In 1890, Lieutenant Joseph P. O'Neil led the first exploratory expedition across the entire southern stretch of the Olympic Mountains. His group of soldiers and scientists surveyed the watersheds and peaks of nine rivers and their tributaries. They cut a 5-foot swath of trail across 93 miles of wilderness.  When Lt. O'Neil and his crew blazed their trail through the Skokomish wilderness, the rock bluff across the river from the campground was a major obstacle. To get over it they built a cedar staircase.

In an era when exploitation went unchecked in the northwest, O'Neil set a camp rule––no animal was to be shot unless it was needed for food.  O’Neill worked hard to uncover the mysteries of this vast wilderness, and his one wish for the future was that it retain its wild character.

During the mid-1930s, CCC enrollees based at the Staircase side camp built and maintained roads, trails and telephone lines, completed work on shelters and campgrounds, and fought forest fires at several locations in the North Fork Skokomish River drainage. By 1934, a small contingent of men from the main Lake Cushman Camp was moved to a spike camp at Staircase, presently located within the Park boundaries.   It was noted that "virtually all trails in the Staircase area were worked on by the CCC".

In 1955, heavy snowfall collapsed the roofs of many of the Staircase CCC Camp buildings. Soon afterwards, Park personnel removed the building remains. Today, in 1983, a small utility building standing about 500 feet east of the Staircase Ranger Station remains as the last physical evidence of the spike camp building complex at Staircase.

Credits and Sources:

National Park Service. "Historic Resource Study 1983." NPS.gov. http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/olym/hrs/contents.htm (accessed June 20, 2015).

National Park Service. "Olympic: Staircase Area." NPS.gov. http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/upload/Staircase.pdf (accessed June 10, 2015).