Buckhorn Ranger Station: Fires, Floods, and Vandalism

When they arrived at Buckhorn Ranger Station, it was obvious no one had been there for months –untouched snow surrounded the half dozen cabins that make up the compound. With no neighbors in sight in the narrow canyon, the shattering of glass and splintering of wood would probably go unheard. They started by punching out a single section of door window to test the waters, then they kicked through the lower door panel and made their way into the office. They ransacked the cabin finding only Smoky Bear stickers, trail head signs, and Woodsy Owl posters – a treasure trove for some – and moved on to the ranger dwelling, garage, and bunkhouse. They caused a few more thousand dollars’ worth of damage, circled back to chuck rocks through the remaining windows, and left with little more than lungs full of radon – one reason why the cabins have sat empty and vacant for over a decade.

They weren’t the first and they wouldn’t be the last – their vandalism would repeat itself over the next few years. But little did they know, they were moving preservation efforts from push to shove for the historic ranger station and advancing the evolution of a small and sometimes forgotten canyon in northern Colorado.

The original Buckhorn Ranger Station was built in 1906, a small log cabin that housed the district ranger’s operations until 1933. From ‘33 to ‘41, the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed the new Buckhorn Ranger Station and its accompanying buildings nearby as part of Great Depression-era back-to-work programs. Although nothing is left of the original cabin except the cellar, the structures built during the Great Depression comprise the ranger station compound as it sits today.

“These buildings at Buckhorn have withstood the test of time,” said Larry Fullenkamp, Roosevelt National Forest archaeologist. “When people are out traveling and see these cabins, that’s how they see the Forest Service in a lot of ways. They’re an integral part of the architecture and history of the Forest Service and the area.”

Shortly after the new construction was complete, the district ranger moved out of the small canyon and into downtown Fort Collins, with staff and volunteers only returning to work from Buckhorn during the summers. The ranger station became less and less integral to operations as the Roosevelt National Forest reorganized and consolidated multiple ranger districts into today’s Canyon Lakes Ranger District. Volunteers took over in 2001 to provide information to passersby until 2010 when radon was discovered in the basement of several cabins.

“After that, we stopped recruiting volunteers and the buildings sat vacant,” said Fullenkamp. “With it being a vacant building, it’s just asking for vandalism. We weren’t updating it or maintaining it due to a lack of funding. People noticed, and we started finding broken windows around the compound.”

Shortly after the ranger station closed its doors, the High Park Fire burned over 87,000 acres in the area, and the sense of abandonment radiated throughout the canyon.

“There were lots of evacuations, it was just one thing after another,” said Dan Bartmann, who lived a half mile below the ranger station. “High Park really destroyed the landscape, and the year after that we had the big flood that erased the road. A neighbor got me on the ham radio and said the road was gone. It didn’t seem possible, but it was. I had to move to town.”

“The High Park Fire changed everything up here,” said Tom Hammond, a fourth-generation resident of the area. “It changed the whole idea of what was going on around here. A lot of people evacuated and never came back. It kind of fractured the little society we had up here, and it just never returned.”

Hammond and other neighbors in Buckhorn agree that the Forest Service has largely existed in the background of that little society, their presence mostly coming and going with fire. But recently in that background Fullenkamp and the Forest’s heritage department have been advocating for Buckhorn Ranger Station’s restoration and a renewed presence in the area – although their efforts have been a struggle.

“It’s not that the Forest Service wasn’t backing our efforts to preserve these cabins, but when budgets were at some of their lowest in 2017, national guidance came down to triage our facilities and get vacant buildings off our books so we can say we’re putting all our money into what we use day-to-day. We knew we had to do something and do it quick.”

As the historic ranger station inched closer and closer to the chopping block, Fullenkamp received a phone call from then district ranger Katie Donahue, asking him to go survey the most recent vandalism to the cabins.

“It wasn’t irreparable, but it was definitely the worst I’ve seen,” said Fullenkamp.

In a turn of events, the extent of the vandalism made the ranger station eligible for $6,000 in facilities’ funds for repairs and renovation – funding it likely wouldn’t have received otherwise.

“I talked to a partner organization that’s largely made of volunteers, HistoriCorps, about renovation options, but their mobilization costs were more than we had to work with,” said Fullenkamp. “$6,000 would barely cover repairs to the vandalism, let alone a full renovation, but it was a starting point. We considered repairing one cabin, renting it, and using funds from that to slowly repair the compound over time, but COVID delayed that.”

While Buckhorn’s timeline seemed to be stretching out further and further, Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act, creating new funding avenues to address critical deferred maintenance and enhance recreation infrastructure.

Shortly after the Great American Outdoors Act was approved, Washington representatives contacted the Forest looking for shovel-ready stimulus projects to get people back to work after the worst of COVID had passed. Much like its initial construction during the great depression, renovating Buckhorn would require the skills of almost every trade available, making it the perfect project to provide plenty of diverse work opportunities once again, nearly a century later.

“The only catch with this funding stream was that Buckhorn had to be listed as a recreation facility to be eligible,” said Fullenkamp.

The Forest submitted a proposal to rent the cabins, making the compound a recreation facility in addition to an administrative facility. The proposal was approved, and thanks to the initial $6,000 granted after the vandalism, they were able to develop renovation plans and other construction first-steps needed to obtain the funding.

“Our initial idea to rent the cabins is now part of the official use for the compound, and it will also be able to house seasonal workers, firefighters, and other critical personnel in the area. The compound will play a crucial role in our operations, but it likely won’t be a ranger station again.”

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, says Hammond.

“You can’t stop progress, time goes on, things evolve. I think that’s what’s going on here – the evolution of a little forgotten canyon. This canyon is restructuring, its going through a little metamorphosis, on your end and on ours.”

Hammond’s son recently opened a disc golf course on their property in Buckhorn Canyon.

“If anything, this is going to become a bedroom community, much like it already is. And I hope that your rental works with the people that are playing disc golf at our course. I think it will, and it would be great to have some sort of enterprise up here.”

What Buckhorn Canyon has lacked in traditional enterprise it’s made up for with enterprising people.

“Thanks to the resourcefulness and generosity of this community, multiple nationally recognized off grid power experts that live nearby have contributed their time, the ranger station will have Wi-Fi, a security system, and other modern amenities while preserving the original Civilian Conservation Corps construction and style,” said Fullenkamp.

That history of enterprising neighbors has defined Buckhorn Canyon for generations.

Hammond keeps a sign in his home that reads “Golden Eagle.” Adorned with the signatures of hundreds of Civilian Conservation Corps workers, loggers, and Forest Service employees that passed through the canyon, the sign originally belonged to the Dickerson sisters – a resourceful family that played a foundational role in the culture of Buckhorn Canyon and the pioneering spirit of Colorado.

“The Dickerson sisters used to have a pop stand outside their place here called Golden Eagle,” said Hammond. “They’d sell pop and candy bars. That’s some of my first memories, going up there and telling Alice ‘I’d like a Grapette please.’ I was 4 or 5 years old. Those ladies were great.”

With funding for renovations and rental eligibility approved, work at Buckhorn Ranger Station will begin summer 2023. HistoriCorps will be leading the renovations alongside the Forest’s heritage resources, engineering and recreation program staff.