History

The Fish Lake Remount Depot has enjoyed a colorful history of various eras of travel through the Cascade mountains. Indian tribes visited the area during the spring and summer months to hunt, fish and collect huckleberries as they traveled across the slopes to trade with neighboring tribes.

Originally there was a roadhouse built in 1867 by the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road Company to accommodate travelers along the Santiam Wagon Road. Fish Lake was a popular camping area. Often over 100 wagons camped near the lake shore between the months of July and September. A pioneer grave site and sections of the original stone corral remain at the site. Additional buildings that can be seen at Fish Lake today include the barn and blacksmith shop, which were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s.

Black and white photo of a man standing next to a large wooden sign that reads 'FISH LAKE RANGER STATION, WILLAMETTE NATIONAL FOREST.' The man is wearing a short-sleeved shirt and pants, and there are trees and a building in the background.

Early Forest Service ranger

The site was first used by the US Forest Service as a Ranger outpost in 1905. During the 1920s, it served as the field and dispatch headquarters for the Santiam National Forest, and was used as a remount depot until 2005.

The buildings continue to provide lodging and workspace for Forest Service personnel. Activities at the site now focus on interpretation, historic preservation and landscape restoration.

The Packers
of Fish Lake

Many colorful individuals served as packers, often call mule skinners, between 1905 and 2005. The Fish Lake Remount Depot originally served as a Forest Service field office where firefighters and wilderness guards could rest with their pack animals and stock up on supplies. Pack animals typically carried food, tents, and field gear. As many as 20 horses or mules were hitched together in a single pack string.

Lloyd Van Sickle, a packer stationed at Fish Lake from 1971 to 1984, helped protect a number of the historic buildings from being burned due to a lack of maintenance funds, and initiated the first restoration. In 2005, 100 years after the depot was established, the last Fish Lake packer and pack string passed through the site.

Black and white photograph of two people with pack mules loaded with supplies, standing in a forested area.

Fish Lake Pack String

A man wearing a cowboy hat smiling and leaning close to a donkey with a halter, in front of a large saddle and bridle.

Lloyd Van Sickle, Willamette National Forest Packer

Explore the history Fish Lake and experience the old west.

Videos produced in partnership with Spring Fed Media.