Dead Indian Soda Springs Shelter – Eagle Point OR

Description

The Dead Indian Soda Springs Shelter was built in 1936 by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) on the Ashland Ranger District of the Rogue River National Forest. The structure is significant for its association with the CCC activities in recreational development in southwestern Oregon, as part of the federal government’s response to the Great Depression. Submitted as part of a multiple property submission, “U.S. Forest Service Historic Structures on the Rogue River National Forest, Oregon,” the Dead Indian Soda Springs Shelter represents its historic context, “CCC/FERA Recreation Development on the Rogue River National Forest 1933 to 1942.” The building meets the registration requirements outlined for rustic recreational shelters in the registration document. Constructed in 1936, it was established during the historic period. The Dead Indian Soda Springs Shelter retains its integrity of setting, design, and materials, and it evokes direct historic associations with its historic context. The building has been declared eligible to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A as a tangible, integral example of the federal response to the crisis of the Great Depression and of CCC/FERA recreational development projects in southwest Oregon. The Dead Indian Soda Springs Shelter comprises the only Forest Service-owned structure associated with the present “Camp Latgawa,” a privately-owned establishment operating on leased federal land. The shelter remains the only extant resource in original condition of several features constructed by Federal Economic Relief Administration crews as part of this Forest Service campground construction project built during the historic period.