North Cascades

STEWARDSHIP OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN:
GOVERNMENT IN THE NORTH CASCADES

UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE ERA

Guard Stations: Skagit District
Ruby

Above Reflector Bar at the confluence of Ruby Creek and the Skagit River, Ruby Guard Station was another early station of considerable importance. Ruby was depicted on a WNF map of 1913 but may well date from an earlier year. A one-room log cabin was built, and 2-1/2 acres were cleared on the 12.8-acre site. [46] Ruby remained a station into the mid-1920s, but by 1931 it was no longer indicated on USFS maps. [47] The site was taken over by SCL and used as the location of a work camp during construction of the dam. [48] Prior to the flooding of the site, all buildings associated with the station and camp were removed. By the early 1940s the USFS had relocated Ruby Creek station farther upstream along what is now Ruby Arm. [49] This station then served as headquarters for fire and trail building crews. [50] Portable buildings used earlier by the Works Progress Administration road crew were brought to the new site. A USFS seasonal crew constructed a pole barn up the slope from the ready-built station. This structure was sited on 10 acres which had been cleared for pasture by SCL in compensation for other USFS pasture lost to flooding. As use of the station diminished, its abandonment became inevitable. Most of the buildings at the station were removed by the USFS in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with the NPS dismantling the last outbuilding about 1970. Of all the structures associated with this station, only the Ruby barn remains today. [51]

Historic view of Ruby Barn and outbuilding, n.d.
(NOCA-Sedro Woolley photo file)