Union Community History Project: Union Ranger District Compound

Today:

The Union Ranger District Compound is owned by The City of Union. The Union Historic Preservation Committee in collaboration with The City of Union is in the process of renovation. Their goal has been to renovate to maintain the historic accuracy of the compound.

To date, the pump-gasoline house has been restored. The City is currently renovating a second building on the property with the goal of making this building available for overnight stays by 2021.

Description:

The Union Ranger District Compound is a group of administration buildings constructed for the Forest Service in the 1930's by Civilian Conservation Corps workers.

The Union Ranger District Compound at Union Oregon was formerly called the Eagle District Compound before the District was renamed in 1947. The Cpuopound is located at the intersection of Oregon Hwy 203 and North First Street (locally known as Weaver Lane), NE 1/4/ of Section 18, T4S, R40E, near the western city limits of Union.

The complex is situated on approximately 4.5 acres of land. A small stream flows through it from east to west, in a generally northwesterly direction. The complex of eight buildings includes an office building, a rangers residence with a garage, a guard residence with garage, an oil and gasoline house, a warehouse, and an equipment storage shed.

Historical Overview:

In 1935, the Eagle Ranger District had been formed by merging the Eagle District Headquartered in Medical Springs and the Grande Ronde District headquartered in Cove Oregon. a new compound was planned for Union to headquarter the new Eagle Range District. By the time the announcement appeared in the local newspaper late in 1937, then, plans were well under way.

On February 18, 1939, J.B. and Mina M. Weaver sold a parcel of land approximately 4.7 acres in size to the United States government for the sum of $1.00. The found drive chaired nu G.I. Hess announced in the local newspaper, had raised the money needed to pay back taxes on the Weaver Property (W. Roe and L. Almquist, personal communication) with the agreement that the Weaver would donate the land to the Forest Service.

An advanced detail of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) personnel from Company 980 arrived in Baker, Oregon, in April of 1935. They established a winter camp, call "Camp Baker", No-F-113. This was one of seventeen winter camps in the Lewiston, Idaho District of the CCC. Company 980 was a Forestry Company from its inception in April 1933. All work done outside camp was under the Forestry Section, Department of Agriculture, and was done in the Whitman National Forest. The work consisted mostly of truck-train building, roadside clearing, range and water improvement, timber stand improvement, building rustic furniture for park and camp sites and construction of ranger stations and telephone lines. Most of the personnel were from Oregon with a small number from Montana.

Selections from: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/or/or0100/or0171/data/or0171data.pdf