Rock Bunkhouses
Listed as one of Washington's Most Endangered Places in 2016, the LaCrosse Bunkhouses have avoided demolishment and will be ready to for over-night rental late summer 2022.
These bunkhouses were built by LaCrosse businessman Clint Dobson between 1934-1936. He used basalt stone, left from the Ice Age Floods, found in the nearby fields, as other materials were hard to come by during the Great Depression.
Accommodations were slim in the bunkhouses, but adequate enough that they were occupied most of the year by local farm hands, workers, and railroad crews. As farming and railroading gave way to mechanization and less man power was needed, the need for housing decreased as well. The bunkhouses saw their last visitors in the 1960s.
Just about the time it seemed as though the rock bunkhouses were going to be a total loss, LaCrosse Community Pride joined forces with Washington Trust for Historic Preservation and many other donors to rehabilitate these structures to once again be used for overnight lodging.