Forest Service Seeking Tenant For Work Center

The Shoshone Work Center, a little-used firefighting and timber complex north of Prichard, has become an expensive albatross around the neck of the U.S. Forest Service.

The agency thinks it’s time to cut the burden loose.

Within two weeks, the federal agency plans a nationwide search for anyone interested in leasing the compound. Officials say it would make an excellent nature school, for example, or snowmobile or cross-country ski area.

“We just don’t have the use anymore for it,” said Kerry Arneson, spokeswoman at the Fernan Ranger District. She said officials hope to select a new user by fall - assuming proposals come in.

“We haven’t had any interest in the past, except from the (Idaho Department of) Corrections folks,” she said. “But we’ve never gone national before.”

Maintenance on the 60-year-old work center costs $50,000 to $80,000 per year, she said.

The compound is about 25 miles up the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River, an area popular with anglers and hunters. In the winter, snowmobilers use the area as a base.

Arneson said the Forest Service hopes to lease the compound for about $300,000 per year, or about half that if it’s leased by a non-profit group. Whoever leases it would be responsible for maintenance.

Built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the complex includes four barracks buildings, a shop, dining hall and an administration building. Some of the buildings were added in the 1950s and 1970s. The newer barracks, with lounges and recreation rooms, are more like dormitories. Firefighters nicknamed the largest one “The Hilton.”

The compound, largely vacant since the late 1970s, definitely is a fixer-upper.

“The sewage system and the water system both need work,” said Arneson. “It’s so old that it pretty much needs to be overhauled.”

Three times in the past seven years, state corrections officials flirted with the idea of keeping prisoners there. Locals were horrified, saying escapees could easily steal guns and knives from sportsmen.

In 1989 and 1993, public outcry - including petitions with 5,000 signatures - squelched proposals to turn the work center into a minimum security prison.

Then last year, the newly created Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections wanted to use the compound as a 50-bed North Idaho work camp for juvenile offenders. Locals protested, and the proposal evaporated.

Neither department is eager to try again, officials said.

“Nope. We will not be there, will not bid on it, we’re not in any way interested in the Shoshone Work Center,” said juvenile corrections spokesman Bill Overton.

Said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Ann Thompson: “There are no plans afoot to bid on that or try and make that into a prison work camp.”

Area residents - including some of the same ones who fought corrections officials - said Tuesday they like the idea of new uses for the old work center.

“I’ve been saying they should do that for years,” said J.D. Holbart. The place would make an ideal dude ranch, he said.

“As long as there’s no criminal aspect to it, I think it’d be great,” said Linda Wilson, of nearby Murray. “Snowmobiling, horseback riding - I think everybody up here will be tickled to death if it’s recreation-oriented. This whole area is recreational.”

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