Ice House restoration in progress

The historic Valley Creek Ranger Station complex located on State Highway 75 includes the Stanley Museum and several other old buildings that served the U.S. Forest Service beginning in the 1930s.   This complex is owned by the U.S. Forest Service and operated by SIHA under permit from the U.S. Forest Service. One of the modest log buildings behind the Museum (formerly the Ranger’s residence) was a structure designed to provide cold storage before electricity was available in the Sawtooth Valley.

new footings

SIHA began a program in 2008 to restore this “ice house” as an historical interpretive exhibit to provide visitors a glimpse of  earlier life in the Sawtooth Valley.  To date, fundraising efforts have generated over $13,000 from more than 75 SIHA members and friends.   In addition, grants have been received from the Idaho Heritage Trust and the Sawtooth Society.   With the help of the Forest Service and the expertise of Sawtooth Valley Builders, exterior restoration is almost complete.

All environmental remediation was done before restoration began, including removal of the nearly nine tons of the original sawdust insulation from the interior walls.  This will be replaced with material replicating the sawdust insulating qualities.  Logs were marked for replacement or repair on the south wall of the Ice House, and then subsequently removed.

To rebuild the wall, new logs or repaired ones were stacked from top down in a gravity defying act! The next stages required the entire building to be stabilized while crumbling foundations were removed and replaced. Once the building’s structural integrity is restored, attention will turn to interior restoration.