Government warehouse's use remains an unsolved mystery

A few new clues have emerged regarding the history of a government-owned warehouse in a remote corner of Southwest Washington.

Here's what we know: Employees of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest think the Chelatchie Prairie warehouse is a potential emergency command center, an understanding apparently passed down for two decades through bureaucratic oral tradition.

"We're under agreement to evacuate within 48 hours if requested by FEMA," Ron Freeman, the forest's public-services staff officer, told The Columbian newspaper for a story published May 14. That came as news to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose regional command staff had never heard of it. Intrigued, the newspaper tried to get the lowdown on the building by calling numerous current and retired Forest Service employees.

Was it intended to be a fallout shelter in case of another volcanic eruption? An out-of-the-way repository for the X-Files? An undisclosed location for high government officials?

No one knew.

The mystery amused Mike Merrill, the Vancouver general contractor who said he received the contract to build the warehouse.

"Maybe it's a sign of old age to see some of the buildings I've built become mysterious," Merrill said.

Merrill remembered that the warehouse cost around $2 million to build in 1988. That's more than the $1.75 million spent by Forest Service last year to build a new headquarters office for the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Merrill said he remembered building the warehouse atop a concrete floor 9 inches thick, sturdy enough to accommodate the future maintenance needs of a robust timber program as well as a "Grand Canyonesque" visitor attraction envisioned for Mount St. Helens.

"That building is seriously well-built," he said.

National forest timber sales have fizzled since the Endangered Species Act's listing of the Northern spotted owl, and monument managers last year permanently shuttered the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center because of chronic budget shortfalls.

These days, forest managers cling to the notion that the warehouse could be turned into an emergency command center on short notice.

Much of the material is stored on pallets to hasten a quick exit. The warehouse includes a shop to repair picnic tables, parking for a pair of firefighting rigs and work space for enforcement officers. It also includes plenty of oddities such as a single ski and boxes full of softball trophies.

The newspaper subsequently filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking contract documents related to the construction of the warehouse. In theory, such a document would specify the building's purpose.

This week, we received our answer from Gifford Pinchot's acting forest supervisor, Lynn Burditt.

Burditt could confirm only that the warehouse was constructed in 1988.

"We are required to retain files for only six years and six months after the final payment is made," Burditt wrote. "Consequently, the file has been destroyed."