Crocker Guard Station

The house in the meadow

The road to Crocker Guard Station ends at a closed gate. From the town of Beckwourth, on Highway 70 five miles east of Portola, the Beckwourth–Genesee Road (County Road 111) runs north into the Plumas National Forest. The Forest Service puts the dirt turnoff for Crocker Campground at 4.6 miles up that road; Recreation.gov puts the station at six. The first right leads to the gate. Renters open it with a combination the Beckwourth Ranger District gives out by phone during weekday office hours, and the same combination opens the cabin. There is parking for four vehicles. The Forest Service directs arrivals around to the front door, and the rest of a party gets in more easily once someone unlocks the back door from inside.

The house stands at 5,700 feet in a small meadow beside an aspen grove, with pine forest around it. Many springs feed the ground, and the Forest Service calls the site a riparian area. Inside are four bedrooms holding ten twin beds, two sets of them bunks. There is also a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room with a couch and chairs, a dining table, and extra folding chairs.

The lights, cook stove, and heater all run on propane. There is no electricity and no refrigerator, and the sink is dry. Water from the hand pump outside is kept for fire protection, so guests bring their own drinking water. A vault toilet stands in its own building outside, near a picnic table and a large fenced front yard. A propane barbecue is there for anyone who brings propane. Cooking and eating utensils and cleaning supplies are left in the house. The people who stay clean it, pack out their trash, and lock up when they go.

Beds hold ten, and up to sixteen may stay. No tents go up at the station and no campfires are lit there. After dark, Recreation.gov notes, the sky away from town lights shows stars, golden moonrises, and meteor showers, with some glow from Reno. The rental costs $135 a night, and the Forest Service lists it as scheduled to close for the season on October 19, 2026.

A CCC camp a quarter mile off

The fires are lit at Crocker Campground, a quarter mile away. It has ten units in mixed conifer forest at 5,600 feet, with tables, fire rings, and vault toilets, plus food lockers by Recreation.gov’s account. It has no water or garbage service. The Forest Service states that the campground was a Civilian Conservation Corps workstation during the 1930s, and that the CCC turned it into a public campground when it ended operations there. In fall it is popular with deer hunters.

Lake Davis lies four or five miles off, depending on which Recreation.gov figure is used, the five-mile route on a dirt road. The lake was created in 1967, when Grizzly Creek Dam was built in part to improve the fishing.

A ranger’s family, then the fire crews

The station was built in 1912 as a home for Forest Service personnel. A ranger and his family lived and worked there first. Fire crews and other Forest Service personnel were stationed there later. The Forest Service gives 1981 as the year forest operations there ended, while Recreation.gov and the forest’s 2015 and 2016 announcements say only that it was staffed until the early 1980s. Of the original buildings, the guard station and the warehouse remain.

Four retirees and the 2016 opening

Forest Service retirees began working on the station in 2009, refurbishing the building and the grounds around it. The Forest Service dates the refurbishing to 2011.

In October 2015 the Plumas National Forest announced that the station would open as a rental in spring 2016. It asked for public comment on a proposed fee of $85 a night, with comments going to district archeologist Mary Kliejunas and district recreation manager Pandora Valle. That notice promised room for sixteen overnight guests, nine twin beds, historic furnishings, propane heat, and electricity.

The opening came on August 1, 2016, at $85 a night, with Thousand Trails Management Services operating the rental under a special use permit. The electricity did not come with it. The 2016 announcement listed propane heat, lights, and stove and told guests to bring their own water, and the cabin still has no power.

Retirees Curtis Marshall, Mike Martini, Pete Meyer, and Mike Davis had put hundreds of hours into the restoration. “Forest Service retirees have volunteered to work on the station since 2009, and it’s only because of their efforts that we are able to offer this amazing opportunity to visitors,” said Matt Jedra, acting Beckwourth District Ranger, when the opening was announced.