Archives West Finding Aid

The White Pass Work Center, formerly known as the Tieton Ranger Station, is located in the Wenatchee National Forest, twenty-two miles west and north of the town of Naches in Yakima County, Washington State. At the time of this documentation, the root cellar (Building #1950) was collapsed and no longer used for its original purpose. The root cellar, along with the residence (Building #1053) with which it is associated, was built circa 1937 for the United States Department of Agriculture and likely constructed by enrollees of the Civilian Conservation Corps, Camp Tieton, 4769th Company, Fort Lewis District. The area was used as the administrative headquarters for the Tieton Ranger District until 1981, when the offices were consolidated with the Naches Ranger District and relocated to the town of Naches and the complex was re-designated as a work center.

After the consolidation of the Tieton and Naches Ranger Districts, the administrative buildings from both districts were included in a regional assessment of National Register eligibility of Depression Era administrative buildings. The root cellar, however, was not included in this assessment. In 1995, the Naches Ranger District proposed to demolish the root cellar for safety reasons. Because it was not included in the original assessment, it first needed to be evaluated. Due to its poor physical condition and lack of architectural distinction, the District architects determined the root cellar was not eligible for inclusion on the National Register. The State Historic Preservation Office, however, ruled that the root cellar was eligible, largely due to its construction by the Civilian Conservation Corps. A Memorandum of Agreement between the Naches Ranger District, the Wenatchee National Forest, the Washington State Historic Preservation Office, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation required that the documentation in this collection be compiled before the root cellar could be demolished.