Deer Creek Cabin (WY)

Deer Creek Guard Station stands on the east side of Greys River Road, just past Murphy Creek Campground, inside a fenced pasture under lodgepole pine. The trees give partial shade. The Greys River runs just across the road, and Deer Creek runs east of the cabin. The station is about 13 miles from Alpine by the Recreation.gov listing and 14 gravel miles by the Forest Service’s count. From Alpine the Greys River Road, Forest Road 10138, runs east about 8 miles to a junction. A traveler bears right to stay on it, goes about 6 miles more to the southeast, and turns left on Forest Road 10137 into the station. The Bridger-Teton National Forest manages the cabin from the Greys River Ranger District office in Afton.

Two rooms, propane, and a pump toilet

The cabin has two rooms. Recreation.gov says it sleeps six in three bunkbeds with mattresses; the Forest Service page says the bunkbeds hold eight. Inside are a sink, a propane cooktop, a propane refrigerator, a table and chairs, a wood stove, and a propane heater. Propane lights replace electricity, which the cabin does not have, and there is no cell phone coverage. Indoor plumbing, with a flush toilet, a shower, and a sink with drinking water, runs from about mid-June through Labor Day weekend. In the colder months guests use a vault toilet beside the cabin, and in winter there is no water at all. A picnic table and a campfire ring sit next to the building. Firewood found at the station is for use at this cabin only.

Guests bring their own bedding, dishes, pots and pans, utensils, toilet paper, and a flashlight. The station is pack-it-in, pack-it-out, and guests clean the cabin before they leave. Bears frequent the area, so food stays in approved containers or locked in a vehicle. The Recreation.gov listing currently carries a notice of a temporary water outage and intermittent construction. Under that notice the inside bathroom is closed, guests bring all their water, and a pump toilet stands directly beside the building.

Winter access is by snowmobile only, on a groomed trail. Spring and fall access depends on weather and the road. Hiking, biking, horseback, and off-road vehicle trails begin nearby, and the river across the road is fished.

Horses at the door

The compound is a free graze area for Forest Service horses. The listing places them in summer, typically through June. No fence separates the cabin from the pasture, so loose horses may get into anything left outside, including garbage and vehicles. Many guests unload at the door and park outside the gate. Visitors who ride in can use a public stock corral behind the station and carry water from Deer Creek in their own buckets. Hay brought onto the forest must be certified weed-free, and out-of-state horses must have a current Coggins test.

A tent camp, then a CCC cabin

The pasture came before the cabin. In 1930 the Forest Service fenced part of the small pasture as a temporary stop-over for the Bedford District Ranger and guard. Rangers kept a tent camp there while they checked grazing allotments and monitored timber operations. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the dwelling, which dates to 1933.

That date comes from Lookouts, Latrines, and Lodgepole Cabins, a March 2003 Forest Service evaluation of the Bridger-Teton’s administrative buildings from 1904 to 1955. The architectural historian Jim Bailey wrote it after fieldwork in 2001. The report describes guard stations as sites historically occupied by Forest Guards and rangers during the summer. Their dwellings often served as offices as well, with barns, latrines, garages, and cellars around them. It places the 1930s in a period it calls “Later Interwar, Depression, New Deal.” During those years relief funds and labor led Forest Service architects to draw standard designs for new stations, and crews from the CCC, the Works Progress Administration, and local programs did most of the building.

The report recommends Deer Creek as individually eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A and C. In its terms, those criteria cover the Forest Service’s conservation work and the architecture of its stations.