Currier Guard Station

The outhouse door at Currier Guard Station opens on a handle of deer antler. The cabin it serves stands in a scattering of fir, pine and aspen on the Paisley Ranger District of the Fremont-Winema National Forest, in Lake County, Oregon. Behind it a meadow runs out to the forest’s edge, and a vault toilet stands near the cabin as well. From June 15 through October 15 the Forest Service rents the station to a single group of up to four people, though the forest’s own page recommends no more than two adults.

The road from Paisley

From the Paisley Ranger District office the way runs 12 miles north on Highway 31, then left onto Forest Road 29, also called Government Harvey Pass. Recreation.gov warns of narrow curves and washboard on its first 10 miles. At the junction with Forest Road 2901 the route turns left and holds to Road 29 for 2 more miles, to a paved T with Road 28. From there it bears right 3.5 miles to Road 30 and keeps left at a Y. A sign for Currier stands a mile southwest. The Forest Service puts the drive from Paisley at one hour and 25 minutes. It asks guests to call the district before arriving to check on fire, road closures and storms. The station may be closed for administrative use if large wildfires start nearby.

Two rooms and a propane stove

The cabin measures 450 square feet in two rooms. The combination bedroom and living room holds a set of bunk beds, which the Forest Service describes as log-built, along with a double bed, a propane heating stove and a propane refrigerator. The kitchen has a table and chairs and a propane cook stove. The forest’s page adds a sink, a rocking chair, a furnace and lanterns.

The two listings disagree on what is in the cupboards. The Forest Service counts dishes, cooking gear and flatware among the amenities. Recreation.gov tells guests to bring their own cooking gear, along with sleeping bags, pads, towels, dish soap, matches, a first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. Both agree there is no water. Guests haul in what they need for drinking, cooking and washing, and they carry their trash back out.

Outside are a picnic table, a fire ring, corrals, and flat, grassy ground for more tents. Campers may gather up to half a cord of firewood for use on site without a permit. Pets are welcome. Smoking is not.

The meadow and the Sycan

Red-tailed hawks perch in the treetops over the meadow, watching for field mice. Meadowlarks, Steller’s jays and hummingbirds come through, and deer and Rocky Mountain elk graze the grass. Early in the summer the mosquitoes are thick enough that Recreation.gov advises bug spray and nets.

North of the cabin runs the Sycan Wild and Scenic River. Recreation.gov puts it one mile off; the Forest Service puts it a half-mile. Its corridor winds from a steep canyon out to broad meadows. Conifer forest mixes there with streamside growth, and sage and bitterbrush cover the drier ground. The river holds rainbow, brook, brown and bull trout, and Recreation.gov names it a spot for fly fishing. The two sources differ on the walking as well. Recreation.gov speaks of numerous trails through the forest for hikers and riders. The Forest Service says there is no formal trail to the river and advises consulting the map.

Fire crews and a fallen pine

Currier was built in 1933 as an out station of the Paisley Ranger District, to house fire prevention and suppression crews in the field. It took its name from a local ranch owner. Fire crews lived there seasonally until the early 1990s. The Forest Service page also gives a second account of the station’s working years. By that account it served from the 1950s to the 1970s as quarters for seasonal employees, who stayed each summer while they did maintenance logging and spring and pipe range projects.

In 2021 the Bootleg Fire damaged the trees around the station. One large ponderosa pine, weakened by the fire, fell on the cabin and did significant damage. Fires had burned about 420,000 acres of the Fremont-Winema between 2019 and 2021, and the forest received $32.1 million in disaster relief funding. On May 6, 2022, a decision was signed for a Bootleg Fire Recreation Site Restoration project. It covered a new toilet and boat dock at Campbell Lake, the removal of toilets at Lookout Rock and Quartz Mountain, and the repair of Currier Guard Station. The money paid to haul away the fallen tree, secure the structure, and restore the cabin so it could reopen to the public. The project is listed as completed.

A regional story map from November 2024 sets two photographs side by side. On the left, the pine lies across the station. On the right stands the cabin, repaired.