The nonprofit Historicorps and its volunteers are wrapping up five weeks of restoration work on buildings in the Hunter Creek Valley.
Historicorps focused on several structures, including the Hunter Creek Roadhouse, where crews cleaned and placed much of the building’s original flooring back onto its foundation and primed the walls for repainting next spring.
An expert on historical painting will visit the site once the snow thaws to paint a patina on the walls, a particular finish that replicates the natural aging and weathering process.
Volunteers and staff also found several treasures during the project, including a coin from the 1890s with a Native American head on it outside the roadhouse.
“It’s like finding a Roman coin,” said Howie Mallory, a member of the Hunter Creek Historical Foundation Board.
A U.S. Forest Service archaeologist will catalog and restore the coin and other artifacts from the site.
While the Roadhouse is nearly finished, some Historicorps sites could not continue with some project plans this year due to federal funding and staffing cuts. However, the nonprofit completed its work in Aspen thanks to local donations.
The Miner’s Cabin
Other properties in the Hunter Creek Valley presented additional challenges. When Historicorps first started restoring the Miner’s Cabin, it had sunk into the ground and was only about 48 inches tall.
Soon after a crew started restoration, they realized the historic building was unstable. Historicorps staff and volunteers had to disassemble the structure piece by piece, carefully documenting how it fit together, so they could reconstruct it as accurately as possible on top of a new foundation.
Project Supervisor David Russell said it now stands at 77 inches and is made up of 15 of the 28 original logs.
The new logs came from Olathe, Colorado, and required heavy machinery to move to the remote Hunter Creek Valley because they weighed thousands of pounds.
Crews were committed to making the new materials look as authentic as possible.
“We cut them to shape with chainsaws, and we shaped them down to their final dimensions and shapes with antique style tools and traditional timber framing and woodworking tools,” Russell said.
The new logs will also be treated with a salt compound that makes them look aged and protects the exterior of the wood.
Last year, Historicorps took a core sample to date the original logs. Results are expected to come out this year, which will give experts a better idea of when the cabin was built.
Next summer, the team will return to finish restoration on the Miner’s Cabin and possibly take a look at the old Dam Keeper’s Cabin.
