One of the first buildings constructed in Glacier National Park, the 1913 log Ranger Station was constructed by the park's first Ranger, Chauncey Beebe. Near the Ranger Station is a log barn originally built in 1926 at the Lubec Ranger Station. In 1971 the barn was abandoned by the park and in 1977 it was dismantled and rebuilt at its present location by the Ranger Station. It replaces the original barn on the site, built in 1915 and demolished in the early 1960s.
Ranger Station and the Lubec Barn are set in a picturesque location isolated from both tourist oriented and maintenance buildings in East Glacier, at the south end of an unnamed road which runs south from Going to the Sun Road very near the eastern edge of Glacier National Park. At the end of the road is a loop and a good sized parking area. A walking trail runs south from the northeastern edge of the parking area, through a bit of forest to the Ranger Station and the Lubec Barn.
The site of the Lubec Ranger Station is along the Lubec Trail, west of Lubec Lake and about 825 m (2,700 ft) west of Highway 2 and about 10 kilometers (5.75 miles) southwest of East Glacier Park Village.
A plaque at the old Ranger Station, text from which follows, offers a glimpse of life at the station for the Ranger and his family, who lived in the building in 1918 and 1919 and a short biography of the Lubec Barn.
An Office and a Home
This log ranger station, built in 1913, was among the first National Park Service buildings erected on the east side of Glacier National Park. At that time the main road into the park was below the station in the area of the current parking lot, and visitors passed by on their way to and from the nearby St. Mary Chalet and boat dock.
The station provided living quarters and a central working location for the St. Mary rangers until the 1930s and was later used as ranger housing. The building was restored to its 1913-1920 appearance in 1976. The ranger station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Resident Ranger
Ranger Chauncey Beebe lived in the St. Mary Ranger Station with his wife, Eva, and two small boys in 1918 and 1919. Many years later, Mrs. Beebe would tell stories of life at the ranger station including a mountain lion in the attic, skunks in the root cellar, and black bears shredding her laundry as it dried outside the station.
Lubec Barn
The original St. Mary barn was gone by the time the ranger station was restored. The current barn was built in 1926 at the Lubec Ranger Station along the southern border of Glacier National Park. It was dismantled and rebuilt at this location in 1977.
Lubec Barn
In 1977, permission was granted (according to 106 Clearance standards) to raze the Lubec Ranger Station and storage shed due to the deterioration, the lack of interpretive and historic value, and the lack of administrative need for these structures. The Lubec barn, however, built in 1926, was still in repairable condition, and a request was approved to move the barn approx. 50 miles north to the site of the original St. Mary barn, and restore it to its 1926 state. This was completed by Harrison Goodall and students from Montclair State College, New Jersey, in August 1977. All replaced logs were identified with aluminum tags labeled "1977",and are located in the daubing area on the left side of each log. All the roofing was replaced including 150 sq. ft. of sheathing, and concrete footers were installed to support the barn (approx. cost of this phase $8,000, total cost approx. $26,000).
The present barn is log on log with a lumber and black tarpapered roof. It has log joist purlins and rafters, and a half loft. By comparing photographs of the Lubec barn and the original St. Mary barn, it will be noted that they differ in appearance, and the original St. Mary barn was smaller (15 x 18) when compared with the present Lubec barn (19 x 26). The Lubec barn, nonetheless, is typical of the barn built in the 1920s, and was included to approximate the original, thus filling an otherwise noticeable gap in the overall interpretation of the early ranger station district at St. Mary.
From the National Park Service