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The Depression-era chateau at the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, closed since 2018 for rehabilitation work, is one of the nation’s most at-risk historic sites, according to a national nonprofit dedicated to preserving America’s history.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation on Wednesday listed the historic caves chateau as one of its 11 Most Endangered Historic Places of 2025. It’s the first time an Oregon site has made the list, which draws national attention to historic sites in an effort to spur fundraising and preservation work, since it launched in 1988.

“Each site on this year’s list has inspired passionate supporters from their surrounding communities to work together to save these cherished landmarks and repurpose them for the public, now and into the future,” said Carol Quillen, President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Their leadership shows the power of preservation to create stronger communities, energized local economies, and a healthier environment for everyone.”

The designation comes as the National Park Service, which manages the Oregon Caves, braces for further federal funding cuts. President Donald Trump’s budget request for the next fiscal year proposes cutting $900 million from National Park Service operations, and the administration indicated it wanted to transfer responsibility for smaller sites from the federal government to states.

The caves, at the end of a steep, narrow and winding hour-long drive from Cave Junction, have long drawn tourists to picturesque but sparsely populated southern Oregon. Along with Crater Lake, Redwood and Lassen Volcanic national parks, the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Lava Beds National Monument and the former Tule Lake segregation center, the caves are part of the National Park Service’s Circle of Discovery in Oregon and northern California.

While the main draw of the national monument is the cave itself, one of only a few marble cave systems in the country, the 1934-built chateau attracts architectural buffs and provided overnight lodging and concessions before it closed for construction in 2018. It features a rustic exterior of Port Orford cedar bark, Cave Creek runs through the dining room and it’s home to the country’s largest public collection of Monterey furniture, a western style popular in the 1930s and 1940s.

The National Park Service closed the chateau in 2018 for an $8.6 million project to update wiring and plumbing and bring it into compliance with modern accessibility standards.

But as work continued, the Park Service identified major structural problems. It set aside an additional $4.5 million in 2020, then canceled its construction contract in 2023 because of insufficient funding.

The National Park Service faced a $23.3 billion deferred maintenance backlog as of July 2024, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The Oregon Caves are one of five Oregon sites managed by the National Park Service.

The state’s only national park, Crater Lake, is the best known, but the park service also manages John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in eastern Oregon, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park near Astoria and the McLoughlin House unit of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

Crater Lake, which has closed several sections of trails and its rim road because of fire damage in recent years, will close its boat tours and Cleetwood Cove trail to the lake’s surface for at least three years following the summer season for maintenance. Crater Lake alone faces a deferred maintenance backlog of $240 million, according to the National Park Service.