Dosewallips, day 3, Interrorem Ranger Cabin

September, 2017

Doesn’t this cabin look sweet?  It’s the Interrorem Ranger Cabin in the Olympic National Forest.  You can read a bit about it here.  And I’ll tell you more below.

Early this morning, I set off from the Dosewallips State Park in the big white truck to see this cabin and to take a nice long hike (a real hike which you’ll hear about in a later post).  On my drive out of the campground, there were the Elk, again!  They had slept overnight in a ball field or playground type of area just on the west side of the Ranger’s office.  I could have taken photos, but frankly I was tired of taking photos of them.  How goofy is that?

Outside the State Park, I headed south on Highway 101 to the turnoff onto Duckabush River Road.  The Duckabush area was named by the original Twana people, who called it dohiaboos, which translates to “a reddish face” in reference to red cliffs in the area.  The original word doesn’t have a thing to do with ducks or bushes, tho I kind of like the word “Duckabush”.

About four miles up the Duckabush River Road, this Interrorem Ranger Cabin sits off to the left in this really pretty setting.  The cabin was built in 1907, by Emery J. Finch, Ranger, as the first administrative site of the then brand new Olympic National Forest.  There’s a wikipedia article about the Olympic National Forest here.  This cabin is the oldest Forest Service dwelling on the Olympic Peninsula.

The Interrorem Cabin can be rented through the Forest Service Cabin Rental Program, www.recreation.gov.  A stay in the cabin today will take you back to an era without electricity, a flush toilet, or any water plumbed into the cabin.  There’s a vault toilet several yards away from the back door, there’s propane heat and cooking inside, and there’s a hand pump for water several yards away from the front door.  The cabin can be rented year-round, although the water pump is locked and its handle removed during the off-season … pack in your own water!

Enlarge the two photos below to read more, including why the cabin was named “Interrorem”.

There were lots of informational signs outside the cabin.  Several websites mention old photos and historic information inside the cabin too, all describing everyday life when Ranger Finch brought his bride Maybelle Peterson to live in the cabin in 1908.

Here’s the locked/chained water pump (above).  On the side of the pump, it says:
BAKER MFG CO
EVANSVILLE WIS
When someone is renting the cabin, the lock and chain are removed so they have water.

Ranger Emery Finch, who built this cabin, was an avid fisherman and was responsible for blazing the Ranger Hole Trail, a path to his favorite fishing spot on the Duckabush River.  Today, after I explored the area around the cabin, I hiked all the way out on the Ranger Hole Trail to the fishing hole on the Duckabush.  The photo above is of an old bench that snuggles in amongst the greenery just past the start of that trail.  I can imagine folks back in the early 1900’s, on a hot summer day, grabbing some ice cold water from that hand pump, resting a spell on this bench, then heading on out the trail to catch themselves a mess of trout at the Ranger Hole on the Duckabush River.  I’ll take you along on my hike out there in my next post.

In the meantime, here’s an outstanding video from the National Forest Service that briefly showcases the eight Forest Service parks in the Pacific Northwest.

We must pay attention to helping the wilderness persevere.  Everything we do, whether we are inside these wilderness areas or at home, everything we do has implication for the health of the wilderness and the health of our planet.  And, just an interesting note that not many people know, the gorge created by the Snake River, the gorge called Hells Canyon, on the border between Washington/Oregon and Idaho, is the deepest gorge in North America.  I bet most people think the Grand Canyon is the deepest.  It isn’t!