[RodF]

Olympic National Park's first guide was published in 1941 (and is posted at NPS). The Park issued this updated, and much more detailed, trail guide map for visitors in 1949.

For the full-size version of the map, click on the image above, then choose "View Original" (775 kB jpg, 150 dpi, 3200x2100 pixels).

This 1949 map was drawn by landscape architect and Park ranger Frederick Leissler, who was to go on to publish the book "Roads and Trails of Olympic National Park" in 1957. This was the first detailed guide to Park trails, and proved so popular that new editions were issued in 1965, 1971, 1976 and 1981. Due to severe cuts in NPS funding during World War II, over 300 miles of trails inherited from the USFS in 1938 had been abandoned by the time this map was issued in 1949. Almost all of the trails on this 1949 map remain on the 1957 USGS map. Only a few additional trails (listed below) have been abandoned since (although most of the Park's trails then were, but are no longer, maintained to stock standards). So this guide fills a gap in the Park's trail history, between the prewar maps (the detailed 1938 USFS map and the 1941 NPS guide) and the detailed 1957 USGS map. Some points of interest are listed below. Shelters (67 sites, some having more than one shelter) Lillian, Baltimore Camp, Little Elkhorn, Elkhorn, Hayes, Camp Wilder, Chicago Camp, Low Divide Halfway Rock, Heather Park, Idaho, Deer Park Slab Camp, Camp Colonel, Camp Tony, Gray Wolf, Three Forks, Falls, Moose Lake Cedar Spg. (Boulder) Dose Forks, Camp Marion, Diamond Mdw., Anderson Pass, Camp Collins, Five Mile, Ten Mile, Upper Duckabush Lower Lena Lake Flapjack Lakes, Camp Pleasant, Nine Stream, Home Sweet Home Camp Riley, Belview Graves Creek, Graves Creek Basin O'Neil Cr. Wolf Bar, Francis Cr., Three Lakes, Three Prune Spruce Bottom, Bob Cr., Pelton Cr., Sams Cr., Tshletshy Happy Four, Olympus, Hoh Lake, Elk Lake, Mt. Tom, Big Flat Bogachiel, Flapjack, Fifteen Mile, Hyak, Twenty-One Mile, Calawah, Sitkum, Hyas Soleduck Falls, Upper Soleduck, Deer Lake Sourdough, North Fork Soleduck, Boulder Lake, Campgrounds later closed Olympic Hot Springs, Waterhole, Dosewallips, July Creek, Lapoel Ranger Stations later closed Heart O' the Hills, Dose Meadows, Graves Creek, North Fork, Queets, Bogachiel, Lapoel Trails depicted, later abandoned Cox Valley (full length), Mt. Lincoln, Smith Lake, upper Queets (Pelton to Hee Hee), Sams River, Tshletshy, Mount Tom, upper South Fork Hoh, North Snider-Jackson (Sitkum to Soleduck) Lookouts depicted, later removed Hurricane Hill, Blue Mt., Bogachiel Peak (Dodger Point survives, Pyramid Peak is not depicted) Resorts depicted, later closed Waumilla Lodge, Olympic Hot Springs Resort, Deer Park ski lodge, Staircase Resort, Camp Kiwanis (?, north shore Lake Quinault), Kelly's Ranch (Queets), Ashenbrenner's Pioneer Camp, Ruby Beach Resort, Harvey B. Smith's (Mora), Lenoir's Cabin Camp (Fairholm), Arcadia, Sunnybank, Bonnie Brae, Ovington's, Lapoel Resort, Rosemary Inn (now Naturebridge), Beardlee Bay Camp, Piedmont Resort, Storm King Inn. Packing services, later closed Elwha, Heart O' the Hills, Staircase, Queets, Sol Duc Hot Springs (Minnie Peterson) (only those packers based in NPS facilities are listed; others were available for most trailheads) Curiously, Low Divide and Enchanted Valley chalets are not depicted on this map. This incomplete list of facilities that would be removed or closed highlights the dramatic transition then occurring between prior USFS and ongoing NPS management of the Olympics. And it may give us an opportunity to contemplate the open question: whether this change has enhanced visitors' wilderness experience, or detracted from it by making the Park less accessible to fewer people? Thanks to Olympic NP archivist Gay Hunter for locating this guide.

[Phil]

Great stuff Rod, thanks for posting

[reststep]

Interesting Rod. Thanks for posting. I noticed that the map does not show the Pyrites Creek Trail or the Rustler Creek Trail that are in Wood's book. I wonder if they existed at the time. I don't see the Queets Corridor either. I can't remember when that was added. Some of the boundaries have been changed also to follow natural features. One spot is in Gladys Divide Area and Lake of the Angels Area. I think Lake of the Angels was not in the park before the boundary change. Another spot is in the Dungeness Area. The park boundary runs along the ridge between the Dungeness River and Royal Creek for a ways where as before it looks like it ran along section lines. I don't know when these boundaries were changed but I assume it was after 1979 because I have a 1979 Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park map that shows the old boundaries.

[RodF]

[reststep]

Good information. Thanks Rod.