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Ok, I'm standing on the Chinook Arch.
This was built by the civilan conservation corp in 1936
to mark the entry to the park.
Preserving this arch, there is so much that goes into it.
Particularly with it being a historic arch
you know, having to really match
the historic detailing exactly
and part of what's really cool is that we have
on our staff such really skilled people that
because we have Rustic Architecture throughout the park
and we have all this log work that needs to be done
they've become really skilled at that kind of work.
This clearly is on a much more massive scale
than just replacing a few logs here and there in a backcountry cabin
but you know since they've been doing that for years
they're- not only are they skilled- but they're really good about
taking on new challenges. And, so, to do something like this
that probably scare the heck out of a lot of people, you know
replacing these logs that span this entire roadway
getting everything to fit just exactly right to match the historic configuration
they welcome those kind of challenges and they figure out how to get it done.
Yeah, we wanted to get everything to go back
in exactly the configuration it was before it was removed
so they had to number each of the rocks
photograph the way it was before they took it apart
set all that aside, then replace the logs
and then set the stone work back in place.
What we did was we took out the logs one season
brought the original logs down to Kautz Creek
so that we could work on the logs in the off season when this area was closed off.
They brought the old logs down there
so they could use that as a guide for reconfiguring all the logs
and then the following season bring them back up and set them back into place.
It was almost ready to fall down last year
so we had to cut it out and it just rotted.
So it's a timber structure- hundred percent timber structure-
western red cedar, old growth.
We were able to find downed timber to replace it almost exactly in-kind.
This log is about fifteen thousand pounds
that log is about twelve thousand pounds, so they're pretty heavy.
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