In the northern Rockies,
at least 800 old cabins,
fire lookouts,
and ranger stations still stand on
federal and state public lands.
These structures, nestled among
fir trees and dotting the banks
of creeks are of immense historic
value and are irreplaceable.
They were built by early forest
and park rangers, homesteaders,
and ranchers, who worked with
hand tools and hard earned ingenuity.
Right now, the skills that are
necessary to maintain historic
buildings are in the hands of a
very few people, but in the
forest service northern region, the
historic preservation team has
been working under the authority
of the National Historic Preservation Act
to help remedy the situation in a
partnership program between the
US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service
and the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service.
Since 1991, these highly skilled craftsmen
have been rejuvenating buildings
constructed between 1880 and 1940
throughout the Rocky Mountain region,
making repairs to weathered out roofs,
walls and windows, and in the process,
the team has been annually training some
50 to 70 federal and state public lands
employees. The crew’s work is important
for two reasons; getting things just
right ensures that the historic integrity
of each building is not diminished and
good facilities maintenance makes sense,
so that every new nail, every piece of
glazing, and each shingle or shake
will last for another generation to
appreciate. The trainees learn a mixture
of craft and art and how to breathe new
life into some of the nation’s most
treasured structures while maintaining
the historic traits that make these
buildings unique.
The team has worked under the guidance
of Bernie Weisgerber, a journeyman carpenter
and graduate of the National Park Service
the only federal facility of its kind.
At famous places like Yellowstone National Park’s
Old Faithful Inn and Montana’s Bannack State Park
and at other less well known facilities
throughout the northern Rockies,
the historic preservation team has trained
people like forest service employee,
Dave McEldry.
(McEldry narrates) This is Cougar Peak Lookout
on the lower national forest,
north of Thompson Falls.
It has fallen into disrepair.
It hasn’t been used in a number of years,
and we plan on restoring it for the cabin rental
program using techniques that I have learned at
the preservation training workshops sponsored by
the Forest Service and the Department of Interior.
The old lookout has some problems with paint,
windows, and old cedar shingles that are going.
Lookouts in general, are very unique as pieces
of architecture. It’s very important that
we preserve the uniqueness of these buildings
and preserve them in such a way that their
original function is still evident.
(Narrator) The historic preservation team
offers an average of four training workshops
per year. The training takes place on site,
with the team working side by side with
men and women who will be responsible for
the long term upkeep of the buildings after
the teams work is finished. The team has
taught managers how to investigate historic
structures and plan preservation projects.
They’ve also taught trainees how to repair
and replace windows and doors,
wood shingles and shake roofs,
stabilize and restore log structures
and redo masonry, painting, and coatings.
Bannack State Park’s John Horning was one
of the team’s trainees.
(John Horning narrates) We have a
quite a number of buildings here at
Bannack and the windows are a major
maintenance problem for us here.
We would like to try and keep the
glass and as many of the sash in
the buildings as possible and keep
the birds and animals out of the buildings.
The old glass, the putty, the design of
the windows are all important features
that we need to look at and be able to
repair without changing or taking away
from what was originally intended by the
people that originally constructed the buildings.
The training has helped me identify proper
procedures that are needed.
I’ve brought them back, and we’ve taught
that to my crew, and it takes some
special training and some special techniques
to keep the historic integrity intact on
these buiudings, and the training offers not
only the hands on experience,
but also emphasizes the state of
mind that you really need to have.
(Narrator) TW Service’s Fred Paulson,
who works in Yellowstone National Park,
attended several of the historic
preservation team’s workshops.
(Paulson narrates) Our main project is
to restore the historical structures in
Yellowstone. The Old Faithful Inn is our
main concern right now. We’re doing the
log work on the building. We’re also
restoring the windows on the building.
The training that have taken with Bernie,
I have had a log training with him,
we have also gone through the window
training, which was really beneficial
to us with the techniques of glazing,
how to deal with the old fabric
and like I say, we’ve used it in
these windows behind us here.
I have a large number of employees.
They’ve also taken the roofing training
from Bernie, which was very beneficial
to us up on the top,
around the crow’s nest area.
We have redone that this spring and
that was very helpful to us.
(Narrator) Along with the hands-on-workshops,
the historic preservation team has
developed a training session for
administrators on sensitivity to
historic preservation. What’s more,
the team provides trainees with hard
to find tools; tools that are required
to match the historic techniques originally
used when the buildings were constructed.
As word of the historic preservation teams’
work spreads across the northern Rockies,
administrators like the
Lolo National Forest’s Greg Munther,
have begun to realize the value
of the team’s skills.
(Greg Munther narrates) So what we’ve
been able to accomplish to get the
project done is about the same costs
we would by contracting, and we’ve
also been able to transfer those
skills to our trainees. I can’t think,
as land managers, anymore common ground
than historic preservation to work in common for
common objectives. And it’s worked
very well on our projects recently,
where we’ve had some pilot projects
going between the Park Service,
the BLM, Fish, Wildlife and Parks
and the Forest Service working on
similar projects together.
Each local facility manager needs to
have a collection of skills, necessary
not only to manage their structures,
but also to be able to train the people
that they have to work with,
on how to take care of these structures.
(Narrator) The bulk of the buildings
restored under the direction of the
historic preservation team are still
used as ranger district headquarters,
fire lookouts, work stations, or housing
for forest service crews.
Others are widely used by the public as
interpretive centers, museums, and rental cabins.
(Munther narrates) It’s really important
in this day and age to preserve what
little we have left with our historic past.
As many people know, one time,
old buildings such as this were considered
a liability to the government
rather than a resource.
Well, the few that remain today are very
important as they are our touch with
a past that is rapidly changing.