The log cabin was vacant, overgrown, and rotting in place slowly - or quickly- depending on each year’s water levels on the creek where it was built.
When the creek was at its highest, the water inched up to the windowsills.
Many looked at the cabin and saw a lost cause. Others looked at the cabin and saw opportunity.
About ten concerned neighbors formed a working group that hatched a plan to save the cabin.
They found a donor to purchase the cabin. They worked to secure approval from the Park Board to re-locate the cabin on public land. They painstakingly dismantled, numbered and stored the logs. They found cash and material donations. They wrote grants. They displayed donation jars around the community. They visited fairs and festivals with a sample log and appeal for support. And then they started building a foundation, raising the walls, creating a hearth and chimney, setting trusses, fabricating windows, chinking the logs.
As the cabin rose, the volunteer laborers gained respect and understanding of the people who originally built the cabin with primitive tools and strong backs all those years ago. In 2020, Pendleton’s Bicentennial year, the cabin was re-dedicated with the hope to connect the past with the present - and with the future.
May it stand another 200 years.