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L/FOG Temp: 45 °F Wind: SSE at 3 mph Saturday, November 23, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend July 11, 2002 Archaeologist Jeff LaLande, left, and Marc Herring of Sandy work to rehabilitate a 1930s shelter located in Parker Meadows Campground, northeast of Butte Falls. Click the photo to see a larger (32k) version; use your Back button to return to the story. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Passport in Time preserves history Volunteers restore old CCC shelters for use by hikers By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune BUTTE FALLS — The seesaw sound of a handsaw ripping across the grains of split sugar pine shakes filled Parker Meadows deep in the forest of towering Shasta red cedar and Douglas fir. The incongruous noise came from the wood-wise hands of Marc Herring, an English teacher from Sandy. But Herring isn’t building a retreat in the Butte Falls Ranger District of the Rogue River National Forest. He is a volunteer in the Forest Service’s Passport In Time program, which enables him and others to work on supervised archaeological projects during the summer. "It may be a little square to put it this way, but you have an obligation to contribute," he said as he took a break from sawing. He is among the volunteers working with archaeologists Jeff LaLande and Stacy Lundgren to rehabilitate an Adirondack-style shelter built in 1935 or ‘36 by a Civilian Conservation Corps crew. The scenic site is located about a dozen miles as the crow flies northeast of Butte Falls. It is one of the few such shelters left in the region, observed LaLande. "The Forest Service began building them soon after the outfit began, back in the teens," he said. "They built them for little fire-guard stations in the woods. "You could also count on coming in and getting out of the weather in one of these," he added. By the 1930s, with the development of additional trails and campgrounds, more such shelters were built by the CCC, he said. The CCC was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in spring 1933 to give young American men jobs during the Great Depression. The program ended in 1942 when most of the enrollees went off to war. The campground, closed until August, traditionally has been used as a camp for both deer hunters and huckleberry hunters. Many of the hunters left their names at the shelter over the years. Some had a poetic bent. "Phil Keller was here, scratched his head and said, ‘Where’s the deer?’ "He looked high and low but he still don’t know what made them bucks all disappear." Other than the good-humored graffiti, the shelter has survived the years largely intact. But the volunteers have replaced several rotting posts and rafters, using freshly peeled logs. The new shakes, all split, were purchased in California because none could be found locally, LaLande said. "A lot of the shakes were patch jobs, the result of replacement in recent years," he said. "The ones we are replacing were sawed shakes, not the original hand-split ones. You could see the saw marks." The new shakes are exact replicas of the original shakes, albeit the original were likely cut and split nearby, he said. On a recent afternoon, Lundgren was busy picking through old nails salvaged from the project. "These are the ones we pulled out of the shakes this morning," she said, then added with a grin, "It’s a glamorous job, archaeology." Coos Bay resident Dana Gaab, a woodworker and social activist, was using the old nails to put the new shakes on the back wall. "You leave a gap between the shakes," he explained. "When the shakes get wet, they will expand." Gaab brought along his tools of the trade, including a drawknife and a 2-foot-long slick. Both are used for peeling logs. Gaab said he always has enjoyed carpentry. "Cut my thumb off with a handsaw when I was 6," said the gray-haired Gaab, holding up a scarred thumb still attached to his left hand. "Yeah, they stuck it back on," he said. Herring, a self-described armchair archaeologist, noted that his father had been in the CCC, working on the Oregon Coast. "I grew up listening to his stories — that interested me in the period," he said as he resumed sawing a shake to fit a niche in the shelter. The world has changed a bit since then, including the shakes, he noted. "You can really tell the old shakes from the new ones," he said. "The old ones have three growth rings for every one on these new ones. These new ones are younger, faster growing. Farm trees, I imagine." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S