The Hidden Forest Cabin is an old

game warden A conservation officer is a law enforcement officer who protects wildlife and the environment. A conservation officer may also be referred to as an environmental technician or technologist, game warden, forest ranger, forest watcher, forest gu ...

's dwelling in Clark County,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the

Desert National Wildlife Refuge The Desert National Wildlife Refuge is a protected wildlife refuge, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, located north of Las Vegas, Nevada, in northwestern Clark and southwestern Lincoln counties, with much of its land area lying w ...

. It is located on Hidden Forest Road, in the Hidden Forest in the

Sheep Range The Sheep Range is located north of Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States. It is found in both Clark and Lincoln Counties in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. The mountains reach a peak at Hayford Peak, above sea level between the Las Vegas ...

along the route to

Hayford Peak Hayford Peak, elevation , is the highest mountain in the Sheep Range of Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is the seventh-most topographically prominent peak in the state. The nearest taller mountain is Mount Charleston, to the southwest. ...

History

The Hidden Forest Cabin was initially thought to have been built in the 1880s, but in 2020, it was confirmed that the cabin was built in 1931 by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

veteran Clarence Russell as a personal isolated dwelling. The cabin remained as his home until next year on June 17, 1932 when Russell headed to another cabin in the area at White Rock Canyon belonging to C. P. Moore in his car after previously consuming

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

that day. Drunk, Russell confronted him and shot him dead with a single bullet between the eyes, with his motive likely being his resent for Moore locating his cabin within a close proximity to his own on the other side of Hayford Peak. After killing Moore, Russell was shot twice with his own

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...

by Moore's son, then tied up and brought to authorities in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. Russell then died of his wounds and Moore's son said that he fired in self defense. The cabin remained vacant for six years until becoming a game warden's cabin in 1938 after the

was formed two years earlier in 1936. In the following decades, it has been sporadically maintained by

Boy Scout troop A Scout troop is a term adopted into use with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the Scout Movement to describe their basic units. The term troop echoes a group of mounted scouts in the military or an expedition and follows the terms cavalry, mounted inf ...

s and campers. The cabin was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on February 20, 1975. In around 2008 to 2010, the cabin was renovated in collaboration with the Scout troops and it now acts as a

first-come, first-served Queueing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or queues. A queueing model is constructed so that queue lengths and waiting time can be predicted. Queueing theory is generally considered a branch of operations research because the ...

retreat for hikers. Today, vehicle traffic to the cabin is prohibited, but it is a popular hike.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Clark County, Nevada Buildings and structures in Clark County, Nevada Residential buildings in the Las Vegas Valley Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada {{Nevada-NRHP-stub