#nps rustic

Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo of the Paradise Ranger Station with the park’s first naturalist, Ranger Floyd Schmoe, in the 1920s.

The Paradise Ranger Station was constructed in 1921 and was the first government-built structure of its kind at Mount Rainier. Built by the National Park Service in the Rustic style, its steeply pitched roof was designed to withstand the excessive amounts of snowfall at Paradise. The front has a full width 1-story stone porch accessed by stone steps, which descend directly onto the sidewalk. The NPS Rustic style uses native materials like wood and stone to minimize contrast from the natural setting. Shrubs and trees were also planted around the ranger station to better help it blend with the environment and not detract from the visitors’ experience of nature. The Paradise Ranger Station is part of the Mount Rainier Historic Landmark District.

NPS Photo of the ranger station in 1984 (left). Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo courtesy Val Lou photo of the Paradise Ranger Station in the 1990s (right).

Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo of the White River Ranger Station, circa 1931, with the porte-cochère extending out over the road.

White River Entrance is in the northeast corner of Mount Rainier National Park and was built between 1929-1931 in anticipation of the opening of Sunrise Road in 1931. It replaced an earlier entrance station that had been built in 1915. The new White River Entrance was modeled after the Nisqually Entrance, the first entrance in the park located in the southwest corner. The White River Ranger Station, which served as a combined office and checking station, was constructed of whole logs with a cedar shingle roof in the NPS Rustic style of architecture. A large porte-cochère, a roof extending out over the roadway, was added to the design to help serve visitors during poor weather. A few years later, a very similar porte-cochère was added to the Nisqually Entrance checking station.

Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photos: a ranger handing out the first visitor permit, 7/15/1931, (left), and the ranger station in 1960 with the center kiosk (right).

The White River porte-cochère was altered three times over the years, at one point extending over two lanes with a fee kiosk in the middle, before ultimately being downsized to its current smaller configuration that no longer allows vehicles. The current entrance kiosks were built in 2001 and the historic ranger station now serves as the White River Wilderness Information Center. White River Ranger Station is a contributing building to the Mount Rainier National Historic Landmark District.

NPS/E. Brouwer Photo of the White River Ranger Station in 2014.

Did you visit White River Ranger Station when it was still the checking station or have you stopped to get wilderness information there during the summer?

NPS Photo of Stevens Canyon Road viewed from Faraway Rock above Reflection Lakes.

When the National Park Service was created in 1916, the enabling legislation that created the park “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” also mandated that the land be retained in its natural condition, protected from “injury and spoliation.” So, as Mount Rainier National Park was being developed, park officials had to provide access without marring the spectacular scenery. To solve this problem, park architects and engineers innovated a new design aesthetic that blended roads and structures with the natural landscape.

NPS Photos of Paradise Road (left) and Sunrise Road (right).

The parkwide road and bridge system built between 1920 and 1957 featured natural materials such as local stone and wood. Roads curved with the landscape to reveal views and bridges framed waterfalls. This “NPS Rustic” style of architecture became the design standard for the National Park Service. Today, Mount Rainier’s innovative roads and bridges are still preserved as part of the park’s National Historic Landmark District.

Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo of the Longmire Community Building, circa 1927.

The Longmire Community Building was built in 1927 and is located on the east bank of the Nisqually River, on the opposite side of the river from the main Longmire area. Built in the NPS Rustic style of architecture, it is a timber-frame, two-story building with whole-log posts, beams, and rafters, a stone masonry chimney, and a large, roofed porch. As an excellent example of NPS Rustic design, the Longmire Community Building is individually designated a National Historic Landmark, in addition to being a contributing building in the Mount Rainier National Park Historic Landmark District. Closed to the public, the building serves as a gathering and training place for park employees and volunteers.

NPS Photo of Longmire Community Building in winter, 12/6/16.

The Community Building is one of the stops along the Longmire Historic District Walking Tour (also available in the NPS App). Have you used that tour to explore Longmire?

Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo of the Eastside Highway Tunnel, 1940-41.

Also known as State Route (SR) 123, the Eastside Highway is a 13.8-mile-long road that connects the park’s southeast entrance near Ohanapecosh to the Mather Memorial Parkway (SR410) at Cayuse Pass. During the 1920s, Washington State constructed a road from the south to the park’s southeast entrance as well as a road on the north side to connect to the town of Naches on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range. In 1931, the park boundary expanded to include the Ohanapecosh area and the Naches Pass Highway, which was completed and renamed the Mather Memorial Parkway in 1932. The Eastside Highway was not completed until 1940, the roads meeting at Cayuse Pass and becoming the first through-road in the park. As the road approaches Cayuse Pass, some retaining walls are 25 feet high, among the highest in the park.

Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo of the Eastside Highway opening ceremony, held at the tunnel, 6/16/1940.

The Eastside Highway Tunnel was built in 1939 and is 507-feet-long with portals clad in masonry. Plants and trees were later added around the portals to help the tunnel further blend into the landscape, a tenet of NPS Rustic design. It is the only tunnel along this road and one of three tunnels in the park (the other two are along Stevens Canyon Road). The Eastside Highway and its tunnel are both contributing structures in the Mount Rainier National Park Historic Landmark District.

NPS Photo of the Eastside Tunnel in 2015 with mature plantings around the tunnel portal.

Do you enjoy the drive along the Eastside Highway and going through the tunnel?

Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo courtesy Goode Adeline of Narada Falls with the original wood bridge, circa 1914.

Only 150 feet from the road, Narada Falls is the largest waterfall accessible by car in the park and has long been a popular stop on the way to Paradise. The falls are formed by the Paradise River flowing over an andesite lava cliff to the valley floor. A wood bridge built in 1908 over the Paradise River at the top of the falls was replaced by the present bridge in 1928.

NPS Photo of Narada Falls with the Narada Falls Bridge in winter, 1962.

The Narada Falls Bridge is a reinforced concrete barrel arch bridge veneered in granite masonry. It is 63 feet long, 31 feet wide, and has a 36-foot span. Designed in the NPS Rustic style, the bridge frames the top of Narada Falls without distracting from the scenic view. It is a contributing structure in the Mount Rainier National Park Historic Landmark District.

NPS Photo of Narada Falls with bridge, 10/9/22.

Have you walked over Narada Falls Bridge or photographed it from the lower viewpoint along with Narada Falls?

#NationalParkWeek #NPSAccomplishment The Chinook Entrance Arch spans the width of the Mather Memorial Parkway (SR410) at 5,432 feet on the northeastern boundary of the park. The arch was designed as both an entrance portal and an equestrian overpass, to convey hikers and riders on the Pacific Crest Trail. Built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the rustic-style arch became deteriorated by the elements and nearly eight decades of use, prompting Mount Rainier National Park to undertake a massive restoration project to preserve this historic structure in 2012. Have you driven under the restored Chinook Entrance Arch or walked across it during the summer?

Winter has returned in full. Snowshoeing anyone?