American River Guard Station

The American River Guard Station stands at about 2,800 feet off State Route 410 near milepost 88. It is about 40 miles west of Naches, on the bank of the river it is named for. The way in leaves the highway at Bumping River Road, Forest Road 1800, crosses the bridge over the American River, and turns left onto the American Forks Campground Road. The cabin’s access road comes up on the left soon after, behind a locked gate. The combination comes in the confirmation letter. The same numbers open a security box by the main cabin door, and the box holds the key.

The Forest Service writes that dappled sunlight “filters through the trees and splashes across the roof.” The building is a one-and-a-half-story log cabin from the Depression years. The Naches Ranger District of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest rents it year-round to parties of up to eight people, with room at the site for four passenger vehicles. Overflow parking lies off Bumping Road 1800.

Kitchen, loft, and a two-seater outhouse

Inside are a small kitchen, a living and sleeping area, one bedroom, a full-sized sleeping loft, and a storage room. A queen-size sleeper sofa stands in the living room and a full-size bed in the bedroom. The loft holds four twin beds by Recreation.gov’s count and two by the Forest Service’s. The dining table seats four, and a hidden leaf extends it for eight. The kitchen has a small refrigerator, an electric range, a coffee maker, pots, dishes, and glassware. Heat comes from a wood stove and an electric baseboard heater in the living room, and electric fixtures give the light. Propane stoves, gas lanterns, and candles are not allowed indoors. Guests bring their own sleeping bags and pads, food, cooking utensils, dish soap, towels, and matches. Before leaving they clean the cabin with the broom, dustpan, mop, bucket, sponges, and cleansers kept on hand.

Outside are a picnic table and a campfire ring. The original two-seater outhouse has been restored. Firewood may be on hand, but the supply is not guaranteed. The cabin has no water. In summer, drinking water can be drawn at nearby Cedar Spring Campground, and trash goes to a dumpster at American Forks Campground. When that campground closes for the season, guests “pack it in and pack it out.” The nightly fee, $90 by the Forest Service’s listing, goes directly to the maintenance and preservation of the station.

Old growth on the American River

The cabin sits in old-growth forest of Douglas fir and western hemlock, with a cedar understory, grassy openings, ferns, and mosses. Deer, porcupine, native fish, and migratory birds live here. The Forest Service lists the Northern Spotted Owl, gray wolves, and grizzly bears among the endangered and threatened species that find havens in the local ecosystems. Summers are generally sunny and warm with little rain. Winters bring mostly clear skies and plenty of snow, and the major roads from Naches are plowed.

The river beside the cabin runs cold and clear, with rainbow and brown trout, and whitewater paddlers put in on it and its tributaries. It rises at American Lake and flows north. It picks up the Rainier Fork, which comes down from near Chinook Pass, then passes through Pleasant Valley. It joins the Bumping River within American Forks Campground, about 20 miles from its source. State Route 410 follows the Rainier Fork and American River valleys down from the pass, and the summit is about 30 minutes above the cabin. An early name for the river was Miners Creek. According to the historian Gretta Gossett, it was renamed for the American River in California “by hopeful miners.”

Bumping Lake, with boating and fishing, is a short drive away. Hiking and horseback trails lead into the Norse Peak Wilderness and the William O. Douglas Wilderness. The 1984 Washington Wilderness Act set aside the Cougar Lake roadless area as the Douglas Wilderness. It is named for the Supreme Court justice who was raised in Yakima and appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Douglas knew these trails closely and spent many summers at his cabin in Goose Prairie, a small community surrounded by the present wilderness. In winter, visitors come to the American River country to snowshoe and ski cross-country. Snowmobile and off-road routes lead into the Little Naches drainage.

Built for fire patrol, kept as a bunkhouse

The men of the 932nd Camp Naches Civilian Conservation Corps crew built the cabin and outhouse in 1941. The cabin served as a summer residence and work site for fire patrol and recreation management personnel. At some later date a rear addition went on, with a bathroom, water heater, laundry, and sink room.

Naches Ranger District personnel still lived here in the summers through the 1960s, though by then the cabin served mainly as a bunkhouse. Typically two or three seasonal employees lived here each summer and drove roughly twelve miles east every morning to the Ranger Station. In the 1970s, volunteers and permit holders used the cabin from time to time. In 1999 it was found eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.