A native plant garden surrounds the park’s interpretive center, named for Catherine T. Montgomery. The noted backpacker, teacher and conservationist is credited with being the first to envision the Pacific Crest Trail, back in 1926.

Step inside the center to learn about the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, native to this area, and the Washington State Chapter of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, an organization of women’s service clubs that has worked for decades to preserve this forest. In 1926, the group began a campaign to save some of Washington’s rapidly disappearing old-growth trees, leading to the establishment of Federation Forest.