Support from Washington’s National Park Fund enabled renovation of an historic cabin at Mount Rainier National Park that for years to come will be available for search-and-rescue crews to come in from the cold and wet / WNPF

What do search-and-rescue crews do when they need a meal or shut-eye? Thanks to funding from Washington’s National Park Fund, a newly refurbished cabin is on the way.

“We’re always searching for places for SAR people to stay,” says Brett Hergert, chief of operations for Mount Rainier National Park.

When Chief Hergert notifies a sheriff about a park incident, he scrambles to find vacant park housing units. Currently, responders camp in tents, under tarps, in their trucks or campers, or drive home and back. It’s stressful, but they are enterprising and realize friends and relatives anxiously await news of their loved ones.

This fall those volunteers should be able to settle into a restored building christened the “SAR Cabin.” Constructed in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the historic building housed staff until the mid-1990s, when disrepair made it uninhabitable. Basically, it seemed a teardown. But park management resisted, dreaming of restoring this cabin to its “rustic park” style.

Competing in the 2016 National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express #VoteYourPark campaign, Washington’s National Park Fund won $180,000 out of the renowned “Partners in Preservation” annual $2 million grant. The award formed a down payment for the cabin effort.

REI’s Mount Rainier climbs raised another $25,000, while members of Washington’s National Park Fund’s board and community took the project up and over the top to $223,000.

“The SAR Cabin will fill a need we haven’t been able to address,” Chief Hergert says. “What’s also great about having the cabin is that SAR organizations can host trainings and can spend time there, in the park, in case something happens.”

For Jared Infanger, Mount Rainier’s historical architect, restoring an historical building mediates past and present. Infanger enters each project with park historian Brooke Childrey’s help. He analyzed original photos and building materials in order to replicate the 1936 design by the NPS Branch of Plans and Design.

“We couldn’t afford outside contractors,” says Infanger. “Mount Rainier’s three staff carpenters have been working on it—while also dealing with other park needs.”

Over a period of months they replaced the cabin’s foundation, updated electrical wiring, brought in new appliances, added insulation, and applied fresh paint.

“We couldn’t make this cabin happen without WNPF,” said Hergert.

WNPF is thrilled to fund a haven for those who have given so much. The official opening of the Search and Rescue cabin is yet to be determined, but we look forward to the official ribbon cutting this fall.