Warner Valley Ranger Station

Built in 1926 (rustic architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1886.

From the record

“The Warner Valley Ranger Station, also known as the Warner Valley Patrol Cabin and Quarters 304, is located in the southern portion of Lassen Volcanic National Park, on the access road to the Drakesbad Guest Ranch. Built in 1926, it is unusual in its choice of construction method.”
Wikipedia article Warner Valley Ranger Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 4 National Register listings published here for Plumas County · listed in 1978 · category: Building · built in 1926, rustic architecture, by National Park Service.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. N of Chester in Lassen Volcanic National Park, Chester, 96020
When was it listed? April 1978
Category. building
Census division. Chester
When was it built? 1926
Architectural style. rustic architecture
Architect. National Park Service
National Register reference number. 78000364 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1886 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Warner Valley Ranger Station, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering Warner Valley Ranger Station, surveyed 1886

Fires near this property

92 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 92 fires within 5 miles of Warner Valley Ranger Station between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,864 acres in total. 69 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	69
Recreation and ceremony	6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5
Debris and open burning	5
Smoking	5
Arson/incendiarism	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	UPPER
6 September 1998	Natural	under an acre	Lassen National Forest	BUZZARD
3 September 1998	Smoking	1.5 acres	Lassen Volcanic National Park	GEYSER
28 September 2001	Natural	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	MTHARKNESS
28 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	JODY
28 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	WILLOWS
28 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	DEVIL
25 September 2017	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Lassen Volcanic National Park	TWIN FIRE

Every fire recorded in Plumas County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Warner Valley Ranger Station: 2 occurrences, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Geothermal. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Mt. Lassen National Park	Geothermal	Unknown
Cinder Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Occurrence
Cinder Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Plumas County

Storms near this property

2 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chester, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports between 2015 and 2020: 2 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2020	Hail	Chester	-	Estimated nickel sized hail at Chester, along with 1.24 inches of rain.
July 2015	Hail	Chester	-	Penny sized hail fell, along with wind gusts estimated at 40-50 mph. About an inch of rain fell in 20 minutes.

Every storm recorded in Plumas County

Maps showing this location

12 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1886 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000
1892 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000
1894 USGS Lassen Peak quadrangle1:250000 - 8 printings
1955 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS Mt. Harkness quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1958 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Westwood quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Susanville quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1968 USGS Susanville quadrangle1:250000
1985 USGS Reading Peak quadrangle1:24000
1989 USGS Lake Almanor quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1995 USGS Reading Peak quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

2 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Drakesbad Guest Ranch	1.8 miles	2003
	Mount Harkness Fire Lookout	4.4 miles	2017

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 78000364 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Plumas County	All 4 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.