Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers in Sequoia National Park built the Cabin Creek Ranger Residence and Dormitory in the summers of 1934-1935. The National Register of Historic Places listed these buildings in April, 1978, as excellent examples of National Park Service rustic architecture, which emphasized the design relationship between structures and their natural setting.

     These two small buildings nestle within the dense growth of the mixed conifer forest that screens them from the park’s busy Generals Highway, at 6,800′ elevation. Their simple, single-story design, with wooden walls and shingled roofs, stone chimneys, brown and green exterior paint, sheltering porches front and rear, and native granite facing on their concrete foundations, blends them harmoniously with the surrounding trees. They face east, toward Cabin Creek.

     The residence and dormitory provided housing for rangers staffing the new park entrance station (long since closed) at Lost Grove on the just-completed section of the Generals Highway linking Sequoia National Park and Grant Grove National Park (which became part of Kings Canyon National Park when it was established in 1940). In 2009, the Parks’ historic preservation crew, led by Thor Riksheim, authentically restored these structures. And so, these pleasingly rustic buildings continue to look as they always have, tucked familiarly among the tall trees that shelter them, and still serving to lodge Park personnel and work crews.

March, 2022

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