The first Forest Service homes and stations were rustic affairs; cabins adapted to the outdoor environment and rugged way of life. This Federal Ranger Station on Shoshone National Forest land in Wyoming was one such dwelling. The cabin was built in about 1905 and may be the first one built by the Forest Service.

Most Forest Service field jobs in the early years called for travel by horseback so most candidates for the jobs had to know how to throw a diamond hitch and pack a horse, shoe their mounts and ride. Many of the early Forest Rangers were former cowboys, trappers, and woodsmen.

Their principal job in those years was to watch for forest fires and keep the forests free from poachers, and timber and range trespassers.

(Information from "100 Years of Federal Forestry," Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 402, December 1976.)