulted in twelve abandoned road segments, representing less than twelve percent of the original 1920s road length.10

The current road follows the original 1920s road fairly closely. It is slightly over 10 miles long, beginning at an intersection with Highway 212 and ending at the West Fork Rock Creek Trailhead. The original surface has been continually reconstructed or maintained for over eighty years. In the 1960s, the first 4.3 miles of the road were surfaced with asphalt. This eastern section of the road, 4.7 miles long, was later paved in the 1970s, and still remains the only paved section of the West Fork Rock Creek Road. Residents of the Camp Senia Tract, another 5 miles further up the road, remembered the roughness; a resident, Jim Moore, referred to it as “rock and roll hill.” In 2009, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a federal economic stimulus package, the West Fork Rock Creek Road was granted funding to reconstruct the eastern paved road section to a standard twenty-six foot width, and to resurface and add turnouts to the remaining five and a half mile western segment. When the project was completed, a Camp Senia Tract resident, Roger Ferguson, described it as going from a one lane road where meeting a car met someone pulling over to a “superhighway.”11

In 2002, prior to the reconstruction, the road was found eligible for nomination to the

National Register of Historic Places. The West Fork Rock Creek Road corridor has allowed access for miners, homesteaders, sheep herders, hunters, timber harvesters, and recreationists of all types into the West Fork Rock Creek drainage area. This interweaving of diverse types of usage reflects the historical patterns and developments of the region.

Minor Roads in the West Fork Rock Creek Area

In addition to the primary road running up the West Fork Rock Creek canyon, a small number of secondary wagon and vehicular travel routes also existed in the project area. Little historic documentation is available about any of these early routes, most of which were likely created during the early twentieth century to assist with early logging activities in the canyon.

Some of the minor roads may have been constructed or improved by the Forest Service or with their authorization, while others were likely constructed informally, without such backing.

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 10

The most visible of these routes, and the only one still partially open to the public, extends up Silver Run Creek near the east end of the WFRC project area. The road, visible on some early 20th Century maps, accessed logging areas and was near locations of twentieth century prospecting activity, but likely endured in part because of its long-term status as a stock driveway. Sheep heading for summer pasture on Silver Run Plateau were trailed along the old road until the 1960s.

Road corridors up other side canyons also existed, though they are no longer open or accessible to public use. The best-known of these early routes headed up Basin Creek, likely extending to a point beyond Lower Basin Lake. The basin Creek route probably existed solely to serve the needs of the loggers who worked in the area during the first third of the twentieth century, and was likely never intended as an automobile route. It was wide enough, however, to accommodate tractors and other mechanized logging equipment. While the Basin Creek road was not shown on early maps, surviving sections of the former grade (now used as a trail) clearly indicate that at least portions of the route were formally engineered. Vehicle use of the route probably ended by the 1940s, after the end of logging activities along Basin Creek, and only intermittent segments of the route remain visible today.

Though undocumented, similar logging routes probably existed up other side canyons in the east end of the WFRC drainage, as well. Unimproved logging roads may have existed up both Ingles Creek and Washoe Creek during the early twentieth century, though no visible evidence remains and the routes may have never been sufficiently improved to support automobile traffic. A newer road, also constructed to support logging activity, exists in the Nichols Creek drainage. Though no longer open to vehicle use, the road remains clearly visible today, suggesting significantly more recent use than the canyon's other minor roads.

West Fork Rock Creek Trails

As with the canyon's secondary roads, relatively little historic information exists to document the establishment, construction, or maintenance of the trail network in and near the WFRC project area. The current trail network is well-established, though, providing a series of travel routes that have been in place since at least the early twentieth century. Largely, this is reflective of the region's difficult geography; available travel corridors are bounded by the steep walls of the area's canyons.

Regular foot and horse travel up the main stem of the West Fork Rock Creek canyon likely dates from the late nineteenth century settlement of the Red Lodge area. The proximity of the WFRC area to the community of Red Lodge likely made it an attractive early destination for hunting and other outdoor pursuits almost immediately, and the canyon's waterfalls and other attractions were appealing destinations. Late nineteenth and early twentieth-century logging activities also helped develop early travel routes, at least in the lower reaches of the canyon.

Though undocumented, an established but unmaintained trail route almost certainly existed up the full length of the canyon prior the beginning of Forest Service administration of the area.

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Forest Service maps beginning in the 1910s show the West Fork trail in place, though without sufficient precision to determine whether the historic travel route corresponded precisely with today's road and trail. It is likely that numerous minor route changes have taken place over the years. Since the original route evolved from an informal, non-engineered path, little earth or rock movement probably took place during its construction or maintenance, with the result that virtually no traces of former trail now exist today.

The WFRC canyon narrows west of the end of the current automobile road, and it is likely that much of the surviving West Fork trail in the upper reaches of the canyon remains on an historic alignment. Areas of earth and rock movement are visible in the upper reaches of the trail, likely resulting from Forest Service trail maintenance projects in the 1930s and beyond.

Ancillary trails in the WFRC area extend both north and south from the main canyon, following the canyons of feeder streams and in some cases ascending the high alpine plateaus that bound the area. Historically, the canyon's ancillary trails fall into one of two groups. In the lower reaches of the canyon, most trails were originally developed as part of efforts to exploit the canyon's natural resources. Logging was the primary factor here; the current routes up Basin, Silver Run, and Ingles Creeks were used by the canyon's early twentieth century logging activity, and probably originated as rough, unimproved logging roads. Early prospectors and ranchers also used some of these routes, and the road/trail up Silver Run Creek served as a seasonal stock driveway for decades.

Farther west, the increasingly narrow and steep canyon saw less logging, timbering, and grazing use, but drew attention for its strong scenic values; consequently, the canyon's upper trail network is heavily tied to historic tourism development. The establishment and operation of the Camp Senia dude ranch was pivotal to early tourism in the area, and by the late 1910s the camp was the hub of a small network of trails intended primarily for recreational use. The most prominent of these led to Timberline, long a favorite destination for Senia hikers and horse parties.

The canyon's early trail network was almost certainly developed without conscious Forest

Service planning, and probably without their active participation; rather, the trail routes were chosen by forest users in response to their direct, short-term needs. As the Forest Service began exercising greater control over the WFRC area in the early twentieth century, maintenance of these already-established routes became one of the duties of Forest Service staff assigned to the area. This coincided with a lessening of activity by the private forest users who initially established the routes, resulting in the network's gradual transition from a largely private to a fully federal system. By the 1930s, most if not all trail maintenance was handled by federal crews and contractors.

Overall, the map of the WFRC trail network remains remarkably unchanged from that of nearly a century ago, although the patterns of use have evolved and the locations of a few

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 12 specific trail segments have been altered. In the lower reaches of the canyon, the former logging routes and the stock driveway now see only recreational use, and the passage of time is gradually narrowing the former roadways to trail width. The two most significant trail realignments in the canyon are both in the Camp Senia area, a delayed reflection of the Camp's transition from dude ranch to summer home area. The trailhead for the Timberline Lake route was moved away from the Camp by the Forest Service by the 1960s, to segregate types of visitor use, and the Senia Creek trailhead was relocated in 2010 after damage caused by the Cascade fire. Even with these changes, though, the WFRC trail network remains strongly evocative of the early history of the canyon, and many of the trail segments retain visual qualities evocative of their use in the early twentieth century.

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 13

HISTORIC THEMES AND SUBTHEMES

The following historic themes for the West Fork Rock Creek drainage were identified during initial project research and fieldwork. They were reviewed and approved by Custer NF and Montana State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) personnel in may 2011. Each of these themes is discussed more fully in the “Historic Context” section which follows.

Theme 1: Forest Service administrative activities in the West Fork Rock Creek area: This theme includes the physical development of USFS administrative facilities in the West Fork Rock Creek area, including the construction and use of the ranger station near the mouth of the canyon. It also discusses the evolution of USFS management policies that directly impacted the canyon over time, including changing priorities for federal land use, and the designation of nearby primitive/wilderness areas in the nearby Beartooth mountains. Forest Service use of Depression-era public works programs (such as the CCC) to assist in its management of the area are also addressed.

Theme 2: Transportation and travel corridors in the West Fork Rock Creek area:

This theme discusses the establishment and evolution of both formal and informal travel corridors in the West Fork Rock Creek area. It begins with an introduction to the geography of the canyon, and its value as a travel route to destinations in the high country of the Beartooths and elsewhere. Use of travel corridors to specific destination points in the canyon itself is also discussed. Specific topics includes the establishment and development of a formal trail system;

construction and improvement of the West Fork Rock Creek Road; and improvements made by certain specific, significant programs (such as the CCC). Emphasis is on the geography of the canyon and its travel routes, since many of the specific use topics are addressed in other themes.

Theme 3: Logging and extractive industry in the West Fork Rock Creek area: This theme discusses extractive commercial/industrial activities in the West Fork Rock Creek area, during the historic period. The primary focus of the theme is on logging, the most important and enduring of these activities locally. Topics include the awarding of timber leases, logging activities, and the connection between the canyon’s logging activity and the mining economy of Red Lodge. A briefer section discusses mineral exploration , extraction, and processing activities in the canyon.

Theme 4: Ranching and agricultural activities in the West Fork Rock Creek Area:

This theme discuses farm and ranch activities that impacted the West Fork of Rock Creek area.

Though this use was relatively minimal, travel routes in the canyon saw regular use as stock driveways, and the lower end of the canyon is the location of canal headworks for irrigation ditches that serve farmland farther downstream.

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 14

Theme 5: Private and non-profit visitor services in the West Fork Rock Creek area:

This theme discusses the development and evolution of commercial and non-profit institutional ventures that provided visitor services and activities in the West Fork Rock Creek area. The primary focus is on the visitor activities at three established locations: Camp Senia, Wild Bill Lake, and the Timbercrest Girl Scout Camp and its predecessors. The primary emphasis is on the camp/resort locations in the canyon, but related activities associated with these locations are also discussed.

Theme 6: Summer recreational cabins in the West Fork Rock Creek area: This theme discusses the history and architecture of individual, single-family summer recreational cabins in the canyon, both on privately-owned land and on Forest Service leasehold tracts.

Theme 7: Camping and non-permanent recreational activities in the West Fork

Rock Creek area: This theme discusses the canyon’s use for short-term recreational activities such as camping, picnicking, hiking, skiing, hunting and fishing. The construction and evolution of formal camping and picnic areas in the canyon are discussed as part of this theme. The role of the CCC in improving these facilities is also discussed.

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INVENTORY RESULTS

The scope of work for the West Fork Rock Creek project called for the “field inventory and evaluation of all trails and roads in the WFRC drainage identified in the Historic Context.”

The project fieldwork identified a total of eleven such resources, as listed in the table below.

Additional information on these resources may be found in the completed site forms for the resources, included as a separately bound appendix to this document.

Site Number Name Eligibility 24CBXXXX Basin Lakes Trail Eligible 24CBXXXX Beartrack Trail Eligible 24CBXXXX Ingles Creek Trail Eligible 24CBXXXX Lower Timberline Trail Eligible 24CBXXXX Nichols Creek Road Ineligible 24CBXXXX Old Senia Trail Eligible 24CBXXXX Senia Creek Trail Eligible 24CBXXXX Silver Run Plateau Trail Eligible 24CBXXXX Silver Run Ski Trail Ineligible 24CBXXXX Timberline Lake Trail Eligible 24CBXXXX West Fork Trail Eligible

In addition, the project revisited previously-recorded historic sites located in the WFRC drainage. A total of 21 such sites were identified and revisited, as listed on the following page.

Summaries of these sites and the results of the site visits are provided in a separately-bound appendix to this document.

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 16

Site Number Legal Location Description

24CB0046 Wild Bill Lake/homestead/ditch

24CB1032

24CB1134

Nichols Creek depression Camp Senia - National Register Listed 04/14/88 24CB1198 Rock Creek Ranger Station

24CB1292 Scaleer Shack

24CB1293 Two historic limestone kilns

24CB1357

24CB1537

Silver Run adit Timbercrest Camp/St. Vincent Orthopedic Camp

24CB1555 Four abandoned historic irrigation ditch segments

24CB1556 Matson-Powers ditches; abandoned road segment

24CB1628 Cascade Recreation Campground

24CB1631 Historic mound, stone outline, trash pits

24CB1633 Historic debris, depression, trail

24CB1670 Historic ditch

24CB1674 Botts Sotts Recreation Campground

24CB1675 Basin Recreation Campground

24CB1695 Maryott Irrigation Ditch

24CB1696

24CB1697

Bridge #2 5 Bridge #4

24CB1975 McDonald Ditch

24CB2041 West Fork Ditch Company Canal

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 17

CHANGES IN ORIGINAL OBJECTIVES AND MAJOR GAPS IN HISTORICAL DATA

No substantive changes in the project’s original objectives were required over the course of the project.

A number of data gaps were noted during the course of project research, which inevitably limited the level of detail that coule be included in some of the historic contexts. The most significant of these gaps are briefly outlined below.

• Written documentation of road and trail construction and maintainence in the

WFRC drainage is extremely limited. This is due in part to the fact that most historic travel routes in the area predate the era of full USFS control over road and trail building on its lands. Records of USFS road and trail activities are, however, also surprisingly limited; such data may not have been routinely accumulated, or it may have been discarded over time.

• Although some historic timber sale information is available at the Custer NF Supervisor’s Office, these records are believed to be incomplete. Again, this is in part due to the fact that some timber harvests in the area predated the era of full USFS control over its lands. Other historic timber permit records have likely not survived.

• Very little information is available concerning other private uses of the public lands in the project area, such as prospecting and grazing. Some grazing records survive in the Beartooth Ranger District’s offices, but they are not indexed by location and appear to be incomplete.

• No systematic pedestrian cultural resources inventory of the WFRC area has been undertaken, and as a result the full number of historic resources in the project area remains unknown. Additional information about susviving resources would be helpful in evaluating and expanding the area’s historic contexts.

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 18

WEST FORK OF ROCK CREEK HISTORIC CONTEXT

Introduction: Setting and Natural Environment of the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Location and Environmental Setting

The West Fork Rock Creek (WFRC) canyon is located in southwestern Carbon County, Montana, just west of the town of Red Lodge. The headwaters of the creek are high in the Beartooth Plateau, near Castle Mountain in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Area. The creek flows in a northeasterly and then easterly direction through a deep, narrow canyon, before entering the larger Rock Creek valley and merging with that stream. Nearly all of the WFRC canyon is located within the Beartooth Ranger District of the Custer National Forest, and the approximate upper half of the canyon is in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Area.

The WCFC watershed is situated within the U. S. EPA's Ecoregion 17 of Montana. This watershed is mainly comprised of Level IV mapping unit 17l (“Gneissic-Forested Mountains”), with Level IV unit 17h (“Alpine Zone”) forming the upper boundaries of the drainage. The forest unit is characterized by glaciated wet, forested, rugged-dissected mountains. Elevations range between 6,200 and 9,300 feet, with relief ranging from 1500 to 2000 feet. The alpine unit is characterized by glaciated, high, wet, often severely exposed mountains above timberline that were modified by alpine glaciation; rockland, talus, plateaus and lakes commonly occur within this unit. Elevations range from 9,300 feet to over 10,000 feet (on the Silver Run Plateau), with up to several hundred feet of relief.12

The WFRC drainage is included under Management Area “R” in the current Custer

National Forest Management Plan. The primary goal of such management is protection and maintenance of high-quality water for public domestic use. Campgrounds and other developed recreation sites present within the drainage are under the jurisdiction of Management Area “F”.

Here, the goal is to provide a spectrum of recreation opportunities and settings in and around developed sites, as well as providing access to related, less-developed sites.13

Climate

The temperature/moisture regimen within the forested eco-unit is cryic/ustic; winters are long and cold, white summers are cool. Annual precipitation within this unit ranges between 24 and 356 inches (for the period 1961-2000). Average daily minimum temperatures (for 1971- 2000) range between 30°F at the mouth, to about 24°F at the headwaters of WFRC. Average daily maximum temperatures (for 1971-2000) range between 55°F at the mouth to 45°F at the headwaters.14

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 19

Earth Resources

Geology

The underlying geology within the WFRC watershed is glacial outwash of Quaternary age (ca. 15,000 years b.p.). Moving down-drainage (towards the confluence with mainstem Rock Creek), the bedrock changes to steeply-dipping Paleozoic sedimentary formations (e.g., Madison, ca. 325 million years b.p.) overlain by glacial outwash.15

Hydrology

Deep winter snowpack meltwaters originating in the alpine zone significantly influence summer stream flow in the forested ecozone. Rivers and creeks with low concentrations of dissolved calcium and magnesium follow rock fractures and are often clear. Slow percolation rates and short lag time between rainfall and runoff are typical. Streams exhibit low flow during drought and freeze periods, while small lakes and ponds are not uncommon. Drinking water sources in the West Fork watershed are of high quality and free of contaminants. However, these sources are highly susceptible to contamination because they draw water from springs or shallow, unconfined aquifers.16

Soils

Due to the cold-wet climate of the WFRC drainage, the major soils groups present within the forested eco-unit include Cryochrysts, Cryoboralfs and Cryorthants. Soil series commonly mapped within this unit include Gavlet, Cowood, Shadow, MacFarlane and Peeler. Bottomland soils are generally formed in deep, unconsolidated alluvium. Rotational slumps have occurred along slopes consisting of glacial outwash deposits and landslide-prone sedimentary formations present near the confluence of West Fork and mainstem Rock Creek. Recent debris flows have occurred in tributary channels within recently burned areas of WFRC.17

Vegetation

Climax vegetation present within the forested eco-unit (17l) is characterized by a subalpine fir/Douglas fir overstory and diverse mix of grass and shrub species in the understory;

vegetative groundcover is nearly 100 percent. With loss of the climax overstory, lodgepole pine can occupy the Douglas fir sites, and all but the upper limits of the subalpine fir sites. Climax vegetation within the alpine zone (17h) includes a mix of Krummholz-type stands of subalpine fir and Whitebark pine in relatively sheltered sites, plus grassland tundra elsewhere.18

The WFRC drainage’s fire regime can be predominantly described as biophysical setting

(BpS) SPF11. This occurs in the lower subalpine zone on 10-60% slopes. Relatively dry sites are dominated by lodgepole pine; most sites are dominated by Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, or by quaking aspen. Fire-return intervals are generally moderate-long to long intervals (e.g., West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 20

100-200 year) stand replacement fires; a substantial amount of the drainage is influenced by moderately long interval (e.g., 50 to 100 year) mixed severity fires.19

Wildlife

Terrestrial

The diversity of forest stand structure, including current successional pathways and disturbance patterns within and immediately adjacent to the WFRC drainage, has created suitable habitat for mammals, including:

big game species as elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer;

species of special or regulatory concern as Gray wolf, grizzly bear and wolverine; plus species of local public concern as moose and Pine marten.20

Fisheries and Amphibians

Amphibian habitat includes several isolated wetlands in riparian areas along WFRC and

Wild Bill Lake. Potentially occurring sensitive species include the Northern leopard frog and Western toad. Nonsensitive native amphibians include the Columbia Spotted frog, Boreal Chorus frog and Tiger salamander.

Several wild trout species are found in WFRC, including Yellowstone cutthroat trout (a regulatorily sensitive species)21

Fire History and Fire Risk Assessment

Very little recorded fire history exists for the Beartooth Ranger District before 1948. A

Forest Service report prepared in 1913 report prepared includes a photograph (from June 1912) suggesting that large portions of the WFRC burned around the turn of the century. From 1953- 2007 there have been 49 recorded wildfires in the West Fork Drainage, ranging in size from 0.10 to 8 acres. Of those, 14 have been attributed to lightning strikes (29%), while the remaining 35 were due to human or other ignition sources (71%). Over the last ten years, 2 fires were caused by lightning (14%) and 12 were associated with human-caused or other ignition sources (86%).22

A significant down canyon wind event, with recorded windgusts exceeding 100 mph, on

November 12, 2007, led to widespread blowdown of timber within the WFRC drainage. The subsequent Cascade Creek Fire of late July 2008 burned nearly 10,200 acres (about 28% of the total drainage’s area) and is estimated to represent the 100-year fire event. The Cascade fire changed fuel conditions via consumption of much of the biomass from the November 2007 blowdown event. However, the fire also added to the short-term (5-10 Year) reburn risk, as it is expected that partially burned trees will be prone to complete mortality and begin to unravel

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 21 through wind throw and snow damage. Ladder fuels associated with new tree regeneration will compound the fire-risk setting.23

In response to these events, the District developed and is now implementing their

Beartooth Front Storm Damage Cleanup and Fuels Reduction (HFRA) Project. This project will improve public and firefighter safety by cleanup of hazard trees and windblown damage, plus reduce fuel loads and continuity on about 939 acres of Forest Service lands and 123 acres of Montana DNRC lands within the WFRC drainage. Recent and ongoing HFRA activities include mechanized tree removal/stand thinning in the Silver Run trailhead area, personal use post-and-pole sales within the HFRA area, plus personal firewood cutting at designated sites along West Fork Road #2071.24

Context 1: Forest Service Administration of the West Fork Rock Creek Area

Chronology of the Beartooth Ranger District

The eastern face of the Beartooth Plateau, including the WFRC area, has federally recognized for its natural resource values since the late nineteenth century, and has been part of a designated forest reserve since 1891. On March 30 of that year, the U.S. Government Land Office established the Yellowstone Park Timber Reserve, encompassing 1.2 million acres of land on the periphery of Yellowstone National Park. The first such reserve in the United States, included the Beartooth Mountain area east of Red Lodge, and most of the WFRC drainage. The Timber Reserve was greatly enlarged in 1902, and redesignated as the “Yellowstone Forest Reserve.”25

The early Forest Reserves were vast and minimally funded, and the lands under their control saw relatively little direct management. The creation of the United States Forest Service in 1905 saw the beginnings of federal effort to exercise greater control over the reserved forest lands. As part of this process, the old Forest Reserves were gradually transformed into a new network of National Forests, smaller and more actively managed than their predecessors. The new Beartooth National Forest was created on July 1, 1908, with its headquarters in Billings.

The forest included the Beartooth Plateau land formerly included in the Yellowstone Forest Reserve, as well as a portion of the Pryor Mountains to the east.26

The level of active federal management of the forest land in and around the WFRC area apparently began during the first decade of the twentieth century, coincident with the creation of the Forest Service. A 1906 photograph shows a small, primitive ranger’s cabin located at the approximate site of the future Rock Creek Ranger Station, near the mouth of the WFRC canyon.

The site included a log residence/office, a small barn, and an outhouse. Other, similar stations were also constructed elsewhere in the Beartooth National Forest, and by 1912 five such facilities existed. One station existed in the Pryors, while the others were all located near the entrance to major canyons penetrating the Beartooth Plateau.27

West Fork Rock Creek, Project Report page 22

The Beartooth National Forest existed until 1932, when its designation was eliminated during an administrative consolidation. Most of the forest’s lands, including the Pryors, the eastern Beartooth Plateau and the WFRC drainage, became part of an enlarged Custer National Forest.