Big Piney, Wyo., June 16, 2022— The Big Piney Ranger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest has re-modeled the Sherman Guard Station in preparation for a public grand re-opening celebration to be held July 1st from 2-6pm. Hosted by the Big Piney Ranger District and the Sublette County Historic Preservation Board, this open house day will include light refreshments and interpretive signs for a self-guided walking tour of the buildings and grounds. Beginning July 2nd, the Sherman Guard Station will transition into two rental cabins available to the public through a reservation system on recreation.gov.
Recent Forest Service re-modeling work on the rentals includes painting the interiors and installing wood stoves for winter heating. Historic photographs and old maps were framed and now decorate the walls, courtesy of the County Historic Preservation Board. Work is continuing on the fences which surround the Guard Station compound.
Located 18-miles west of Daniel on the Horse Creek Road, the Sherman Ranger Station site was one of the half-dozen original Ranger Stations on the Wyoming National Forest, established in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Usually located at or near the forest boundary, the early ranger stations were generally spaced “a day’s ride by horseback” from each other. From Sherman, the nearest other stations were Hoback to the northwest and Snider Basin to the south, both of which are also on the Big Piney Ranger District and seasonally available for rent.
The stations were built for the early Forest Service district rangers to live in and work out of. Over the years ranger station building complexes were upgraded and replaced, so the very earliest buildings are gone. At Sherman, in 1933 and 1934 the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed a small office/dwelling building and a garage/workshop. These are the two buildings to be made available for rent. From 1912 to 1930, Sherman served as the yearlong headquarters for the Sherman Ranger District. From 1930-1937 it was used as a seasonal/summer headquarters for the district ranger. After that, the station was used less and was called a guard station, only intermittently occupied by seasonal workers. Notably, in 2002 it was the staging area for fire crews fighting the 3600-acre Mule Fire.
For more information please contact the Big Piney Ranger District at 307-276-5800, visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/btnf, follow the Bridger-Teton National Forest on Facebook @BridgerTetonNF or on Twitter @BridgerTetonNF.
