The Centennial Work Center in

Medicine Bow National Forest Medicine is the science and practice of caring for patients, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...

near

Centennial, Wyoming Centennial is a small mountain-town in Albany County, Wyoming, Albany County, Wyoming, United States. It serves a fairly large surrounding landscape, along with a few ranches, located along a gently sloping hillside traversed by a highway. Becau ...

was built in 1938. It was built to replace the nearby Centennial Ranger Station. It was designed by USDA Forest Service, Region 2 in USFS rustic architecture and served as a government office. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

for its architecture. The listing included three

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

, a

bunkhouse A bunkhouse is a barracks-like building that historically was used to house working cowboys on ranches, or loggers in a logging camp in North America. As most cowboys were young single men, the standard bunkhouse was a large open room with narr ...

, a combined office and bunkhouse, and a garage, on . The office/bunkhouse and bunkhouse are both of horizontal saddle-notched

log construction A log house, or log building, is a structure built with horizontal logs interlocked at the corners by notching. Logs may be round, squared or hewn to other shapes, either handcrafted or milled. The term "log cabin" generally refers to a smal ...

with wood shingled gable roofs. Both were built in 1938 and 1939. The office contains an office/living room, kitchen, bunk room, small utility room and a basement under the living room and kitchen. It was originally built with an attached two car garage, but this was converted into a bunk room in 1964. The bunkhouse contains a kitchen, three bunk rooms, living room with stone fireplace, dining room, bathroom and a full basement. A brass plaque in front of the bunkhouse memorializes Robert Fechner, who was National Director of the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) from 1933 until his death in 1939. The garage is a rectangular wood-frame building with log siding. It contains two bays, two workrooms, and two small storage rooms. It was built from 1938 to 1940, with a 450 square foot addition to the south end in 1962. All three contributing structures were built mostly by crews from the Mullen Creek Camp (F-36-W) of the CCC, with some work also being done by Ryan Park Side Camp (F-22-W) crews. The Mullen Creek Camp was at the Centennial Work Center, on the southeast corner along Mullen Creek. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Mullen Creek CCC Camp became the Centennial POW Camp. The Centennial POW Camp opened in July 1945 for

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

POWs. The Centennial POW Camp was a timber camp. German POWs were paid to work for the Wyoming Timber Company. The workers cut over 2,000,000 feet of timber by mid-November 1945, when the camp closed.

References

External links

Bath Row Historic District
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office
"World War II POW Camps of Wyoming with Author Cheryl O'Brien" on YouTube
United States Forest Service architecture Park buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Government buildings completed in 1938 Buildings and structures in Albany County, Wyoming Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Albany County, Wyoming {{Wyoming-NRHP-stub

See also

References

External links