Thanks for the additional info, Bryon.  A little bit of the mystery is solved.

I stumbled across this reference to the seed orchard on a forest service website.  It doesn't add anything helpful to the story other than to show that the website is a bit out of date.

Seed Orchard

The seed orchard is located off Forest Road 4500.220 spur approximately 21 miles south east of Estacada. The orchard is fenced and has 2 pole barns. One of the pole barns serves as an office area as well as storage.

It's one item in a list of FS facilities in the MHNF.  http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/toolbox/fmp/fmp_rev.htm