Park proposes tearing down ranger station

Glacier National Park wants to tear down a former ranger station building at Avalanche Creek Campground. The building is in disrepair, and the Park says it sees no need to restore a building no longer in use.

The building was constructed in 1966 as part of a rehabilitation of the Avalanche Campground under the National Park Service’s Mission 66 infrastructure program. The 1,377-square-foot building was closed in the mid-1990s.

The ranger station is a contributing property to the Avalanche Campground Historic District, which is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Park officials consulted with the Montana State Historic Preservation Office and prepared a memorandum of agreement with the state office to mitigate removal of the station.

According to the agreement, the Park would salvage usable architectural materials, record the building to the standards of the Historic American Building Survey and install a wayside exhibit explaining the campground’s history. An adjacent shed that housed a generator, a dirt service road, a propane tank and adjoining sidewalks would also be removed, and the site would be restored with native vegetation.

With only minor impacts to the site, Park officials determined that an environmental assessment will not be necessary for the project.

The public can comment on the proposal and read the full document online at www.parkplanning.nps.gov/AvalancheRangerStation.