The Tiller Ranger Station is located at the confluence of the South Umpqua River and Jackson Creek, about 23 miles east of Canyonville along County Road 1 / Highway 227. Although there are parcels of Forest Service land surrounding the ranger station, what we think of as “the forest” is actually well up the road. And getting to the most popular camping, hiking, and recreation destinations (like the South Umpqua Falls) requires quite a drive.

Moving the station AWAY from these locations would thus introduce a number of logistical difficulties. We can imagine how these problems would play out by looking at the Whiskey Camp Guard Station.

Whiskey Camp is a two-room cabin that was built in the 1940s to serve as the summer home of “fireguard” personnel, who were tasked with spotting smoke, fighting fires, and maintaining phone lines and trails. The site also includes a shelter built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Whiskey Camp has been converted into a rental and is usually booked solid all summer and well into the fall—with visitors coming from across the country (and documenting their stays on Instagram). The property is serviced by recreation employees from the Tiller Ranger District, who periodically clean the facilities and remove trash. Fire has also been a concern the last few years, and the buildings are currently wrapped with aluminum insulation to protect them from the nearby Big Hamlin blaze.

Getting to Whiskey Camp currently requires an 18-mile drive up Jackson Creek and eventually Forest Road 3114. The drive takes around 53 minutes according to Google Maps, though if you’ve driven up that road lately you know that you’d probably want to give yourself at least an hour.

Now, imagine how much more difficult managing this rental would suddenly become if the Tiller Ranger Station were relocated to, say, Canyonville. Now you’d suddenly be driving 81 minutes (or basically an hour-and-a-half) to reach the rental. How would that impact service? What would renters do if they were having problems with the unit—say the propane wasn’t working, or the code for the gate wasn’t letting them in? Keep in mind: this happens *all of the time* right now and guests often have to drive back to Tiller to address these problems because there’s zero cell phone coverage in the area. Are you going to ask these guests to suddenly drive all the way to Canyonville if they’re having issues? And what if there’s a fire nearby and you need to evacuate them? 

These are just a few of the logistical nightmares the district would suddenly face if the ranger station were relocated to Canyonville. And these distance problems would only be amplified if the station moved further still—say, to Myrtle Creek or Roseburg. It’s quite possible that Whiskey Camp would have to be turned over to the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest for management in that scenario, as the High Cascades Ranger District’s Prospect office would actually be much closer to the unit than the “Tiller” Ranger Station.

These same problems would also impact the Buttle Butte rental and the Acker Rock rental when those two units eventually reopen to the public.