In the heart of one of the largest wilderness areas in the contiguous United States, the University of Idaho operates the Taylor Wilderness Research Station.
Amie-June Brumble | Courtesy The University of Idaho Taylor Wilderness Research Center houses laboratories, classrooms and conference rooms 70 miles northeast of Cascade and is only accessible by airplane or a 35-mile hike.
Taylor is only accessible by airplane, or a 35-mile hike. It’s about 70 miles northeast of Cascade. The university has used Taylor for wilderness research since 1970.
During fall 2012, students will have the opportunity to split a semester between Taylor and the McCall Field Campus.
Amie-June Brumble, one of Taylor’s managers, said the area was first settled in 1911. “Cougar Dave” Lewis filed a homestead claim for it 10 years later. Brumble said the cabin Lewis built is still there, the oldest cabin on Big Creek. Lewis sold the ranch in 1935 to Jess Taylor, the station’s namesake.
In 1970, Taylor sold the ranch to UI under the advice of Maurice Hornocker, a UI graduate student studying cougars in the region.
Mikaela Campbell, a sophomore fishery resources and ecology and conservation biology double major, spent two months at the station during summer 2011.
She said she had the opportunity to participate in research activities, including work with plant communities and invasive species.
Campbell said she was able to partake of the wilderness around Taylor, alongside several other students.
“We got to watch baby deer from our front porch,” Campbell said.
She also said they hiked and went tubing in Big Creek. The hiking helped them appreciate how long it takes to walk places, Campbell said.
“It really becomes a family out there,” Campbell said.
Taylor is home to five cabins. Some of which are living quarters for the station’s managers and visitors, and others that serve as laboratories, classrooms and conference rooms.
Brumble said the lab started as a cabin eight miles upstream from Taylor. In the late 1980s, the U.S. Forest Service decided to burn the cabin and other structures around it.
Following a plan by Taylor’s managers at the time, the cabin was disassembled, moved by mule to an airstrip, airlifted to Taylor and reassembled.
Brumble and her husband, Tyler Morrison, have managed Taylor for three years. They were interns at Taylor during their undergraduate years.
Brumble said they coordinate projects and visitors, oversee the safety of visitors and conduct research.
Taylor has a small hydroelectric facility and gets some power from solar panels, Brumble said. The College of Engineering designed and built the power system.
“All of our electric power is produced on site,” Brumble said.
Campbell said the power system showcases interdisciplinary opportunities at Taylor..
Brumble said only students and researchers can use Taylor facilities, but hikers may be granted a private tour.
Likewise, the airstrip can only be used by authorized personnel.
“Hunters can’t fly in and out of Taylor,” Brumble said.
Taylor offers annual summer internships and undergraduate research and scholarship program.
Each year, Taylor produces a summary of all of its activities. It outlines the annual projects, including findings.
Kasen Christensen can be reached at [email protected].