Historic Preservation at Colorado Mountain College- In With The Old!

New Blog!!

2011-01-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

Greetings Preservation fans! As you know, this blog is 'officially' retired as I graduated from CMC this December. I have however started a new job in Kansas City with Urban Ranger Corps. I've started a blog for the program and hope to keep current and informative about what we're doing.

Check it out and thanks for your patronage! http://urbanrangercorps.wordpress.com/

Signing off...

2010-12-31T14:19:00.000-08:00

It's the last day of the year....adios 2010. For me, that means that the school year is over, my Historic Preservation degree is completed, and I'm headed to Kansas City to start the new job.

Because I already have a B.A. degree, many of the credits transferred over to my preservation studies. That means I was able to complete the Associates degree in only 3 semesters (including an intense internship in the summer). And since I am no longer a student of Colorado Mountain College- this blog will be placed in the archives. Makes me kind of sad really.

Though this blog was short lived, I think I was able to cover a lot of information about a large realm of preservation related activities and ideas. This was a good exercise for me- challenging me think about the important and relevant preservation topics I was exposed to, and sometimes searching for new ones.

I hope my readers learned a few things or at least found themselves thinking about things they normally would not have. Most of all, I hope that this blog helped readers to gain a new appreciation for preservation, and think about how crucially important it is to our world.

It's been fun writing, and now it's time to hang it up. I hope another preservation student will pick up where I leave off, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. Be sure to check in with Urban Ranger Corps http://urbanrangercorps.org/ often. I hope to have a new blog for my work with them.

If I don't see you there, thanks for reading! It's been fun getting responses and challenging my own viewpoints. Keep on Preserving!

Going to.....Kansas City......Kansas City here I come.....

2010-12-31T06:54:00.000-08:00

I've sung that song so many times before, but I never knew I would sing it again and mean it! As I've written in previous posts, I grew up in Kansas City, and I love it there, but I never could imagine myself living there again. (not enough mountains, oceans, or other outdoor extremes).

Well, as fate would have it, I will be living there for the next couple of years at least. I was offered a job that I simply could not refuse. Mind you I was not looking in Kansas City, but as my family still lives there and personal connections abound- I became aware of an amazing opportunity.

This coming Monday, January 3rd, I will begin my new job as Assistant Director at Urban Ranger Corps. This isn't exactly the preservation job I was seeking, but given my background in non-profits, my love of construction and hands-on work, and my passion for 'saving the world', this position almost seems made for me.

Urban Ranger Corps provides learning opportunities for at-risk inner city youth in Kansas City. This primarily consists of working with low-income neighbors by cleaning up yards, painting houses, and doing small repair work on homes in the surrounding neighborhoods. As the website states: Through an eight and one-half hour work days (30 minutes is provided for a nonpaid lunch period), four days a week, 9-weeks summer phase, at-risk youth learn important pre-employment skills (summarized as, “Be on time, Dress appropriately, and Speak respectfully”) by being assigned to a Work Team of six rangers and projects to repair, paint and restore the yards of homes owned by low-income families, especially the homes of seniors or households headed by a single parent or (often) grand parent.

Additionally, the Corps has expanded to support these Rangers throughout the school year: When the school year begins in September , the year-round phase of ICP Management/Coaching phase begins. The work of this phase is based on the Individual Career Plan (ICP) developed for each ranger during the summer phase. The ICP Manager/Coach meets with rangers on a bi-weekly basis to ensure they are carrying out the action steps set forth in their ICP’s.

The Urban Ranger Corps was founded in July 2003 by the Rev. John Wandless while he was pastor of St. Louis Catholic Church, an inner Kansas City parish (2001 – 2006). The successes experienced by the program are outstanding. You can read testimonials of participants and read news articles written about Rangers on their website: http://urbanrangercorps.org/index.asp

In addition to administrative non-profit responsibilities, I will also be conducting CPR/First Aid training for the Rangers, identifying and acting as project manager for a home to be rehabilitated and sold for program income, planning 'study abroad' trips and projects for the rangers and supervising (likely in New Mexico or surrounding area), helping plan logistics for summer work projects, among many other tasks. The Rangers would also like to become involved with bike trail development as well as work with the Forest Service or Park Service. How fantastic is all of that!!

Needless to say, I am very excited about this opportunity. These are amazing youth and I am honored to get the chance to work with them. I hope to create a blog or some sort of social media outlet for my work with the Rangers. Please take an opportunity to visit the website and check for updates regarding a social media project- it will be very exciting!

City or Suburbs Part VI

2010-12-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

So far we've seen several problems facing the suburbs. The low density, large land use design of the suburbs is bad for the environment, bad for our health, and bad for our pocketbooks. What many people fail to see, is the value in our historic buildings and historic neighborhoods.

America is a society that thrives on new, bigger, better. But we all know that this is not a sustainable way to live. When we stop to listen to the wisdom of our ancestors, we can see the value in their often simpler ways of life.

If you look closely at historic neighborhoods, you'll find that they were designed around the pedestrian. They are very walkable. As I've alluded to in the previous posts, this lack of walkability in the suburbs is a key element to the problems they face. When we embrace our lower density designed areas, suddenly we do not rely on the automobile, saving us money and time. We can walk to work or to the store, or to the doctors office, and get fresh air and exercise simultaneously. We're producing less carbon emissions and we have more interaction with our neighbors. You can see how walking is a HUGE benefit to high density areas. It address the environment, our health, our budget, and our community.

We also help the strength of the entire city when we live in our historic areas. By moving back to the cities roots, the city requires less sprawl, it protects green lands from being developed, it keeps the embodied energy of the historic building, requires less infrastructure to extend, and strengthens the cities economy by revitalizing the 'downtown' and 'main street' areas.

An interesting phenomena I found while writing this paper was that there is in fact a growing trend of moving back to the city. Since America is good at following cues from pop culture, we can see this in the last decades most popular TV shows. Think, E.R., Friends, Seinfeld and Frasier. I guess I was a little late to make the connection, but life in the city is the hot new thing. This is very good for preservation. However, much to my dismay, there are now a completely new set of issues to worry about. This trend is reversing so much, that in some parts of the country we now see the suburbs becoming the slums. Not exactly what I wanted to see.

There is hope however. Many of you have likely heard of the New Urbanism movement. This is a way of designing our neighborhoods with all of these concerns in mind. The principles of New Urbanism are as follows:

1. Walkability
2. Connectivity
3. Mixed-use and Diversity
4. Mixed Housing
5. Quality Architecture and Urban Design
6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure
7. Increased Density
8. Green Transportation
9. Sustainability
10. Quality of Life

To read more about New Urbanism, visit this website: http://www.newurbanism.org/
It's pretty exciting for me to see there are people trying to solve these problems and address these issues head on. Obviously we can't ALL live in the city, but there are ways to restructure some of our suburban areas to make them more livable. This is one factor the New Urbanism movement attempts to address.

So while I certainly don't have all of the answers, I am even more convinced in the importance of having strong support for preservation in our country. In fact, it's critical for the improvement of our economy, our planet's health, and our communities. In addition, we must embrace New Urbanism to address some of the issues that preservation can't address. I know this doesn't solve everything, but it's a very good place to start.

City or Suburbs Part V

2010-12-18T16:08:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to talk about community life, and why city dwellers may have more connection to their neighbors than suburbanites do.

The idea of this seemed a little radical to me. I mean, I grew up in the suburbs, and my parents still live there, and they're very involved in their community. What I found was that this might not be the norm however. There are many people that believe the suburbs are highly anti-social. Apparently this is not a new idea, though it was a new idea to me.

When you think about it, there is some logic to this idea. A person can literally wake up in the morning, get into their car in the garage, drive all the way to their place of employment, park in an underground parking lot, take the elevator to their floor, and enter their cubicle without ever seeing another person. The fact that practically all people living in the suburbs have to drive to school, work, shopping, etc., they are constantly surrounded by several thousand pounds of steel and glass and have little opportunity for spontaneous meetings and getting to know their neighbors.

Contrast this with living in the city which are designed to be walkable and where people are able to develop more personal relationships with their neighbors and family run corner stores.

Community life is very important, whether we think about it or not. According to Mark Kingswell, professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto,
“Humans have always found meaning by living together with each other. And in fact, if you go back millennia, many political theorists from Aristotle on, think that community is what defines us as who we are, and without community we’re less than ourselves. We’re either beasts or gods he said. Well since most of us are not gods, we probably end up being beasts if we don’t have people around.
Cities grow up over the course of centuries, a grand migration of people towards the kinds of diversity, excitement and opportunity that close proximity of other humans offers them. The fascinating thing about the development of the suburbs as an ex-urban or anti-urban form of building is that it is the reverse movement under the conditions of the urban. That is, people have come together seeking each other, and they’re fleeing from each other into isolation.”

The suburbs have lost the traditional community based structures of our historic areas. They have no central meeting places, no community arts centers, no public forum places etc. The performing arts centers, theaters, libraries, city halls, and other community minded places are all downtown. The suburbs induce privacy, where the city promotes gett"ing to know your neighbors.

There's a quote in the movie "Radiant City" which pretty much sums it up:

“What is it doing to the very idea of citizenship when we don’t share public spaces with each other and we spend no time whatsoever in a community with our fellow citizens. This isn’t just about the car. The car is a handy bashing point but it’s not about the car, It’s about how we have chosen to live. My particular worry I guess would be the deteriorating sense of citizenship when people live so isolated from themselves….Community becomes just a word in the overheated rhetoric of advertising for most of these developments. Community is shorthand for cluster of houses with people inside them not talking to each other. It’s not at all community in any meaningful or deep sense. So you can talk about the community in the sense of that named suburb or that tract but in many cases if not most, there’s no community there."

That's a pretty frightening outlook. It's also a very difficult thing to quantify. So you may or may not agree with it. I am at least glad that people are having the conversation, and that we are becoming aware of the potential problem.

Stay tuned for the next post where I explain how preservation can help to solve some of the suburban problems.

City or Suburbs? Part IV

2010-12-13T18:44:00.001-08:00

Yikes, how much more of this can I have? Surprisingly more than you'd think! This time I'm going to talk about money- that is, how expensive the suburbs really are.

I mentioned earlier that your money will go a lot farther in the suburbs. Your money will buy a lot more house than in the city. However, there is SO much more to consider. For one, you need to think about how much more money is spent on gas when living in low density areas. Like I mentioned before, you have to drive virtually everywhere- and with today's gas prices, this puts a dent in your pocketbook very quickly.

Next let's talk about something most of us have never given a single thought to. Infrastructure. Have you ever thought about who paid to have those sewer lines extended all the way to 210th street? What about your phone line? Electricity? Extending infrastructure outside of the city is very expensive. Who do you think pays for this? You do of course, right through your taxes. And what about Fire Houses, and Police Stations, Emergency Medical Services? Low density suburbs require significantly more of these than in the compact city. Again- welcome to your taxes. One quote in my paper reads as follows "The lifetime cost of low-density suburban development is 40 to 400 percent greater than more compact development." Uh, yikes.

Then there's the jobs available with preservation projects. This really surprised me too, the economic gains of a rehabilitation project outweigh new single-family construction, new multi-family construction, new commercial and industrial construction and new highway construction. Per project, the financial gains for job creation, income generated, wealth and revenue from taxes are all greater for rehabilitation than the four other categories. That means there is more opportunity and income generated in Historic Preservation!!

When your city is financially healthy, you have a much better chance of being financially healthy as well. That's why preservation pays on so many levels. In addition to bringing in more jobs, preservation also brings in more tourists. When you visit a new city, does anyone take you to see the suburbs? No, you go the historic areas most likely. They're interesting, are nice to look at, and have a special ambiance lacking in generic places.

Alive and well historic areas also attracts small business. According to preservationist Carolyn Douthat, "The type of space available in historic buildings is especially suited to small businesses and retail shops. These buildings typically provide a diverse supply of office and retail space at prices which attract small and start-up businesses. In addition, high-end small businesses are attracted to identifiable historic districts because of the character of the neighborhood and the scale of spaces." This is very important because small businesses have generated over 65% of new jobs in the last two decades. That means more job opportunities for you!

I could go on, but I know this post is a little heady. Hopefully you get the point, preservation is good for business, good for jobs, and good for your pocketbook!

City or Suburbs? Part III

2010-12-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

If you read the previous post, you know that the suburbs are in grave danger due to the impending oil crisis. Maybe you're one of those people that are just not worried about that. You don't really think about this because you're sure that someone will come up with an answer. Ok fine, if you're going to ignore that, let's look at the other issues faced by the 'burbs.

First of all let's talk about your health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average suburban adult is 6.3 pounds heavier than the average urban adult. In 1969, 50% of kids walked or biked to school. In 2001, 90% were driven to school (due to low density suburban design). Many recent studies are beginning to link features of suburban sprawl such as shopping centers and a lack of sidewalks and bike trails to deadly health problems. Do you see something ironic about the fact that so many people drive to the gym?

In addition to your physical health, there's plenty of people that believe the suburbs are bad for your mental and spiritual health. Just look at pop culture, the parodies of suburban life are everywhere. Very coincidentally, and ironic, is the fact that my new favorite band 'The Arcade Fire' just released an album titled...what else...'The Suburbs'. I told it was ironic! It's an amazing album and has the additional benefit of subtly exposing suburban idiosyncrasies.

Plenty of other bands have taken on this task, as have TV shows, movies and comedians. Ever notice how the biggest TV shows in the 70's and 80's were all about the fantastic life in the suburbs. Yet in the last two decades the biggest shows were all in the city! Think about it, what was popular then: The Brady Bunch, Leave it to Beaver, Happy Days, Father Knows Best, etc. And lately: E.R., Friends, Seinfeld, Sex in the City, Fraser. Hmmmm...think that means anything?

While doing my research for this paper I made an amazing discovery. There are books written about the empty suburban life. One that stood out in particular was Death by Suburb, How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing your Soul This is a religious book written by David L. Goetz who lives in the suburbs with his family. On the back cover we see the following:

“In his exploration and examination of faith and the suburban life, Goetz delves into what every suburbanite knows but is terrified to say out loud: the life that people appear to posses and the life they actually lead are two very different things. Goetz is a suburban “insider,” so his spiritual advice is neither theoretical nor abstract. He has experienced the emptiness himself. This book is filled with stories of ordinary people who have found a way to live what he calls the “thicker life” while residing in today’s supposed suburban utopia.”

Um, what?!!? Ok if that isn't telling then I don't know what is. Certainly I know that not all suburbanites feel this way, nor live this way. But I think many of us might be surprised how many do. And if that's not enough, stayed tuned for Part IV- more alarming discoveries...

City or Suburbs? Part II

2010-12-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

America's suburbs offer lots of promise- open spaces, privacy, clean air, nice new homes, and much more house for the money. So why wouldn't we all want to live here?

Unfortunately, all of these promises can't be delivered. The sad truth is that the suburbs face imminent doom. That may sound dramatic, but can you remember a time when gas prices were under a dollar? Have you noticed your heating bills going up, up, up! Are you wondering what this has to do with anything??

The design of the suburbs is a very low-density design. Everything is very spread out. Essentially, when you're in the suburbs, you drive everywhere. You commute (often long distances) to work, drive the kids to school, drive to the grocery store, the doctor's office, to the gym, to the bank etc.

The problem with this is the end of cheap oil. The earth is past its peak oil production. That means its harder and harder to extract oil from the ground. We've used up the best fossil fuels and they're in limited supply. Gas and oil prices will only continue to increase, making it harder and more expensive for us to heat our homes and drive our cars.

Let's add to the fact that America is the second largest contributor of CO2 (greenhouse gas), second only to China. We have a huge carbon footprint. To calculate your carbon footprint, go here: http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/ This is quite an alarming tool. For as eco-conscious as I think I am, my footprint is still above the national average, and WAY above the world average.

This is mainly due to our dependency on the car, and our lack of a mass transit system (think the ever efficient rail system in Europe). Why don't we have a mass transit system? Why didn't we learn anything from Europe? Hmmm, maybe it has to do with General Motors buying up all the street cars in order to increase dependency on the automobile? I'm not making this up, they were actually convicted of this fraud. For more read here: http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=121722 or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal.

Simply, the suburbs are not sustainable. We can't keep up our consumerist, car dependent society for much longer. If we don't do something about this now, we will face huge problems. Most Americans don't really want to change their cushy lifestyles however, and can't really fathom that this crisis will effect them. They think someone will come up with a solution, and everything will be fine.

I really wish that were true. But the evidence can't be argued with. If you want more in-depth information about this, I highly recommend the movie THE END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream. It's very enlightening, and quite alarming!

Sadly, this is only one of the problems faced by the suburbs. Stay tuned for Part III where I divulge other disturbing issues.

City or the Suburbs? Part I

2010-12-10T15:35:00.001-08:00

So what's your preference, would you rather live in the city, or in the suburbs? A lot people's immediate reaction is to say the Suburbs of course! Less congestion, open spaces, more house for the money, more privacy, quite, safe etc.

That is certainly how I grew up, as you can see in the photo above. (My parents still live here!) I felt the same way about the suburbs like most Americans do. Recently however, my view has been challenged. For my current Historic Preservation class, Business, Law and Economics- I have written a lengthy paper on just this topic. I had initially started out to write about how preservation effects low income neighborhoods, but somehow it evolved to a comparison between the city and the 'burbs. And I'm glad it did- my research was VERY enlightening.

As I said, the paper turned out to be about 25 pages or so, much longer than I have room for here. So I'll try and hit on some of the main points in multiple posts. Have you had enough time to decide where you'd rather live? Make sure you really think about, and the reasons why. Then we'll see if you still have the same view after reading what I have to say about it.

What's your image of the suburbs? Is it a beautiful home like this:

And what is your view of the city, is it perhaps a view like this:

If that's correct, then you're on par with most of Americans. We have come to believe that the 'American Dream' is a big house with a yard and at least two cars. In fact, after WWII- owning a home in the suburbs became very affordable, as did gas. This is mostly due to government policies that encouraged suburban sprawl (ie, development) and the Great American Streetcar Scandal. You know, the scandal where General Motors bought up all the streetcars and discontinued them. Subsequently Americans had to rely on buses and private automobiles. Ever wonder why America has virtually no large mass transit? Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal

Ok, so the suburbs are now in vogue and the city is not. What's the problem? Well,there are in fact, many problems. I like to keep my posts as short as possible so that people might actually read them. In that case, we're going to have to wrap this one up. This is the simple introduction to our nation's biggest unknown problem. Stay tuned for Part II where I get more specific. In the meantime...keep thinking about where you live, what you like about it, and what you don't.

Masonry Work...

2010-12-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

While it is definitely winter here in Leadville, it's much warmer in Salida. And since our Masonry teacher is from Salida, our class has been lucky to get some real hands on experience at masonry restoration.

Our teacher, owner of Stone Craft Masonry Restoration and Preservation in Salida, does preservation work all over the state. Currently he's working on a project in Salida at the Touber Building. Currently Salida's city hall, it was once a hospital.

I think it's a pretty awesome building, so when I got to work there by myself one day, I was super excited! The building is actually in pretty good shape- especially for being about 100 years old. There is a good amount of weathering on the brick however. And the building owners are doing the right thing by addressing it now rather than waiting for total disrepair. Much of the stone work and brick needs to be repaired, a few cracks need to be patched, and as always with masonry work, joints need to be cleaned and re-pointed.

This is where I was able to help. With my limited skills I could still clean out the joints and re-point them. I cleaned out the joints with some simple tools, then mixed a batch of mortar consisting of two parts sand and one part lime. After that I began to re-point the joints with the mortar. This was super fun, I really enjoy getting my hands dirty and actually contributing to life of this historic building.

I also removed some bricks from the stairwell that all need to be replaced. The joints in this area are not solid, and for the structural integrity of the building, it's best to remove them all, save the good brick, and replace with good mortar.

Besides the work that I did, we also visited the building as a class a few times. This is a great classroom let me tell you! One very cool thing that I discovered happened when I was cleaning out a joint underneath a window. This particular window happened to have a large stone lintel under it. The joint here was pretty big. As I was cleaning it out, I found a whole bunch of newspaper stuffed in the back. It was very brittle and I couldn't find a date anywhere, but if I had to guess, I'd say the paper was from the first few years of the 20th century. Really cool! This was a great experience to learn first hand knowledge of masonry restoration work.

The buildings choice of fountains however I must question. I found this one particularly creepy...why is he looking at his boot like that...??

Rocking Women...

2010-11-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

The field of architecture has been predominantly dominated by males the world over. However, this blog is dedicated to one amazing female architect that was clearly a pioneer of her day. She's even more spectacular to me because not only did she grow up and practice in Kansas City, but my very own grandparents lived in one of her houses!

Mary Rockwell Hook was born in Junction City, Kansas in 1877. After graduating from Wellesley College in 1900, Hook went to the Art Institute of Chicago enrolled in the architecture department- the first women! Even more impressive, Hook went to Paris to study under Marcel Auburtin at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1905. If you know anything about the history of architecture, you know that École des Beaux-Arts is big time!

Of course this was not without struggle, some stories tell of the discrimination she faced while at school and as a professional. It is said that French male students flung buckets of water at her as she ran across the campus. This did not deter her however.

Hook went on to design some fabulous homes. Here are a few pictures of my grandparents home. They lived here in the 1980's, and I can barely remember it. Coming back to this house some 30 years later and now understanding the architectural significance was an awesome experience!

I love the unique features on this house, like the small stone portico next to the driveway, and the random asymmetric windows on the side of the house. I especially love the extension on the back of the house that acts like a bay window on the first floor and a closed in porch on the upper floor. So cool! My dad recently told me that my grandfather used to sleep on the porch about 10 months out of the year for the fresh air and 'outdoor' experience. Now I know where I get it from!

Here's the house next door that she also designed. Gotta love the stone and the sun room!

Hook was mostly known for her Italianate design and her influence from trips to Asia and Europe. I think her work is fantastic and they definitely stand the test of time. With the struggles she endured and the awesome work she continued to produce, Hook is clearly an inspiration to women everywhere!

Mesa Verde!

2010-11-28T18:26:00.001-08:00

What better way to spend the Thanksgiving holiday than visiting an amazing site of America's Native Peoples. I have dreamed of going to Mesa Verde since I was a child, given my long infatuation and respect for Native American cultures, archaeology and the building trades. I'm not sure why I didn't make it here sooner, but no matter, I made it there this weekend, and it was incredible!

I was lucky enough to have my good friends Amy and Casino join on this trip. While I was busy looking around and pondering the amazing craftsmanship, they were actually listening to the tour guide and could thus pass on the answers to my questions that I could have heard had I only listened.

If you've never been to Mesa Verde, it is truly an amazing place to witness. Located in the Four Corners region in Colorado, it is a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was created in 1906 to protect the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi, or Puebloan people. These cliff dwellings are mind boggling. Before going there, I hadn't realized that these sites were literally carved into the sides of cliffs. I love to rock climb, but I wouldn't dare climb into these dwellings without a rope and harness. If the people that lived here came to a modern rock climbing competition today, they would blow away all the competition with one hand behind their back, laughing all the way while not wearing shoes. This stuff is insane. You see this picture below, right in the middle there, that big crack between the massive boulders, look really closely and you can see some dwellings. Now imagine how they must have gotten there! Plus, they had to leave to hunt, gather water and food and other resources every day- then haul it all back up there! And to think that we complain when we drive to the mall and have to park 100 feet away from the door!!

This incredible architecture was built out of the surrounding stone and mud in the canyon area. Though the Puebloans lived here for centuries, these cliff dwellings were only built and occupied between the 12th and 13th centuries. It's not exactly understood why they left here when they did.

The homes were located in shallow caves and under rock overhangs along the canyon walls. Similar to our masonry buildings today, they were made of blocks of hard sandstone, held together and plastered with adobe mortar. They also carved hand and toe holds into the rock for climbing. Makes me feel pretty ridiculous in my $100 climbing shoes, harness and chalk bag! What is even more amazing is how well preserved these structures are. Of course a lot of this has been restored, but to think that the basic structures of these homes are still standing, thousands of years later, is astounding. Can we say that about the buildings we're creating today with all of our knowledge and technology??

Perhaps we need to put down the engineering books and learn a few things from these amazing peoples. Besides the architecture, there a lot to learn about their lifestyle- from the ceremonial kivas, to the basket weaving, lineage traditions, and basic mores, they're fascinating- yet beyond the scope of this blog.

If you want to learn more about this amazing place, I strongly recommend a trip to Mesa Verde. There is so much to learn and so much to see. We just got a brief taste of all the park has to offer. An extended camping and hiking trip would be even better. One thing is guaranteed, you will be amazed, and have an excellent time!

18th and Vine- baseball and jazz!

2010-11-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

A Tribute to Legends. That's the motto of the 18th and Vine district in Kansas City, Missouri. Back in the day, this part of the town was the heart of Kansas City culture. With the Southward expansion of the city, this area declined and sadly became somewhat deserted. In the last few years however, there has been a massive revitalization of the district, helping to revitalize a very important piece of Kansas City history.

As I travel across the country, I find that most people have no idea that Kansas City has a very rich history of Jazz. In fact, it is often said that Jazz was born in New Orleans, and grew up in Kansas City. Kansas City Jazz is often credited with marking the transition from the structured big band style to the musical improvisation style of Bebop in the 1930's. (taken from Wikipedia where you can read more about KC Jazz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_jazz). As you can see from the picture above, the Jazz Museum is even in Kansas City, located at the infamous 18th and Vine district. Across the street from the museum, you'll find the 100 year old Gem theater, famous for its annual American Jazz Museum’s national concert series, “Jammin’ at the Gem.”

In addition to Jazz, baseball played a very important role in this cultural epicenter. No, I'm not talking about the Kansas City Royals, keep your jokes to yourselves! I'm talking about the Kansas City Monarchs- the longest running franchise of baseball's Negro Leagues. Unlike the Royals, this team was good!! The Negro Leagues were founded in 1920 spearheaded by the Chicago American Giants owner Andrew "Rube" Foster. In fact, Foster an a few other Midwestern team owners had a meeting Kansas City's very own Paseo YMCA were the league was formed. While in the area last week, I took a photo of this building because I was struck by the architecture and superb condition of the building, along with the fabulous red fire escape. I had no idea that THIS was the place!

Soon after this meeting, other teams joined from the Eastern and Southern states. According to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum website, "The Leagues maintained a high level of professional skill and became centerpieces for economic development in many black communities." visit the website here: http://www.nlbm.com/s/history.htm. The Monarchs however, were the Negro Leagues version of the NBL's New York Yankees. According to Wikipedia: "The Monarchs won ten league championships before integration, and triumphed in the first Negro League World Series in 1924. After sending more players to the major leagues than any other Negro League franchise, the team was finally disbanded in 1965." Now why they couldn't have transferred that talent to the Royals is beyond me. I was glad however, to still see evidence of Monarch pride even today. As I was driving around the YMCA building to get a better photo, I found this mural on the other side:

How awesome is that! As a preservationist it was so fantastic to see this whole area revitalized. Most areas like this across the country are nothing but rubble and abandoned buildings. This area was so important to Kansas City's history, it's very heartening to see that people have cared enough about it to keep it going. But then, if you have this kind of backup, I guess anyone would do the same: "Under the rule of Mob Boss Tom Pendergast, the 1920s, 30s and 40s saw the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District as an epicenter of activity, often coined as the "Paris of the Plains." (taken from http://www.americanjazzmuseum.com/). Uh, yes, that's right, in addition to great baseball, jazz and bar-b-que, KC has a legacy of the mob, but that's an entirely different blog altogether.

Don't let that last fact scare you, they don't control so much in KC these days. If you are ever in the Kansas City area, don't miss a chance to visit 18th and Vine, the history is amazing!

New Body...Same Soul

2010-11-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, I'm not inappropriately using my historic preservation blog to flaunt the awesomeness of one of the best NFL teams in the league. Nor am I taking an opportunity to boast how incredible the Kansas City Chiefs FANS are. No, no, I am actually talking about preservation here.

You see, this past Sunday I had a chance to visit the 'New' stadium in Kansas City. It just happened to be during game time so I decided to stay and watch the Chiefs just barely beat the Buffalo Bills in the last 5 seconds of overtime. But that's besides the point. The point is, Arrowhead Stadium has just gone under a $375 million renovation.

So yes, this is a story about preservation, just on a much larger scale. I mean, preservation isn't just for houses right? The renovation of a major league stadium that holds 76,000 people might not seem like true 'preservation', but indeed it is. Think about the alternative- the destruction of thousands of tons of infrastructure and all of the embodied energy in that building, and the creation of a huge new stadium utilizing thousands of tons of new materials and transportation to get it there.

You might think that such a project has no business being labeled 'preservation'. But the simple fact of the matter is that we live in America, and football is a defining characteristic of American culture. It's citizens have supported it, even encouraged it, and continue to fund its survival and growth. It's not going away- just becoming more and more encompassing as the years pass. Whether you like it or not, its here to stay. And so, stadiums have become part of our landscape. Just think of Wrigley Field or Soldier Stadium. They've become icons in Americas cities.

That being established, let's get on with Arrowhead. The Chiefs stadium was built in 1972. The stadium was designed by Denver architect Charles Deaton and Steadman. It was such an efficient design that it became the influence for many NFL stadiums thereafter. It has long been considered a nice, clean, convenient stadium, as well the loudest stadium in the league. (Attending many games in this stadium, I can vouch for that. What can I say, Chiefs fans LOVE their Chiefs!)

It's no surprise then that Jackson County voters voted for a tax increase in 2006 in order to fund the stadium renovation. What's new at the 'Sea of Red'? The concourses have been widened by 60 percent, concession stands were expanded and there was 100 percent increase in the number of restroom fixtures. There's a new state of the art Chiefs store, Chiefs Hall of Honor and Chiefs Sports Lab- truly inviting fans to experience the passion of the game. Suites and Field boxes have been updated. There is also a new Founders Plaza honoring Lamar Hunt and his lifelong dedication to the NFL.

After visiting the stadium on Sunday, I agree with it's new mantra- New Body, Same Soul. I was impressed with the convenient new additions, especially the increased bathrooms. I didn't have to wait in line once! The concession stands were much nicer. Though I still refuse to pay $11 for a margarita! Overall the new face lift was nice. Though I probably will never benefit from the new suites and field boxes, it did look nice. As we cheered the Chiefs to victory, the spirit was absolutely still there. You could feel it even before kickoff, as the National Anthem was sung, fans paying tribute to our nations flag, saluting the flyover and service men and women in the stands, and singing along with such passion for America's greatest sport....O'er the laaaaaaand of the freeeeee and the hooooome of the.....CHIEFS!!!!

Adaptive Reuse at it's finest!!

2010-11-07T07:22:00.000-08:00

Those of you familiar with Historic Preservation know that there are four basic treatments for a historic building- preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction. Depending on the building and the extent to which the historic fabric is saved, altered, changed etc., a truly historic building will fall into one of these categories.

Today I want to talk about rehabilitation, and what is in my opinion, an optimal way to rehab a building. First let me explain that I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. The downtown area of K.C. was all but abandoned in the last few decades as is so common with many cities downtowns. (Ala, suburban expansion). Fortunately, there has been a major revitalization of many downtown areas thanks to the Main Street Program. Kansas City has enjoyed such a revival in it's own downtown and industrial district in the last few years.

There are some really amazing old industrial buildings all around K.C., and it's great to finally see them being used again. There are a few buildings however, that were way ahead of the trend. Particularly, I'm talking about this building here:

It appears to be a fairly unassuming building I think. Looks like an abandoned industrial building of some type, in a quite deserted area of town. If you're from Kansas City however, you know this is not quite the case. Look a bit closer and you'll get some clues:

Ahhh, that's right folks, this is the infamous EDGE OF HELL! One of the world's finest Haunted Houses. Growing up I took for granted how amazing this haunted house was. The West Bottoms area of KC boasts about 4 world class haunted houses. I never knew just how spectacular they were until I moved away from Missouri. I've lived in many different places since then, and every October I'm on the lookout for great Halloween fun, but I can never find a real haunted house. Sure I've been to dinky ones where you go through one floor in 10 minutes and see your standard blood and guts and random boo's! But seriously, they don't come close to the KC standard. I mean, just look at the Chambers haunted house:

It's that grey building there in the center. Now that is a haunted house, the entire building. You see in KC, haunted houses aren't just a small time gig for a few weeks a year. These buildings stay as they are, all year round. The Edge of Hell has been here since 1975. It's a five story building, it's so elaborately decorated that it would be asinine to try and take it all down. So, it stays a haunted house all year long. As do the others. I'm telling you, these are first class, terrifying haunted houses. I mean, just look at this review from the Edge of Hell: "The Edge of Hell is constantly re-inventing it's five floors. New scenes are always added to the cast of 45 live performers with the newest state-of-the-art technology. The air crackles, your fingertips sizzle. One million volts surge to grab you. A Vampire lunges, his hot breath violates your lungs. A 20 foot live Anaconda's eyes dart left then right, poised to crush his live prey."

They're not kidding, it's crazy scary. But it's soooo fun! I have loved going to these haunted houses since I was a kid. It scares the heck out of you but I guess it's such an adrenalin rush that you keep going back year after year, forking over another $30!

One of my favorite features from these Halloween wonderlands are the slides. That's right, the slides are the best! Typically you slide from some kind of absurd scary heaven straight down into the jowls of Hell, sliding right into the Devil himself!

Ahh, fantastic! Seeing as Halloween is my favorite day of the year, it's no wonder I'm infatuated with these fantastic fun houses. I just wish they were as common in other parts of the country. I also wish they were open for longer. Granted, these KC attractions are usually open from the end of August until the beginning of November. That's a pretty decent Halloween season in my opinion. They are also open throughout the year for team-building events, meetings, birthdays, field trips, even weddings! That's right folks, you can even get married there. Check out these on-site wedding pics: http://www.edgeofhell.com/meetings-events/weddings.html

I know most of you will think that's absolutely absurd, but I'd do it! Looks pretty awesome to me. I also wish I could show some night time pictures and pictures from the inside, but no photos are allowed inside for obvious reasons, so you'll just have to use your imagination and trust me that they are as awesome as I say. Ya sure these buildings could have been turned into super cool modern 'Lofts' or office space, or a number of other things, but then we couldn't visit the Edge of Hell, or the Beast, or the Macabre, and you wouldn't want that, would you??

Kansas City Love Affair

2010-11-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it, I'm having an affair. I'm in love with my hometown. I grew up in Kansas City- Missouri, NOT Kansas. (Please don't get that wrong because it will drive Kansas City Missourians CRAZY!). I left Kansas City when I was 18 to attend college at Creighton University in Nebraska. Since then, I have lived in eight different states, never returning to Missouri. Well, I visit often, but I haven't lived there since I was 18.

I'm very curious by nature, and I just don't get the point of returning to a place that I know so well. There is soooo much to see out there in the world, I want to explore it all, and that's what I've been doing. Most of my family still lives in Kansas City however, so I do visit several times a year. After living in places like Oregon, Montana, Alaska and Colorado, it's hard to feel satisfied in the plains. At least for an active person like myself. If I can't find a place to go mountain biking, hiking, or skiing, I feel somewhat claustrophobic. I wish it wasn't so, but the facts are the facts.

I wish it wasn't so because I love Kansas City. I never realized how great of a town it was when I was growing up, but I appreciate it more and more every time I'm there. It's even more impressive now that I've been studying Historic Preservation. Kansas City has first class art museums, professional sporting venues, funky art and a great music scene. It's quite hip. It even has outstanding architecture, I just never really knew that before. I mean, just look at the Country Club Plaza:
This awesome photo was taken from http://www.eyefetch.com/

For some time KC has been known as the city of fountains. Indeed, it boasts more fountains than Rome and more Avenues than Paris. I'm serious!

One of my favorite things about visiting KC is bringing friends along. Almost every time I bring a 'first-timer' to visit they're always very surprised. "Wow, I never knew Kansas City was so cool!" "It's not flat here?! There's hills everywhere!" "Look at those incredible houses? I never knew Kansas City had so much history?" "This art museum is really incredible! Who knew?" Just check out the Nelson Art Gallery:

The list goes on, Kansas City is really a well kept secret. And I haven't even touched on the Zoo, Crown Center, the award winning Bar-B-Que, the Jazz, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum...Kansas City really is where it's at! I went to KC this past weekend to visit family and celebrate my favorite day of the year, Halloween. I got to get around town a little bit, so stay tuned for a series of blogs on the fabulous places of the town. Oh if only it had mountains!

Let the job search begin!

2010-10-26T15:10:00.001-07:00

This probably sounds like a familiar refrain to many people. With unemployment rates at such a high level right now, many of us are looking for jobs! I keep hearing that the job market is so tight right now, people aren't hiring, there isn't any work out there, etc. etc.

While this may be true, I prefer not to pay attention to the negative and feed the increasing fear in our communities. The more and more attention we give it, the larger and larger it grows. The more gloom and doom stories we watch on TV or listen to on the radio, the more fearful we become, and the worse the situation gets.

I know that looking for a job is not easy. Indeed it can be a very stressful event. I do believe however, that the more positive your outlook, and the more confidence you have in the search, the easier time you'll have in gravitating toward that job that was meant for you. I really believe in the mantra that 'whatever you put your attention on, expands and grows.' I cannot then, put my attention on the dark gloomy stories everyone is telling these days. I know there are jobs out there- just look at the ads online, there's ton of them!

Now the tricky part is going to be to find where that job is, and exactly what type of job it is that I want. I'll be finished with my historic preservation degree a semester early, that means I'll be done in mid-December. That's a short two months away. Now is the time for me to start making some contacts and getting my resume out there. Since I'm already in Colorado, and I'm quite fond of the mountains, climate, proximity to home, and central location, it seems like a good idea to be looking in the general area. I'm not opposed to moving elsewhere, but its a place to start anyway.

In my studies over the last year, I've learned that there are sooo many aspects to preservation. There are countless ways to be involved, from a surveyor to a mason, to a carpenter, to an administrator, to a architect, archaeologist, professor, politician, community planner, cultural resource specialist, historian, etc. etc. It's quite exciting to have so much diversity and all be working together toward the same goal.

Exactly where I fit in is still to be determined. I've had plenty of experience in the administrative non-profit world. I know I would do well with advocacy and planning. I also got my undergraduate degree in Anthropology and have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences with cultural resources and archaeology. Additionally I am completely in love with the hands-on trades of preservation. The construction and rehabilitation work I did this summer was fantastic. I could definitely see myself excelling in the trades arena.

I would be happy with many variations of the above. Perhaps a job that has a little of all- perfect! Now it's just a matter of getting down to business, researching what is out there and making it all happen. Oh, and if anyone happens to come across any fabulous preservation opportunities, please send my way!

A Pint of Preservation

2010-10-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, this week we're talking about beer. It may seem completely unrelated to historic preservation, but stick with me for a moment and you'll see that it has everything to do with it.

In my historic preservation law and economics class, we're reading an interesting book called The Restoration Economy written by Storm Cunningham. In the book I came across a fascinating story of the William Brothers Brewing Company in Scotland.

You probably know that beer has been a major staple of most cultures for millennia. Without a refrigeration system, letting grains and yeast ferment was a safe way to preserve food supplies. In some places of the world fermented beverages were also a healthier alternative to local water. According to Cunningham, archaeologists have discovered remnants of brewing sites in Scotland dating back over 4,000 years. The Scots have a long history of ales that used such local ingredients as leaves, flowers, berries, pine needles, bushes and even seaweed. Heather ale is likely the most well known. As Scotland is so famous for its beautiful Heather this is no surprise.

This image was taken from: www.lastminutecottageholiday.co.uk

Cunningham further notes that these homemade brews were forbidden by English invaders. Thus, many of the original recipes were lost. Instead, Scots were required by law to only make beer using ingredients like barely malt and hops. For those of you sold on 'American Lager', I must include this quote: "Of course, even this formula is far superior to the corn-based chemical soup that comes from the major U.S. industrial brewers, many of whom add plastics to form a longer-lasting head." Ouch!

As the House of Lords owned all of the hop farms, we can see why this law was enacted. Indeed those were dark days for the Scots, but rejoice in the fact that the Williams Brothers have brought these original homemade brews back to life! These beers have quite the reputation world wide, winning countless awards along the way. Please visit their website for a bit more on the history and the outstanding different flavors: www.williamsbrosbrew.com

Besides making a great brew, the brewery operates out of an early 18th century mill which was restored under the non-profit Scottish Heritage. Furthermore, the brewery saved a square mile of peat-and-heather-based ecosystem known as flat moss from being turned into a monoculture tree farm. The widely popular Fraoch ale relies on this moss, and the brewery pays the tenant for its harvests. If anyone is going to Scotland soon, or if there's an extremely well stocked liquor store in your area, would you please buy me one of these, I'm dying to try one!

Actually, scratch that, I think I'd rather try a Kelpie. Ok, if there was ever a beer that was good for you this has got to be it:
A beer both good for you and the earth! The Kelpie brew is made with bladderwack seaweed. This is important because a traditional Scottish method of fertilizing fields uses this seaweed. This use was dying out in recent times but has enjoyed a bit of recovery thanks to the brewery. Seaweed is an incredibly rich resource of vitamins and minerals, and quite tasty too! The barley used in their production is organically grown on a farm that has revived this important practice.

This is truly a brewery I could stand behind. I've never given much thought to beer production in the past. And coming from Missouri I can't say I've ever felt much loyalty to Budweiser. But a brewery that has revived an ancient method of brewing, using recipes that were lost for thousands of years, brewing in a historic building, and encouraging environmentally sound practices, I'll toast to that!

*This blog is dedicated to Jimmy and Tyler- you know why!

Computer Aided Drawing (Design)

2010-10-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

One of my classes this semester is CAD class. Before starting the class I can't say that I had any particular expectations, but I knew it would be cool to play around with 3-D drawings on the computer.

Cool indeed! It's a lot of fun to learn how to draw like an architect without needing all that complicated equipment and learning those writing techniques. Man we have it so much easier these days! In the past you had to take many many classes of learning how to draw like an architect, and even how to write like an architect. I always thought it was odd that every architect I knew wrote so neatly. Now I know why, they actually have to take a class to write like that!

Instead, we spend time learning how to use ArciCad, a really amazing computer program that let's you draw your 3-D home with all the important specifications. Just look at what my future kitchen will look like:

I know that's not the greatest picture. But if you can tell, I have a great set up with eco-friendly stainless steel appliances, a great chrome island and super cute red and grey pantry cabinet in the corner. Here's a start of what the outside will look like...

That's right, I love me some purple and red. I know you think it sounds absurd but it's going to look super cool. That's the great thing about ArciCad, the sky's the limit and you can do anything you want!

Mixing mud and laying brick!

2010-10-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

This reason I chose Colorado Mountain College for my Historic Preservation degree was because it's one of very few colleges that offer a trade based program. Needless to say, the hands-on classes are by far my favorite. So last week when we got to lay some brick in my Masonry class, I was really excited!

Our class is at Hayden Ranch- our colleges very own historic laboratory. One of the old bunk houses desperately needed some attention to its chimney. Here it was before:

The existing mortar on the 15 courses you see here was incredibly fragile. We could literally pick up the bricks with our hands and remove them from the course below. The original chimney had 22 courses- so we intended to restore it to the original. (I wish I could say the age of this particular building but I really don't know.)

There are so many things to consider when restoring brick. It's very important to match the color of the mortar, the color of the brick, the strength and make-up of the mortar and brick as well. It might seem pretty simply, but that's a lot to get right. You have to consider the mixture of the mortar- what's the recipe? Is it one part lime, one part portland cement, six parts sand? There are actually many different recipes for different needs. Different masons have different opinions as to the best recipe. Some masons truly believe in using hydraulic lime only. So many options....to see more about mortars click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_mortar

The first thing we needed to do for this chimney was make up some sample mixes or mortar to see if we could at least match the color. This bunk house has not been occupied for a long time, and there are no plans to change that, so this chimney will not be functioning. The main purpose of the restoration is for aesthetics and basic structural integrity. Fortunately for us that meant we didn't have to get things absolutely perfect, just pretty close. So we mixed up a few batches until we got a close match:

After letting each batch dry, we had a better idea of what the color was. After coming up with a pretty close mix, we were ready to lay some brick!

This was the exciting part. I love getting my hands dirty and actually making something. You know, something you can actually touch and feel and see. I also love being on roofs. I'm not sure why exactly, but I've always loved it. Maybe it's because you're not supposed to be on a roof, it feels a bit mischievous. Maybe its because you gain a new perspective, everything looks smaller from up high, and your worries do too. Maybe it's just because the view is so awesome!

Whatever the reason, it was great to be up there and learn some masonry skills. Our teacher, Terry Alexander has been a mason for practically his whole life (learning the trade from his father.) He's a great mason and a good person to show you the basics. On the homepage of his website you can see a really beautiful sculpture that his father made. Who would of thought of a brick sculpture!? You can visit his website here: http://gostonecraft.com/index.php

We only had about 7 courses of brick to lay, but it took much longer than I would have thought. Fortunately we had most of the original brick from the chimney, but not quite all of it. Well, I think we did have all of it but a lot of it crumbled and was unusable. So, we did our best to find a color that was close and would blend in well. That was not an easy task. You'll be able to see from the picture below which bricks were not original. The good thing about that however, is that time will lay a nice patina on these bricks, and eventually they'll fade right in.

I think the finished product looks pretty dang good for our first try. And remember, time will be to our advantage with the aesthetics. I think I really like masonry. No sharp chisels, no splinters or hammered thumbs, no table saw kick-backs. It so much more peaceful than working with wood!

Ahh, Remember the Drive In!

2010-10-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

That should bring back some memories! Remember when drive-ins where cool?! You know, the days before you could tape a movie on your VCR, before Blockbuster, then Pay-Per-View, then Tevo, then Netflix?? Remember the days when people actually had to leave their homes to see the latest feature? I can remember it clearly, it wasn't that long ago. In fact, I remember being about 7 or so and hiding between my sisters legs in the front seat of the car while she read the newspaper over my head in order to hide me. Meanwhile, my brother was in the trunk. What a valiant attempt to hide us both and save the $2 entry fee for us. Only to find out later the admittance was per car, not per person. Thanks Liz!

This childhood trauma is not what inspired this blog however, I became inspired to write about the dying Drive-In industry after yet another 'bike ride find'. Last weekend I decided to take my road bike down to Buena Vista, about 30 miles South of Leadville and generally 20 degrees warmer. I had no plans on where to go, I just thought I'd get on the bike and let the wind take me where it chose. (Quite literally, there was a crazy headwind that day.) I like doing this, you never have any idea what's around the next turn. Sometimes it's just boring open expanses of nothing, sometimes you find cool stuff like this old Drive-In!

Normally I might have just ridden on past something like this, but I was struck by several things on this day. First, this Drive-In seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. I guess they usually are for obvious reasons, but I never expected to see it here. I have also never seen quite a backdrop for a movie theater before. Everywhere you look you see grand Rocky Mountains behind the screen. Pretty cool. The deserted feel was also kind of spooky. There was tall grass and weeds growing all along the parking area and speakers. (Needless to say I was very surprised to learn that this drive-in had been in use until 2008!) -more on that in a second. The last thing that caught my attention was the name.

That's right, Comanche Drive-In! You just wouldn't get away with such political incorrectness today. Though we have a lot to learn on this front, I believe we've come a long way in the 36 years I've been alive. I can remember learning all kinds of crazy culturally insensitive things when I was little. Those same things just wouldn't happen today.

Besides the name, the drive-in itself is an example of a great, yet dying, American tradition. A little poking around online dug up some interesting facts on the history of the drive-in. From the information I found, it appears that the alternative movie watching venue creator was Richard Hollingshead. It was his attempt to combine two great American loves: movies and cars! In the early 1930's he played around in his own driveway with a Kodak projector and a sheet nailed to some trees with a radio behind it. After lots of trial and error, Richard opened the first drive-in in June of 1933. This first drive in was in Camden, New Jersey and the price of admission was 25 cents for the car and 25 cents per person.

Drive-ins where slow to catch on, but when they did, they boomed! In 1946 the number of theaters was about 150. By 1948 that number grew to 820! By 1958, there were almost 5,000 drive-ins! This is actually the peak of the business. From here, the numbers begin to decline. The 60's and 70's were fairly stagnate, and the 80's saw a huge decline. Theater's began to be torn down for lack of attendance. (Hmmm, I believe my family got it's first VCR around 1983ish...). There was a very small resurgence in the 90's, well, nostalgia really. The around 400 dive-ins that are left are really trying to hang on, and there's plenty of people out there advocating for their survival. Americans are quite nostalgic after all.

The Comanche Drive-in I've shown you hear was built in 1966 by John Groy. It was owned and operated by the Groy family until 2008. It appears that Mrs. Groy suddenly passed away in 2008 and the rest is history. I'm amazed it was still going strong until so recently. I for one, would definitely go to a drive-in if there was one close by. (Actually, I would probably ride my bike instead of drive but its the same concept.) How wonderful to enjoy a movie in the fresh air, under the stairs, in the wide open! I think we may need to start a preservation movement here. I'll tell you one thing though, I'm not hiding in the front seat, or in the trunk for that matter to save a couple of bucks!

*Interestingly it appears that a documentary on drive-ins is currently in the works, check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMfVfWkx4Og&feature=player_embedded

All of the information for this blog was taken from the following websites: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980121.htm, http://www.driveintheater.com/,
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/11721/

Beautiful Kennecott Alaska!

2010-10-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, that's a great sight huh! Of all the amazing places in Alaska, Kennecott remains one of my favorite. Located in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, this abandoned mining camp is a historical treasure. As the story goes, the camp was started around 1900 when two prospectors located a nice green patch where they could graze their horses. Of course this green patch turned out to be copper ore. Seizing this opportunity, a group of men promptly created the Chitina Mining and Exploration Company.
The mine was extremely profitable, some saying it was the richest copper mine in the world. It operated for about 25 years and extracted about $210 million worth of copper.

How they made this happen is unbelievable. Today, there is a road that leads (almost) to the town. I say almost, because you still have to get out and park your car about 5 miles from the mine. And I haven't even told you about the road coming in! The drive to Kennecott is one of the bumpiest, flat-tire producing, slowest roads I've been on. But this is a good thing, keeps all those dang tourists away! Of course, tourists still come, but at very manageable numbers. My point being, this is a very remote, very difficult place to get to. I can not even fathom how these men got all of this equipment here in 1900. This should make my point:

That's some insanely hard work to produce some copper. I hope you're all appreciating those pipes and electrical cables most of us take for granted!

In the early 1930's, the mine was pretty much abandoned after most of the high grade ore was depleted. They had some watchmen for a few years but eventually they left too. It's a harsh winter out here, and getting supplies and food can be quite the challenge, even deadly. I don't blame them for not sticking around. So the mine was left to it's own. When I visited in 2004, I was amazed that the entire place was not condemned. There were SO many accidents waiting to happen. Buildings holding on by a single nail that I was sure were going to collapse to the ground at any moment. Of course, this did not stop me from climbing inside them and exploring every nook and cranny I could find. Dangerous maybe, but too lucrative to stop me!

You can see from this picture above that the building has really aged, just look at that 'ladder'. That's how most of the mine's buildings looked when I was there. There has been a tremendous amount of work done since then however. It likely looks pretty stable to you now. Kennecott was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The National Park Service has been stabilizing many of the buildings in the last few years. They've done some amazing work! Though the precarious ghost town was fun to run around in, I'm glad these buildings will saved for many generations to enjoy. It tells such a great story of our past, and what man will do for survival and money.

Though the camps were very primitive in the beginning. They had such success they began to live quite nicely in camp.

This was such a massive production site, they've even started to give guided tours through the mine. Getting a look at the inside were all the real production happened was amazing. I still can't believe they actually got all of this heavy equipment here!

There's so much to explore and see here, I could on and on. But you get the main idea. This is truly an amazing and inspiring site to see. If you ever get to Alaska, don't miss a trip to Kennecott, you'll be glad you did. Just remember to bring some instant flat-fixer- that road is precarious!

Alpine Guard Station Update

2010-10-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

After a long summer of hard work, it looks like the Alpine Guard station is ready for business! I just heard from Elizabeth that almost all of the work has been completed. That's excellent news because we were very concerned that it wouldn't get done before the snow started falling.

Since I've been blogging on a weekly basis all summer, you pretty much know what we did and how we did it on each of the three buildings. So for this blog I'm just going to show you some amazing before and after pictures. Some things will look exactly the same- but rest assured there was a lot of hard work to keep it that way! That's one frustration with preservation, sometimes the better your work is, the more it looks like nothing was done! You'll also see some significant changes too. But first lets start with this incredible picture from many years ago...

Seeing that photo made me quite inspired to work on these buildings. If we thought it was hard to get all those supplies up there via a work truck and trailer, I can't imagine how difficult it was via horse! Here's a picture of what this same building looked like when we arrived in June:

Looks like 100 years has taken it's toll on it. Now here's a picture of how it looks today:

Here's a before and after of the interior of this cabin:

Now here's a before and after of the main cabin. Doesn't the porch look awesome! (The porch was original to the building though it failed after only 2 or 3 years. We decided to add it back in a more structurally sound manner).

I think everything looks great, and I'm really proud of our team for getting so much accomplished. We put in some long hard days out there, but it was so worth it! Now if you want to spend a great vacation in the middle of pristine mountain landscapes, fantastic fly fishing and wonderful restored forest service cabins- you can rent this out!

I hope to get more opportunities like this in the future. This is why I decided to get into this field! Thanks to Elizabeth for sending me all the great photos. And here's a special one to leave you with...it really was amazing up there!

Tight Spaces and Precarious Places

2010-10-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

Oh the things we'll do in the name of preservation.

I recently heard from my co-workers from the Alpine Guard Station that nearly everything was finished up in the last days of September. That's fantastic news as we began to have our doubts we'd get it finished this year.

Elizabeth sent me some photos from her last day and the results are just awesome. Stay tuned for a blog with those photos. In the meantime I was looking through my 'before' photos and realized that we really went the extra mile with this project. Well, at least lets say that I did some things I would never have done in 'normal' civilization.

For one, I lived among the rats, mice and chipmunks day in and out. (We all did for that matter). I know I might sound rather whiny here- I mean that's just how the natural world works. But I'm a product of this modern environment, and I've become quite used to rodent free home. Ugh, who wants these things around anyway:

Luckily that one was shot by Helaman. We also put out so much rat poison that I'm sure their numbers dwindled substantially.

Then there were the very odd and cumbersome spots in the cabin that were just dang hard to reach. Like the foundation for example. When we tore up the floors inside the cabin it was obvious that the foundation needed some work. The floor joists pretty much just rested on the dirt underneath. Well, then how do we get down there and fix it. Oh, this is how...

Don't ask me how I squeezed into that little hole. I didn't mind the tight space really, but it was kind of scary thinking about what was in that dirt that I couldn't see- there were holes and stuff down there...spooky. Nothing bit or grabbed me though so it all worked out.

The one that really takes the cake though was the day that Helaman installed our new vault toilet! Was that a glorious day or what. After three months of fertilizing the Rocky Mountain Wilderness we finally got a toilet! Mind it was only a vault, it's not like it flushed or anything but I sure didn't care.

First we dug an enormous pit for the vault, then laid it in, and poured concrete all around it. From here we built an outhouse on top of the concrete. Our very own bathroom. Helaman then installed the toilet. Unfortunately for me, he dropped a wrench down the hole when he was installing it. That's right, I was the lucky one that had to be lowered down into that scary dark dungeon. (Don't Worry- it had not been used yet!!) It was still freaky though. Just the thought of the fact that I was getting lowered into the toilet was weird. I must admit it was pretty hilarious though. Helaman's a tough dude. I grabbed onto his arms and he lowered me down- like he was setting down a book- dang.

It was awfully dark down there! I found his wrench though, and then he grabbed onto my hands and pulled me back up. We were laughing so hard at the insanity of the situation I almost didn't make it.

There are plenty of other examples, but these just happened to be the ones I caught pictures of. You know, photos to show the kids some day so they can be so proud of their mom!

What are these?? ...Anyone.... Anyone...

2010-10-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Now that it's October (my very favorite month!) I'm getting in as much outdoor activity as possible before the season changes to bitter cold. Unfortunately that doesn't equate to much activity- chemistry just takes up so much time! I was able to sneak in a quick bike ride this past weekend though.

Surprisingly, there aren't as many mountain biking trails in this area one might expect. I mean, we're in the heart of the Rocky Mountains here- the biggest outdoor playground in the country. Leadville also hosts the Leadville Trail 100 every year. You know, that little bike rice that's 100 miles over massive rocky mountain terrain. The one that Lance Armstrong occasionally makes an appearance at and blows away all the other riders. So yes, I'm a little bitter that there is not more single track terrain to play on, but I'll take what I can get. I drove my car out of Leadville towards Tennessee Pass- about 10 miles or so; directly across from the Ski Cooper ski area.

There are some trails around here that I've seen before, but I can't find any information on them. It's important to know what kind of trail you're getting on- is it for Beginners or Experts? Are there long climbs or descents? Is it technical with lots of rocks, roots and switchbacks? These are things I like to know before I start pedaling. In the case of Leadville however, sometimes you just gotta get on the trail because there's no other way to know.

This is exactly what I did on Sunday- I started on a trail just North of the Tennessee pass trail. Turns out this trail was part of both the Continental Divide Trail, and the Colorado Trail (goes from Durango to Denver). Ok so that sounds pretty cool. I started pedaling for a 1/2 mile or so, and then I came across an open field where I see this:

Woa! What is that I thought? I had to get off my bike and go investigate. This kind of looked like a falling down igloo, only made with rocks. The rocks were rudimentary stacks with sand in-between. It was used for fire of some sort. The entire inside was completely covered with soot. Then as I was wondering, I noticed that there were more, only they were mostly gone. There were about five in total- mostly just the ring at the base was left. Two were of this primitive stone, the others were made of brick. What was going on here?

My first thought was that these were some kind of shelter many years ago. But then that didn't make sense, why would they be here? And there was so much soot and ash covering the inside, maybe these were some kind of kilns? But then for what? Then I thought about the 10th Mountain Division. This was a division of the Army that trained in this area during WWII. They trained here in preparation for fighting in the Alps. (Stay tuned for an entire blog dedicated to this fascinating story.) So were these used by the soldiers? Some kind of training activity, or armory?

I attempted to find something online, but my search has proved futile thus far. I don't even know what to call these so how do I search for them? So, here's where I'm putting out the request to all you readers. I know that someone knows what these are. And I'm sure there is a very simple explanation that I'm overlooking. So dear reader, if you have any insight into these stone igloos- please solve the mystery and let us know what these are!

Cool East Coast Towns!

2010-10-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit some family on the Delaware Coast. We got very lucky with 80 degree temperatures and luxuriously warm ocean water temperatures. It was a fantastic week of swimming, playing tennis, and of course, doing homework. But besides that- I got to see some great historic towns. What else do expect of the East Coast!

First up was Ocean City, Maryland. Ok, I know that this seems far from a 'historic' town, but it does have a great history. (If you've never been there, think kitschy boardwalk, over-priced amusement park rides, water slides and LOTS of miniature golf. You can see what I mean from the picture below.

Don't let that fool you though, Ocean City has kept some of it's historic feel, just not a lot. Here is a classic example of a town investing in the tourist trade at all costs for economic gain. And sometimes, that's just what towns have to do to survive.
I'll be the fist to admit that I take full advantage of such craziness. You gotta look closely at that second picture- I just love the severed head behind Jimmy and I!

In a way this is all right in line with it's history. The town started as resort town in the mid to late 1800's and it's simply evolved with the times.

Ok, so Ocean City is fun and all, but let's move on to a real historic town. We visited Easton, Maryland one warm day and explored it's historic downtown. Colonists permanently settled in Easton in 1695 and the town was formally established in 1725. (Sure puts these Colorado towns to shame!) Here's a fantastic brick home circa 1805:

Since the late 17th and 18th century iron has been the towns industry. Later came steel, the Morse automobile, cotton and thread mills, and my personal favorite, the location of the spring supplying the oldest carbonated beverage company in the country.

The town has done a great job of restoring its older homes. Here's a few of my favorites:

The other thing about Easton homes that I absolutely loved are the big porches on most of the homes. Porches were very important in the days pre-airconditioning. Summers can get very hot and very humid in Maryland. Folks couldn't just adjust their thermostat on scorching hot days 100 years ago. Today porches are an after-thought, if they're considered at all when building new homes. We've lost the art of sitting outside on a summer evening and conversing with our friends and neighbors. I think we need to add a 'porch' movement to the increasingly popular 'slow food' movement. If only Americans could learn how to slow down and relax- we might see the beauty in these grand home additions.

Unfortunately we only had time to stop here in Easton for a little while. It was quite a tease for me really. To think of the plethora of fantastic historic towns all up and down the east coast- there's so much to see! I guess I'll just have to go back again soon and do more 'research'!

Fall Semester!

2010-09-22T06:31:00.000-07:00

Today is the official first day of Fall- my favorite season! Along with cooler temperatures and falling leaves, fall means the beginning of classes. If all goes well this semester I should complete all of my requisite classes for my Associates Degree by December, great news! I'm definitely ready to join the workforce again- I just hope my hunt for that great job doesn't last me too long.

First though, I need to focus on my remaining courses. I have some very interesting classes this semester, and so far I'm really enjoying it. Computer Aided Drafting is really cool. If you've never played with building houses on a computer before, you should check out this cool site: http://www.graphisoft.com/ We use Archicad technology and it's so cool to see your building come to life before your eyes!

I'm also taking Masonry. I love the hands on classes the best. Actually doing the physical work is great. As we've just started though, we haven't gotten that much time practicing with brick and mortar. What we have done however, I really like. There's such an art to masonry, and we've got a really talented teacher. Stay tuned for an entire blog dedicated to masonry.

I'm also taking Chemistry. That's right, chemistry. I thought I was so clever getting through high school and college without ever stepping foot into a chemistry class. I remember the constant cries of my fellow students trying to learn this fierce subject. I didn't want anything to do with it so I simply stayed away. Well, it turns out Chemistry is a requisite class for my HP degree, so here I am. Not so clever after all.

Here is where I must confess. After several weeks of classes, I actually... really like it! Ya ya I know, bizarre. For some odd reason science always came very easily to me. It makes no sense given that math is my hardest subject. Regardless, I've always enjoyed science. So here I am, doing my labs at home (it's an entirely online class) and I am fascinated. I am actually looking forward to my labs- I mean, watching these chemical changes right before my eyes is so cool! Nature is amazing- so technical and so complicated yet so simple. We really can't do anything without chemistry. I never realized how much we owe to those brilliant scientists of years before. Fantastic!

And lastly I have an independent study of Preservation Dynamics-Law and Economics. I still have a week before this class begins, but I must admit I am fairly terrified of it. This deals with numbers, math, equations, accounting- ahhhh! That's where I don't excel so quickly. I've got a great teacher though so I'm sure I'll be pleasantly surprised about the cool things I'll be learning.

So you can see why I'm excited about this semester. Lots of cool things to learn! To be honest, I kind of wish I could continue as a student- it's a pretty great life. But let's be real, the jobs are calling!

Another kind of home...

2010-09-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

If you have read previous entries of this blog, you'll know that my continued search for exciting historical places has taken me all over the state of Colorado. This past weekend, I extended that boundary a bit and made it all the way to Utah- Moab to be exact. When you think of Moab, Historic Preservation might not come to mind, but there are some pleasant surprises here!

As mentioned in the previous blog, the petroglyphs and pictographs are well worth the visit. There is also the amazing landscape. If you know this area, you'll know that National Parks are abundant here. Thankfully these amazing Canyons, Arches, Mesas, and Bridges have been protected through the National Park Service. As a side note, did you know that Historic Preservation in America is actually a part of the National Park Service? That might surprise you but if you think about it, it makes sense.

Moab is truly an amazing place. The landscape is awe-inspiring. But don't get too lost in those red rocks to miss a place like the "World Famous" Hole "N The Rock! I've visited some amazing historical homes, but there has been none like this one.

This is a 5,000 square foot home drilled directly in the rock. Albert and Gladys Christiansen had a small cabin near the rock here in the early 1940's. Albert decided that a better idea would be to live in the rock, instead of near it. They began to chip away at the rock with dynamite and hand drills. Albert worked on the home for 12 years before he had a heart attack in 1957 and passed away. Gladys continued work on the home until she passed away in 1974.

The home has 14 rooms divided by massive rock pillars for support. Being inside the rock, there was a natural temperature of 65-70 degrees year round. Though Albert did build a fireplace, there was no need for heating or cooling of the home. The couple also ran a diner here. They had a 'commercial' kitchen complete with deep fryer that Albert built directly into the rock. After Albert died, Gladys continued to run the diner and give tours of the home. I wish I could say that diner was still there, but it has since been turned into a gift shop.

Unfortunately photos were not allowed inside the house. But I strongly encourage you to take a look at the rooms from the website here: http://www.theholeintherock.com/photos.html This home is very impressive. I can't imagine the work that was put into building this. Albert drilled 65 feet alone just for the chimney of the fireplace. A fireplace they didn't even need mind you.

From this photo below you can see the front door and windows. You'll also notice that Albert was a big fan of President Roosevelt from his memorial to him right above the front door.

In good American fashion, the area surrounding the home was filled with lots of kitsch. There was a petting zoo, several gift shops, and lots of strange "I'm not sure what that is" kind of yard art. This is definitely worth the trip though. If you're ever in the Moab area, don't miss a trip here.

Oh, and don't forget to go mountain biking either. Funny that Moab should just happen to have some of the worlds best mountain biking! I was lucky to squeeze in a ride in between my historic research!

Beyond buildings...

2010-09-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned in previous blogs, historic preservation is so much more than bricks and mortar- at least to me it is. Beyond preserving buildings there are statues, landscapes, entire archaeological sites, the list goes on. This weekend I had the chance to visit an entirely different realm well worth preserving: petroglyphs and pictographs.

I found this rock art in Sego Canyon in Utah, near Moab. The art from the panel above is called the Barrier Canyon style. This was attributed to the nomadic Archaic people that lived in this area from 8,000 B.C until the introduction of agriculture about 2,000 years ago. Note the hollow eyes and the missing arms and legs. I wish I knew more about that significance to explain here.

This next panel is the Fremont Style. The Fremont people thrived in this area from 600 A.D. to about 1250 A.D. They are believed to be relatives of the Anasazi people of the Four Corners area. I wish I had a better photo of this panel. It doesn't show how incredibly preserved they really are.

The last of the most prominent panels here is from the Ute people. The presence of horses and people riding horses relays a lot of information. As we know, the Spanish brought horses to North America in the 16th century, so these panels date beyond that time period. (Although evidence of horses being native to the Americas has been found, but that's another debate altogether). The Utes lived freely in Utah and Colorado until about 1869 when they were forced onto reservations. The picture of this panel below was taken from this website: http://climb-utah.com/Moab/sego.htm.

I find these pictograpsh fascinating for many reasons. First off, I am amazed at how old, yet will preserved they are. Some of this art dates back to 7,000 B.C! And it's still there! Secondly, it's fascinating that in this location, there are several different panels from different time periods, ranging up to the 19th century. I find this quite interesting. Over those 9,000 or so years, what was happening within these cultures. These are different groups of people with radically different lifestyles. What were they thinking when they came upon the others' drawings. Did they know what they meant? Where they answering them? Did they have any idea how old they were? How and why did they draw them to begin with? What is a spiritual ceremony? Were they sending a message to others?

There are so many questions that run through my mind I just wish I could go back in time and watch it all happen. As I stand there in front of this art, I really can see it all happening, or at least, how I imagine it happened. I can almost hear the drums and the conversation. I can see the people moving about, grinding red sand, blood and dirt for their paint. And then I wonder, where did they go? Were they just passing through, was this were they always stayed, was this a special spot? Why aren't there more drawings? I mean, there is endless rock here, why aren't these walls covered? Why did three different peoples, over thousands of years choose this spot for a few drawings?

The questions go on and on. I'm sure there's an Anthropologist somewhere that can answer some of these questions. Nevertheless it's fascinating to think about. After visiting a site like this in person, it makes me very grateful that someone out there has realized how important it is to protect them. Of course, this is the best kind of preservation- were doing absolutely nothing offers the best protection. In that vain, the site must be protected from vandals and curious people like me that just want to touch them! Here's where education is so important- teaching the public about respect and honor. Telling the story of where these came from and who did them. There will always be unanswered questions of course, but some mystery keeps the imagination strong, at least I know mine is!

Amazing Interlaken

2010-09-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

This past Labor Day I decided to celebrate by doing a little mountain biking in Lake County. Finally I got a day off from the hard work of the summer where I could actually just play. I love to mountain bike, and it's been way too long since I've been able to do so.

I geared up my bike and headed down to Twin Lakes, a beautiful area about 20 minutes South of Leadville. I got really lucky with one of the most gorgeous days I've seen in a long time.

Let me just say that this was one of the funnest trails I've ever ridden. It was really flat (I like flat) but lots of technical turns, dips, rocks, roots and fun single track- my perfect ride! Not to mention it was a loop around this amazing blue lake. As if it couldn't get any better, about three miles into the ride I just happen to run into this amazing historic building! Wow my positive thinking has really been paying off, I mean how lucky can you get?

This historic building was Dexter's Cabin. I have heard lots about this place because this was a project that my school mates have worked on. I just got here too late and I missed it. I knew the buildings were somewhere in this area, but I had no idea I would run right into them on my ride.

Leadville Miner James Dexter built this cabin for his family in 1895. It's really an amazing home. I would consider this 'log cabin' to be quite luxurious even by today's standard. I mean, just look at that wood work!

A few yards down the road is the actual Interlaken resort. The resort was built in 1879 by John Stanley who knew these sapphire lakes had a lot of potential for the upper class Leadville residents. Dexter purchased the hotel in 1883 and expanded it by some 2,000 acres. He spared no expense in making this as luxurious a resort as possible. Just check out this privy, it's said to have had individual booths and leather seats!

In addition, the resort boasted a billiard parlor, dance pavilion, ice house, cow and chicken sheds, and a boathouse among other amenities. This was quite the set up for 19th century lodge in a very remote location.

Sadly the resort lost its vitality when Dexter died in 1899. After that it was used as a boarding house until WWI, and wasn't used since. Fortunately, the National Trust, in conjunction with Colorado Preservation, Inc. and the Forest Service, have been spending many hours restoring the buildings. It is being rehabilitated for public use. They aren't quite ready to be open to the public however, and the work has stopped in the last year or so. I'm uncertain as to why, or when it will start again, but I hope it's very soon because this site is just outstanding. Anyone that comes to this part of the country really needs to rent a mountain bike and check this out for the day. They won't be sorry!

Ancient Native American Church Meeting- Special Edition!!

2010-09-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

While this weeks blog is not about preserving a building or other historic structure, it is about preserving and respecting dieing American traditions. Being in the preservation field, I strongly believe that preservation goes way beyond restoring wood and brick. We want to preserve the story, the history, the culture, the traditions. So when I was asked to attend an Ancient Native American Church Meeting (ANAC), I was incredibly honored.

My brother Phil is a Jesuit Priest on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He dedicates his life to living in solidarity with those around him. He aims to see life conditions improve, and tries to bring Jesus' message of peace and love to all those he meets. It's a tough job, but he was clearly born to do this. You can see more of where he lives and what he does here: http://www.redcloudschool.org/

Personally, I have always had great affinity for America's Native Peoples. So I am especially interested in Phil's life and life 'on the rez'. When he called me and told me he was holding an Ancient Native American Church Meeting and he wanted me to come, I can't even begin to tell you how honored and excited I was. Being your typical white person, I couldn't just stop by a church meeting. This is a very sacred event that you must be welcomed into, and there was no way I was going to miss this opportunity. This is something I have wanted to experience since I was in high school, and here it was!

Let me first explain a little about ANAC. For thousands of years many different Native tribes have been using peyote as medicine in spiritual ceremonies. The peyote enhances their communion and communication with the spirit world. Different tribes have varying practices, but there are a few main similarities. The meeting usually begins at night, and it lasts until sunrise the next morning, ending with a communal breakfast. There's lots of singing, drumming, praying, and rituals. It is always a very sacred event.

I rolled onto the rez about 5pm. Because my brother was the one holding the meeting, I was fortunate to see some of the preparation that evening. He had apparently been working on this for some time- holding a meeting takes a lot of work. There are so many rituals and proper things you need, way beyond what I could describe to you here. That day, Phil had been up since sunrise so that he could set up the tipi in the correct spot for the morning sun. He had been preparing food, gifts, and other tools the entire day. I got there in time to help set up the alter inside the tipi. I also helped pick some sage- an important element during the meeting.

Around 9pm or so Phil got most everything together and prepared for the evening ahead.

Around 10pm we entered the tipi. There were about 16 or so participants. We walked in single file from left to right, circling the inside until we found our seat on the ground. From this point on I will do my best to explain what happened, but really, I'm not totally sure myself. There were so many rituals involving tobacco, water, sage, drumming, prayers, fire, etc., I missed a lot simply because I'm not privy to the meaning.

There were some initial prayers and singing. I settled down into a deep calm. I was grateful for a very clear and peaceful mind that night. I was completely ready to absorb and participate in the healing and powerful energy ahead. With some rolled tobacco I set my intentions for the night. After some more praying and singing, the first round of the peyote was passed around. The number four has significant meaning for the Lakota people, and most things are done in fours. So when you receive the medicine, you are supposed to take four spoonfuls. Here's my brother eating his medicine on the first round:

Peyote is known to be a not so tasty plant. It was bitter, but I didn't think it was that bad. I took four small spoonfuls because I feared over ingesting could lead to a very paranoid mind. Everyone ate out of the same bowl, and washed it down with the same cup of water. I enjoyed this communion. There was a great connection between all of us inside the tipi, singing with each other, and praying with each other.

More singing, drumming and praying occurred, along with more rituals of which I didn't understand. This was kind of cool though, the mystery of what was being done was ok, it allowed me to make my own interpretations. From the energy in the room though, it was clearly all good, all positive, and all healing.

Another round of the peyote came fairly quick. By this time I was getting a bit sleepy, so I wasn't sure how much more I should take. I again took four small spoonfuls. This time it tasted a little bit worse, but still not that bad. A little while later, with more singing and drumming, I was getting VERY sleepy. It became more and more difficult just to stay seated. This was a disappointment. I didn't want to be sleepy, I wanted to be fully alert and participate in the meeting. I held on as best as I could for a few more hours. The singing was really incredible, and the drumming was mesmerizing. I was impressed by the native tunes my white brother could belt out:

By this time I resigned to keeping my head down and simply trying to absorb all that was going on around me. I was way to tired to actively participate, but I allowed the pure energy in the room just to cover me. Usually peyote has a stimulating effect, like that of epinephrine. Apparently not for me. I was told to eat more, maybe I just hadn't eaten enough. So on round three, I took some heaping spoonfuls! I was going all in this time. And let me tell you, this time it tasted awful! They aren't kidding when they say it tastes bad. Peyote is also infamous for making you nauseated, or even make you vomit. So by round three, the sight of the medicine is fairly nauseating in itself.

Around this time my brother was called to the alter. I'm not sure what he was doing, but I imagine he was getting some kind of blessing by the leader of the meeting.

This was pretty cool. As if it wasn't enough of an honor just to be there, but to see my very own brother that close and connected with the people, it was really awesome to see. I felt like an overly proud sister at that point.

On the other hand, those big spoonfuls on the last round really knocked me out. I'm not sure if I blacked out, or dozed, or what. I basically sat there, head on knees, for a few hours, doing everything in my power to maintain consciousness. Obviously I took too much, and this peyote for some reason had an opposite effect on me. Still, I sat there and absorbed as much as I could, and it was still so incredible.

I held on all night, making it to dawn. When the sun was up, the light shown brilliantly on the meeting leader when the tipi door was opened. This was an incredible moment- praying all night in the dark and being blessed by the rising sun. In the morning, a lot of rituals were carried out- I wish I knew enough to explain them. What I did understand however, was the blessing of the food and water. It's traditional for beef, corn, and cherries to be brought into the tipi in the morning. A lot of prayers were shared, and blessing of the food and water was completed. Bowls of the food were passed around, customary to eat straight out of the bowl before taking a plateful for yourself. Again I relished with this communion. I didn't think I could eat a thing, but once I started in on those cherries and buttery corn, wow that was some good food!

After nourishing our bodies and giving thanks for all these gifts, my brother passed around gifts of his own. There was so much work that went into this night, from the fire-man keeping the flames burning all night, to the door man making sure the door was in proper placement, to the water women who brought in the nourishing water in the morning, to the drummer who drummed for each and every song, to the leader who facilitated the entire meeting. They all deserved special thanks, the meeting would not have been possible without any of them.

After this we exited the tipi and began to take it down. To have final completion of the night, we needed to disassemble the tipi and take down the alter.

Now it was complete. In the early morning we all sat around and chatted for a while. The mood was light and fun. It was great to chat with these people that I hardly knew, yet just spent a very intense and special night with. Even though I didn't know them, I was very connected to them. We sat a while longer and had second breakfast. Then my brother did some final blessings.

The night was over. I'm not going to lie, it was difficult. Difficult to stay awake mainly. But it was so worth it. To see an ancient tradition played out before your very eyes, and to participate in it, was so incredible. It was almost surreal. I am very grateful for such an amazing experience. I have so much respect for all the people that participated. The incredible energy and prayers that were sent to the universe this night, has no doubt made this a more peaceful and happy world.

A special thanks goes to my brother Phil, all those that helped him prepare for this meeting and all those present this night. Thank you for sharing your time and prayers with me, I am honored!

The Switzerland of America

2010-08-31T19:07:00.001-07:00

Oh Beautiful Ouray Colorado! You can see from the picture above why they call it the Switzerland of America. It's such a quaint little town with an unbelievable backdrop of the towering Rocky Mountains.

I went to Ouray on a day off while working in Lake City. Actually I was just passing through on my way back from Durango, I had no plans to stop here but I am so glad that I did. Ouray is quite possibly one of the cutest little towns I've ever been too. Last summer I traveled all the way to Europe to see towns just like this one...I never even needed to leave the States!

Once again, this small Colorado town was founded in the late 1800's due to.....you guessed it, Mining! The town was incorporated on October 2, 1876, and was named after Chief Ouray of the Native American Ute tribe. The entire Main Street of the town is a National Historic District. I absolutely loved these 19th century buildings.

Better yet were the incredibly cool houses, many of which serve as Bed and Breakfasts' today as tourism is likely the largest industry for the town.

Wow these homes are fantastic! I could just look at them forever. That bottom house is for sale by the way. If anyone out there has a passionate desire to move to Ouray and start a B&B you've got a partner right here! Oh, did I happen to mention the hot springs!? That's right, as if this town weren't cool enough, just go down main street a bit and you'll see a huge pool, several pools actually, complete with water slides and hot tubs fed directly by the hot springs. Oh how glorious can you get? I haven't even mentioned the endless recreational hiking, biking and climbing opportunities either. What a town. It's certainly off the beaten path, a bit of a challenge to get here, but if you ever have a chance, I would absolutely recommend and nice long weekend get away here at Ouray. You can check out more by visiting their website here: http://www.ouraycolorado.com/Summer+Activities

Almost done!

2010-08-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well, that might not be entirely accurate. For me however, the summer is officially over, and my work at the Alpine Guard Station is indeed, done. School starts this week so I had to come down off the mountain early.

It's hard to believe that I have been up on the top of a mountain for 3 solid months with no internet or cell service (minus our one day off a week), no showers, no pressurized water, etc. I have to admit that I feel glutinous right now- sleeping in a big, soft, warm bed, turning on the faucet and getting hot water, showering everyday, not dealing with rat poop constantly! It's so GLORIOUS!

Don't get me wrong, I loved my three months of camping, and the work was fantastic. It's just quite the treat to have those lovely conveniences we all take for granted.

I really wish I could now show you some amazing before and after photos. Sadly though, the work is not done, and likely will not get done by the target date which is the end of this week. I can at least show you a few photos of my last day and the progress we've made so far:

Personally I'm super excited about the amazing new deck on the main cabin, I think it looks fantastic. You can also see that cabinets have started to go in the Kitchen, all ready for a sink! AND, you can also see the water tank next to that. Now that is exciting!

This was a really huge task to take on in such a short time, but we did give it our all, and I mean, completely. We usually worked very long days, but I loved it. The physical work was great. I was sore in the beginning, but quickly got used to that and the physical activity felt fantastic. It was also exhilarating being outdoors in such an incredible location all the time. I already miss the constant fresh air and amazing scenery, not to mention the lack of stress from constant technological stimuli. I also became pretty attached to my co-workers and all the amazing volunteers we had. I'm not going to deny that tears were shed as I drove down the mountain for the last time.

All in all it was a great summer, and I feel so very fortunate to have gotten such great hands-on experience. I just wish we could have seen the project to final completion. I'm not sure of the exact plan HistoriCorps has to complete the buildings, but I will definitely be taking a trip back there next summer to see the final results. Keep in mind, this cabin should be available for rentals next summer, trust me when I say that you should strongly consider a get away here, you won't be disappointed!

Durango!

2010-08-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Since we're coming upon our last week here at the Alpine Guard Station, and we knew we would be working extremely long hours to wrap up as much as we could- we geared up by taking a day off. We were hoping to build up some reserves and relax just a little so that we could start the week running and not stop until we're done.

As usual, when I'm given a day off I hit the road. There is so much to see here in Colorado and so many places I want to go, so off to Durango I went. I really wanted to go to Mesa Verde, but I didn't want to have only one day to take it all in, so I'm saving that trip for later when I can do it right. I figured Durango was a good compromise; and how right I was!

Durango very well could be Cathy heaven. First of all, it's surrounded by the most beautiful landscape. And there is a river than runs right through town- I could hear the constant laughter and "woo-hoo's!" from all the college kids tubing down it. OH I was dying to go jump in that river!
Then there was quaint little Historic District. I decided to go to Durango because I learned about it in one of my Historic Preservation classes. It was supposed to have a pretty good historic area, including the fabulous Strater Hotel. Like most small Colorado towns, Durango was populated largely due to it's mining potential. The town was organized in 1880 by the Railroad of course. And it also had to have a first rate hotel, which is soooo cool!
Durango also had some fabulous houses that I would just love to either live in, or work on. They had quaint neighborhood streets lined with big old trees and large green yards- just my kind of town.

In addition to the lovely neighborhoods and historic feel; this town really took advantage of it's local resources. I found so many locally made items, from arts and crafts to food and herbs. Buying locally and in season is very important to me, so this was a real treat. I was so impressed with the local herb shop, I just wanted to live inside this store! Last week I had the unfortunate experience of a table saw kick-back. If you've never worked with a table saw before, imagine a projectile piece of wood flying back at you at unbelievable speed. Ya, it hurt, and bad. Kick-backs are very serious and can be life threatening. Luckily I had on a good thick pair of Dickies work pants so that softened the blow a bit. I still got a large laceration on my pelvic bone and one extremely big bruise and bump. However, the Durango herb shop definitely saved the day. I bought a locally made, natural, healing salve that worked like magic. Nearly a week later and the laceration is completely healed. Amazing! I have a nasty scar of course, but wow that was effective!
After the herb shop I just happened to drive past the local food co-op. I'm a huge fan of natural food stores, and a community food co-op just can't be beat. So much of the food in the store was locally made by Durango residents, and they had a lot of freshly made raw cuisine which looked so fabulous. What a fantastic place!
I also just happened to be there during a Durango Rail Fest celebration. There were reenactments of Durango life in the 1880's, and a pretty cool shoot out that I got to watch for a while.
I just loved it here, and I haven't even mentioned the impressively sized farmer's market where I bought some local peaches, or the very authentic Mediterranean restaurant where I ate lunch. Durango is just so awesome. My one and only concern, and this is a big one, is that I'm not sure I saw anyone that wasn't white. I mean, nothing against white people of course, but I think cultural diversity is important, and I'm not sure I could live in such a homogeneous environment. Still though, Durango is a very special place and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nice road trip through the spectacular Colorado mountains!

Coming along

2010-08-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

So we're nearing the end of August which means we're the nearing end of our time here at the Alpine Guard Station. The summer has gone incredibly fast- too fast in fact. It's hard to see that we'll accomplish all of our goals on these three buildings by the beginning of September. We're trying as hard as possible though, and it looks promising that we'll at least have the major structural work completed in time. We've also had some fantastic volunteers from the University of Denver that helped out for a couple of weeks. Most of them were very enthusiastic, some were overwhelmed with the shear amount of work to be done ;)

It's good to see the progress coming along. We've been working so hard for so long to get these buildings in good shape. The major hurdle of clearing the houses from all rodent activity has been a challenge, but rewarding. I just love the fact that you don't immediately smell the noxious odor of rat pee as you walk into the bunkhouse anymore. Thanks to the every mighty power washer with bleach!

It's also really exciting too see the changes from the beginning. Looking at the pictures I took 3 months ago, it's so amazing to see the differences. It's hard to even think back about what it all looked like a mere 12 weeks ago. Here's a pretty amazing comparison, check out what the bunkhouse looked like in June:
And look at it now! I especially like to point out the ELECTRICAL PANEL on the wall! That's right folks, very soon you'll be able to walk into this lovely bunkhouse and turn on the lights!

Wow what a transformation. I'm sad I won't be there to watch the installation of the furniture and new stove, but I'm sure it will be fantastic. I'm looking forward to being able to rent this building from the Forest Service next summer. What an amazing base camp to station a lovely vacation of hiking, biking and fishing; all the while you get to come home to warm wood burning stove, electrical lights and pressurized water!

Summer showers!

2010-08-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, it's been quite wet, rainy and cold lately up at 10,000 feet. I must admit it's quite beautiful with the low laying clouds and misty mountain valley views.
On the other hand, it's been slightly cold and miserable with all the mud, wet clothes, and camping among them. I'm ok getting cold and wet, as long as I have a nice hot shower and warm bed to go home to. When you're cold and wet and camping however, that makes for a different story. At least my truck is relatively warm, so at the end of the day it isn't THAT bad. My huge down comforter actually does remarkably well keeping me warm. I will however do anything for a hot shower. I just don't like going to bed dirty you know?

So on Wednesday of last week, when we took our group of volunteers down to Lake City for dinner, I was stoked. I brought my toiletries bag with me. I had the ingenious plan to take a sponge bath at the restaurant. This would entail soaping up as much of my body as possible straight from the bathroom sink and using the harsh paper towels to dry. I knew I could be quick and I was excited. So to the restaurant we went. It was a pretty good place and I think the volunteers really enjoyed coming down to civilization. I ordered a quick salad and inhaled it- I wanted everyone else to be eating so I could slip away into the bathroom-come-shower. I made my way to the bathroom, and to my incredible shock- there in all it's beautiful glory was a real life, full, for real, shower. For real, a shower, as in, a shower you would have in your very own home. It was incredible. I was stunned and shocked. Why would a restaurant have a shower? I didn't care- I just locked the door, stripped down and jumped in! It was glorious- soap and all! Ah, what an amazing shower. I made it super quick as to not draw attention and occupy the bathroom for too long. Once I was done however, I realized one little problem- uh, towel? There were about 5 paper towels left in the dispenser, I used them to the best of my ability, soaking up as much water as possible. It wasn't enough but it helped. I pulled back on my dirty wet clothes but didn't care- underneath I was clean! Thank you, thank you Restaurant That Shall Not Be Named in case I get in trouble- you're shower is fantastic!
Of course, we don't always get this lucky. We must resort to other tactics up here in the middle of nowhere. Usually that means keeping a few sets of non-cotton clothes for changing, and wearing a good rain jacket. When we were able to get a fire going, some crafty volunteers took advantage to dry out their socks for example.

Other crafty folks came prepared with leg gaiters. Man what a brilliant idea! Especially when you're donning the super awesomely cool Utilikilt!
Though I was the only one with the guts, or perhaps gall, to shower in a restaurant, I have so much to learn from our fantastic volunteers. These tips are duly noted have no fear. If only I can find some leg gaiters on my next day off- rain is still in the forcast...

Haynie Brother follies...

2010-08-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

First of all, I must give our project manager Helaman mad props for tackling the huge endeavor that is the Alpine Guard Station rehab. Restoring three buildings with very limited staff and resources in three months is a huge undertaking- he's done a fabulous job.

Thankfully his brother Bryson was able to help us move forward a little quicker. Sadly, his last day was yesterday, and he's on his way back to Utah. On that note, I'd like to take a moment and share some Haynie brother highlights from the summer.

Though the work is hard, and we're busting our butts to make these cabins look great, there is no lack of laughter and good times. Take for example our decision to burn a large pile of nastiness that came out of the barn. We had to sweep out all of the hay from the loft, and with that came lots of rat nasty as you can imagine. We wanted this stuff gone, and quick. So what better way than to burn it? And what better way is there to start a fire in the middle of a national forest? With gasoline of course...
This frightened me a bit, but it did work. As you can imagine, that pile went up in flames quick! It was pretty cool to watch actually. My only complaint was that the fire was still raging at 10p.m. I wanted to go to bed so badly, but being completely paranoid about burning down the forest, Elizabeth and I shoveled lots and lots of dirt on the fire to contain it somewhat.
Though I thought this practice of pyromany-ism was insane, several forest service employees were helping out the following week and did the same thing, so there you have it. (my deepest apologies if I get anyone in trouble for this).

In addition to fires (there were more), I was also very impressed with Bryson's gymnastic abilities. At 16 I guess you can still perform such feats like jumping off buildings without breaking a hip or something. And what better way to practice your skills than off the new solar panel shed. Just check this out...

Then there was the day of the rain- the heavy downpours that is. There has been lots of rain lately, and I'll get to that in my next post- but this event in particular deserves mention in the Brother's follies for sure. What happened was this; it was a very wet and rainy day, and that made for lots of mud and treachery. After an amazing dinner (cooked by Elizabeth and I), the brothers headed out for home in Lake City. So off with the truck they went across the field...and tires spinning, and spinning, and the truck is sliding, and they're going nowhere. It was a really wet and cold day, they really wanted to go home and I don't blame them. So how oh how where they to get the truck unstuck from this mass of slippery mud. With brute strength of course! Helaman decided that using a ratchet strap was always the best way out of a sticky situation. So there they were, tying one end to the truck, the other to a rock, and then, they'd push the strap out of the mess.
Oh if only I had gotten a picture of those first attempts! Did I mention it was slippery and muddy? Imagine the two of them pushing, pushing, pushing so hard on the strap as I pushed on the gas to move that truck. How many times did each of them nearly face plant straight into the mud right over the strap! Hilarious!

And then there's the moment of getting the strap stuck under the rock. Attempt delayed.

Here's the thing though, it actually worked. I'm not kidding. Once they got good leverage on that strap, the pushed so hard and I gunned it. The tires finally caught on some grass and up out onto the road I went. They were going home for a nice hot shower and warm bed after all, leaving the rest of us behind to sleep in the cold wet rain. It was a pretty hilarious sight to see upon victory. You can't tell so much here, but they were drenched and dir-tay!
Ah good times Haynies', thanks for the memories!

Taos Pueblo

2010-07-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

Beautiful isn't it? There is something about earthen architecture that I absolutely love. It's a renewable resource, inexpensive, durable, abundant, and just so natural. Not to mention it looks awesome. Besides all this, I have huge respect for Native culture- and so I found myself at Taos Pueblo.

This is one of those amazing places that I shake my head in disbelief while there, "How did I not know this place exists?" America is just outstanding. I question why I ever go travel abroad when there are endless treasures right here in the 50 states. Taos Pueblo is one of the oldest. It is considered to be the oldest continually inhabited communities in the U.S. As taken directly from the Pueblo's information guide, "The Native legends and detailed oral history trace our existence back to the beginning of evolution of man and all of creation. Our Native Language, Tiwa, is unwritten, unrecorded and will remain so. the details of our traditional values are guarded as sacred and are not divulged. Understand that the past oppressions upon our culture have required us to keep the details unspoken."

The small community maintains a traditional lifestyle free from electricity and running water- and will remain so. The homes are adobe- a mixture of earth, straw and clay. They must be re-plastered annually due to weathering of the adobe. (A far cry from our modern day vinyl siding trend huh?) I find these homes incredibly artistic- yet very simple and peaceful. I think I might do quite well living in such an environment. Of course, I am not native in ancestry, so the chances of that are slim to none. These buildings are very sacred to the Pueblo people, and Kivas outline the tourist area. They are off limits to outsiders of course. There is a Catholic Church in the community however. I am a little conflicted on it's existence here, but it's a lovely building none-the-less.
As you walk around the pueblo, you can't really go inside any of the buildings, I mean, these are peoples homes. You can however visit any of the many small dwellings that function as stores. Here's one way that the local people can boost they're economy a bit. Most of the stores sell fantastic locally made jewelry and crafts. They are master crafts people, truly beautiful art.
One thing that I found particularly interesting about their building designs have to do with the many ladders you see everywhere.
As taken again from the Pueblo literature, "The buildings are actually many individual homes built side by side and in layers with common walls and no connecting doorways. The Pueblo looks much like it did when the conquistadors first arrived. The exception is the introduction of doorways. At one time, the only entryway into the homes was by ladder through an opening in the rooftops. this served as a source of light then as it still does today. The roof top entrances also served as a safe guard against intruders of the Pueblo. If an enemy was approaching, the ladders were pulled from the ground levels to the rooftops." Amazing!
There is so much more to this UNESCO World Heritage Site than this blog can offer. It's really one of those places that you just have to experience, not just see in pictures and read about. For more in depth information go here: http://www.taospueblo.com/index.php

I am mostly impressed than even today- in the too busy and hectic 21st century, that the community chooses not to buy into the frantic outside lifestyle. I must say here that I felt a little odd about walking around the pueblo- a tourist among their homes taking pictures of their daily lives. How would you feel if a group of people started walking around your neighborhood snapping photos and pointed at your house, your roof, in awe of the way you live. It seemed a little intrusive and embarrassing. Yet, at the same time, I felt honored to be welcomed into this sacred community- I just wish more neighborhoods were like this. If only we Preservationists had the skills to work on that...

The Earthship has landed...

2010-07-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

Before I launch into this rather alternative episode of the historic preservation blog, let me clear up one thing. I am not a hippie. I have never been a hippie, and I am not currently one. I have been falsely accused of this many times. For some reason, people want to classify me in the hippie arena because I'm eco-friendly and like argyle socks. I am a punk, goth, thrasher or whatever you want to call it. It's just been toned down considerably since I turned 30ish.

Ok, now that that is clear, let's talk Earthships. I'm not talking about the X-files here, I'm talking about Sustainable Green Building designs. These are amazing. This weekend we finally got our one and only long weekend and I high-tailed it to New Mexico. I love New Mexico. My destination was Taos, and as I got a few miles from town, I kept seeing these bizarre little home tucked away in the dirt- literally. I'm not sure how to describe them- but they're pretty dang cool. I was happy to see one of these homes was actually a visitor's center where you can go inside and learn more about these very green dwellings.

You can see just from the pictures above that these homes really utilize green building practices. First there's the traditional adobe building technique- using the earth for your walls- sand, clay and straw. It doesn't really get more sustainable and earth friendly than that. Then there's recycling, or the use of trash that would otherwise sit in a landfill forever. Notice the tires- a major building block for these structures. You can also see the bottles, or the bottoms of the bottles- and you probably thought those were specifically decorative, pretty awesome huh! And then there's all the cans, lots of beer cans and coke cans, mostly beer though. I mean, this stuff is garbage to most of us, and you can literally build a home with it!
Besides using these materials for the building itself- these homes are completely self-reliant, they're off the grid completely. They generate their own electricity from wind and solar power. You'll see a few wind turbines and solar panels dotting the landscape. They also utilize rain and snow water for all needs- bathing, cooking, drinking etc. They catch the water on the roofs and funnel them into large cisterns. Then it goes into a water organizing module where it's filtered and sent through the pipes- regular plumbing as far as you'll know. Personally, the bathroom was my favorite room in this earthship- so cute!

There's also the very important factor of food. As taken from the website www.earthship.com "A fundamental concept of Earthships is that gray water from the sink or tub is recyled and purified by feeding into an indoor planter before being used to flush the toilet. This creates an environment in which plants are not only asthetic and contributing to the heath of our environment, but are also highly functional and play a direct role in the maintenance of the home." So, these homes are not only good for the environment, but very healthy for the inhabitants. They're completely self-reliable. I don't know about you but I think these are pretty awesome. And yes, I know that you think this makes me a hippie, but punks can be into sustainable living too!
This is an extremely brief overview of what an earthship entails. For more information please visit www.earthship.com

Besides the work...

2010-07-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

We're working long hard days out here in the forest, but as with life, it's all the little things that make the day so interesting. For starters, Helaman, Elizabeth and I have no fear of getting lonely with all of our furry and fun companions. Actually, they're not fun at all, but rather annoying. I'm talking about the chipmunks mostly. They've lost all fear over the last few weeks, and will taunt you in the cook tent as you try to get them to go away. They're really not interested in going away, and seem to know that you're only bluffing with the threats to step on them.

Cute they may be, but after the 4th time that they stole my bottle of hand soap, that was it. Seriously, they have some kind of affinity for plastic bottles, I don't get it. I had a small bottle of soap that I kept by the well to wash my hands- the first time it was gone I figured the wind took it. I couldn't explain how it traveled uphill but there wasn't any other explanation. The second time it was gone I figured something had taken it, but how? Then, caught red-pawed I saw that little chipmunk with the entire bottle in it's mouth! Sucker! I don't know how it carried it away, but it did it again, and that was the last time I saw my soap. So of course, I bought a bigger bottle. Chipmunks are little, there's no way they could carry this one away. Well, carry away probably not, but chew through it- duh, I should've known!

They've also grown quite a bit fatter in the last several weeks. Hmmm, what exactly are they stealing from our food cache? We thought we did a pretty good job of keeping all the food secure. But every so often someone forgets to shut the trailer, and there they are, running away with a bag of chips in their mouths. Or an apple as seen here. Well, I know that I've had enough of this. And so have the Haynie brothers. (We're very fortunate that Helaman's younger brother Bryson has come to work with us for several weeks!) So the brothers decided that purchasing a Beebee gun was in order.

The boys were successful, in only two days they snagged two chipmunks. We haven't seen any since. Obviously they now know better than to mess with the Haynies.

We were also introduced to the Utah tradition of roasting Starbursts. I'm serious, like most Americans, roasting marshmallows and making smores was my families tradition, but Starbursts?? Well, the boys showed us how it was done, and I must admit, they were much tastier than I imagined!

We've also had some expert campfire builders among our volunteers. After the days work is done, we're graced with the luxury of time (sans internet, televisions and cell phones!) Some things tend to get creative. Here's volunteer Scott making an exceptional campfire. And don't you know the thing burned like a champ!

We also run into the occasional unexpected delay when traveling about on these forest service roads. Last week, after buying groceries in Gunnison I headed up the road to the Guard Station much later that I would've liked. I don't like getting on that road after dark. I thought I had just enough time to get to the top before the sun was completely down. Well, of course I wasn't planning for obstacles in the road- obstacles such as fallen trees (that I attempted to saw out of the way with a hand saw), and a few hundred cows leisurely taking their time meandering down the road.

Ah, the little surprises in life, that's what makes it all worth it right? Just like looking forward to a shower all day when working so hard in the dirt. Oh there's no better shower than after a hard day of work in the hot sun. Thank goodness for solar showers! Uh, ones without big gaping holes that is!
Oh the joy of getting ready for a shower at the end of a long day. Oh the AGONY of all the warm water pouring out of the shower after it acquired this big old hole. I wanted to cry. The shower is dead. BUT, there is a light at the end of this tunnel. The brutally hot weather hit us with perfect timing. This past week the weather was just hot enough that I was able to bathe in the creek each day. The cold water actually felt pretty amazing. I love bathing in the creek when it's hot enough, so in this case, the busted shower turned out to be a good thing. Don't think I'm not shopping for a new one as soon as possible though!

Ah such is life, the ups and downs and the good times and bad. But it always works out in the end!

Progress!

2010-07-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

After two full weeks of amazing hard working volunteers, we're finally seeing some progress! We've been able to turn that corner from destruction to putting things back together. It's nice to begin seeing our hard work come together.

We finished putting up the new shingles on the bunk house roof and began with the new shingles on the barn roof, only about 10 more courses to go! This past week the temperatures climbed considerably from the nice cool 10,000 foot weather we're used to. Wow, talk about breaking a sweat up there on that roof. Hard work it is, but not without good fun to keep spirits high.

You'll also notice in the pictures here that we FINALLY got in all the logs that needed replacing- that goes for all three buildings. Remember, we've been at this for 5 weeks- logs are heavy and difficult, but we did it! (Well, Helaman did it really.)

It's nice to be done with the logs and now move on to other projects. Last week we had some fabulous volunteers that were very skilled and were able to work on the building of the new solar energy shed. They ran with it, and put up almost the entire thing in just a few days.

We also started putting in the floor in the soon to be bunk house. This was really exciting- a floor! To me that signals major progress. Before we lay the OSB boards over the floor joists we're power washing every inch of the bunk house and the barn. A little hot water and some bleach, and that rat nasty should give us no more problems. We also put bora-care in a few of the logs. This is a small piece of boron, which vermin and pests do not like. So long suckers!

We have LOTS more to do. But I must say that it raises my spirits to actually see things falling into place. It feels like we're really making a difference. And it will only get better from here!

Volunteers are so cool.

2010-07-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of June, Elizabeth, Helaman, and I have been working on our buildings by ourselves. This has been quite the challenge with only three of us, especially considering the limited construction skills of Elizabeth and me.

Well this past week we were fortunate enough to have some fantastic volunteers. About ten very hard working and enthusiastic folks joined us from Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado. Which by the way is a brilliant organization that you can check out here: http://www.voc.org/. If you want to get involved in the outdoors in the middle of the Rockies, this is the way to do it.

So from Tuesday through Friday we were able to accomplish an outstanding amount of work. The garage/soon-to-be-bunkhouse got a new roof. This was a great project that I think I enjoyed more than anything we've done so far. First we had to get the shingles. This actually happened several weeks ago when I took a trip down to Denver to pick up a few thousand pounds of the cedar pieces.
This was not the part I enjoyed thoroughly. Driving this load from Denver to Lake City wasn't exactly a care-free task. It was a little bit scary but I did it without incident thankfully.

With the shingles in place at the Guard Station, our volunteers went to work first stripping all of the old shingles off the roof. This was no easy task, not only did they have to get all the shingles off, but each and every single nail had to be removed as well. That's a bit tedious. Once that was done, we got to work assembling the new cedar shingles. This was fun! Being the perfectionist that I am, I really enjoyed this process. It's also super fun to strap on a harness and walk up and down the roof, almost as cool as being on a fun climb.
We got a lot done on this building, and I must say that it looks fantastic. It was also fun to see the monstrous bonfire we lit to burn all of the old shingles.

In addition to the roof of the garage, we also worked on fitting new logs into the barn. We're not doing a whole lot to the barn other than stabilizing it and squaring it up so that it will maintain, or rather, regain it's structural integrity. If there ever was equestrian traffic up here, people could actually use the barn for their horses. Though we're not doing a major rehabilitation project on the barn like the other two buildings, strengthening this building is still a LOT of work. Like is so common on old log buildings, the bottom logs need to be replaced due to rot. I'm still amazed at what a simple jack and some manpower can do.

Just look at this building without the bottom couple of logs. Can you even believe it's still standing. With a few jacks and some cribbing we're able to fashion the new logs complete with notches to fit into place. Here's a picture of volunteer Sean working on a notch in a new log. I started the notch with a chainsaw, not exactly 'historic' craftsmanship, but quick and efficient nonetheless!

Fitting the logs into place is complicated. Unfortunately we didn't get that done this weekend, but we're so much closer thanks to the awesome energy of the VOC volunteers. We also began the foundational construction for the solar energy panel shed. That's right, when complete the main cabin will have solar powered electricity. This is a pretty awesome way to bring this historic cabin into a more user friendly 'rehabilitated' habitat. My only wish is that it had it now! The volunteers did a great job with this:
It was amazing how much quicker work goes with a few more hands. I only wish these rockstars were staying longer than four days! Fortunately we'll have another week of VOC volunteers next week, oh if only they were here for the next 7 weeks with us. Not only were they great workers, they were a lot of fun to have around and added some much needed moral and energy. If any of you volunteers happen to be reading this, do come back- we miss you!

Log Work

2010-07-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

What kind of home do you live in? This probably isn't something you think about on a regular basis. Most people don't, unless you're in the construction or building industry. Chances are you live in a framed house or building. Light-framed construction is the most common type of modern building for many reasons. As taken from Wikipedia: "Light frame construction using standardized dimensional lumber has become the dominant construction method in North America and Australia because of its economy. Use of minimal structural materials allows builders to enclose a large area with minimal cost, while achieving a wide variety of architectural styles. The ubiquitous platform framing and the older balloon framing are the two different light frame construction systems used in North America."

Staying on track with good American practices, we use frame building because it's quick, cheap and easy. Compare this to the log buildings of yesterday. (As a side note, log buildings were not the buildings of choice for the first East Coast settlers. Log buildings are more common as you head West in the later years of America's development.) Personally, I think log buildings are fantastic. When I moved to Alaska in 2003, I had a very romantic image of what the architecture would be like there. I imagined everyone living in a quaint log cabin with lots of wilderness around. Well, this is hardly the truth, and it makes sense that it's not. Anchorage, the city I lived in, was mainly developed in the 1960s and 1970s- when inexpensive frame building was becoming very popular. Log buildings require quite a bit more expertise, craftsmanship and hard labor (logs are HEAVY!). Sadly, skilled log craftsman are on the decline. This is why such organizations like Preservation Trades Network are increasing in popularity- we don't want to lose these skills!

I could go on and on about logs, but let's get to the Alpine Guard Station and the work we've been doing. If you remember, the main cabin of the building is a pretty impressive log structure. The bottom logs (the sills and the spandrel logs) were sitting either directly on the ground or on concrete. Both of these situations caused the logs to rot quickly. We had to remove these bottom logs and replace them with new, healthy logs. So...how do you remove the bottom log of a building without taking it apart??

Like I mentioned in the last blog, we had to jack up the building, use a lot of force and chainsaw power, and a bit of manly sledgehammer power to get these suckers out.

It took a few days, but we finally were able to get out the sill log and two spandrel logs on the East and West sides of the building. Thank goodness for the hefty 12 ton jacks we had, otherwise there's just no way...
Kind of looks like the building is floating huh? Well, it kind of is for a moment. It's pretty amazing to lift an entire house straight from the ground; and a little scary.

Once we got the logs out, we had to put in the new ones. But first, we had to cut down the trees, somehow carry them to where they needed to be (trucks and hitches come in handy for this), peel them, drawknife them, and then notch them to fit back into place. All of this took about two weeks from start to finish, seriously, this is not easy work. Like I said, these suckers are heeaaavy. And notching the corner of a log to fit into the one above and below it is not exactly easy either. We did it though, and I think the end result looks pretty dang good!

Now we just need to put the finishing touches on, like a little bit of paint, and any epoxy on some logs that can be saved. I'm glad that this difficult phase is over though, now we can get going on other things like fixing the interior, re-shingling the roof, and building the porch that once stood many years ago.

As a bonus, if you're interested in seeing how a log cabin is built from start to finish, I recommend the move "Alone in the Wilderness". It's about a man who moves to Alaska by himself when he is 51 to build his own cabin and live there for an entire year alone. It's very impressive!

Things will get worse before they get better...

2010-06-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

We've all heard this before right? Think about taking on a project like cleaning out your closet. The goal is to organize and streamline and make your area better. But first you have to take everything out, try everything on, assess and re-assess, make a keep pile, throw out pile, donation pile, give to your sister pile, and suddenly you've got a big mess in your room. You have to make a disaster before you can make it better.

So it goes with the Alpine Guard Station. We've been working on the three buildings for about 2 weeks now, and let me tell you, we've got a big mess. There's really no other way to do it. We've got foundation problems and rotten log problems, and plumbing problems...all things that require some demolition so that we can actually get to the problem. Let me remind you what the main cabin looked like before we began...
It's a great little building, complete with kitchen, bedroom and living room. Here's pictures of the inside two weeks ago:

Pretty cute huh? The kitchen has great little cabinet space, a sink with pressurized water, a nice stove, it even has a cool retro refrigerator. (Though there's a note in the kitchen stating that this fridge has been recalled and should not be used- I have no idea how very old that letter is.) The bedroom has cute little built in closets and a desk in between. Quite convenient. BUT, we had to figure out why the floor was sagging in the corners, and assess the stability of the foundation, as well as remove the rotten sill and spandrel logs. So here is what the inside of the cabin looks like now:

Demolition is fun, but it is kind of sad to see such destruction of such a great place. In Historic Preservation however, you gotta do what you gotta do. Let me state here that this kind of demo is not recommended! In HP you want to save as much of the original fabric as possible, and do as little alteration to the building as possible. In this situation however, we didn't have much choice. We had to get those rotten logs out, and we had to get to the foundation- sometimes you have to take drastic measures. I might also add that this is a 'Rehabilitation' project; meaning that we are changing the building slightly so that it can be a functional building for people to enjoy (rather than a true fundamental 'Preservation' project).
Cutting into the floors wasn't much of a challenge. Removing the sill log however, was. This is one heavy sucker of a building. Usually you use a couple of bottle jacks and the building will go right up, we had to get creative with this one, and we used lots of jacks. Here's Helaman attempting to jack up on corner:
We finally did get the building up, and then we were able to remove the sill log. It didn't come out as easily as we'd hoped, we wanted to save as much of it as possible, but the whole thing turned out to be pretty rotten. That's what happens when it's sitting on a concave slab of concrete for many years and water has it's way. We ended up having to cut it up in pieces with a chainsaw to get it out. But get it out we did. And here's how it looks now from both the inside and the outside:

Ah, now we've got some serious work to do! Now that we've made one enormous mess, we have to put it all back together. I'm really excited about this though. It's going to be really neat to see how it all comes together. We'll be able to work much quicker now that we've got the major problems out of the way, and we can start to really make the place look nice. Stay tuned!

Pioneer Life...

2010-06-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

The world is a cruel place. I have always thought the contrary, but now I know the truth; it's a cruel place indeed. You see, when you're taking a shower in the middle of a wide open valley at 10,000 feet, and you have no shelter what-so-ever, and the wind begins to blow.....it is excruciating. After a long, hot, dirty day of hard work, the one thing I look forward to the most is a nice warm shower. Aaaahhh, the warm water cleansing the filth from my body...oh, but no, don't, AAAHHH the WIND, STOP!! It's soooo c-c-cold!

Don't get me wrong, I am VERY grateful for our solar shower. That's how we bathe. We have a 5 gallon bag that we fill with water each morning, then it sits in the sun all day to heat up the water. We hang it on something, usually the top of the work truck, and gravity does the work. It's so nice to have this I must admit. But seriously, when you're completely naked and wet in the middle of an open field, I curse the wind like you wouldn't believe. Once you get it through it though, it feels amazing to be nice and clean....well for about 15 minutes before you kick up enough dirt to get dirty again. But still, it's better than nothing.
There is a creek about 30 yards from the cabin. On a super hot day I will bathe in the creek, but wow it's still pretty cold. I just like the idea really. It seems so 'in-touch' with nature to bathe in a creek. Usually though I'll stick with the bag, the water gets surprisingly warm. So life goes off the grid. Let's talk about the rest of the day, just like the pioneers may have done it. (Well, modern day pioneers that is....)

I have to say I have a ton of respect for true pioneers and the way they survived life off the land 100 years ago. Those were tough dudes, more power to them. I'm accustomed to the luxuries of the modern day; like pressurized water and indoor heating. This makes me feel pretty weak when I realize exactly what life is like without all these luxuries. This goes far beyond life in the Wild West 100 years ago. Just look up the statistics of the World Health Organization and you'll see astounding facts about people all over the world without access to clean drinking water, sanitary bathing waters, indoor plumbing, electricity etc. So I have nothing to complain about at all. Camping off the grid for three months is a bit of challenge for me though, which just points to the expectations Americans have in the 21st Century.

The day usually begins around 7a.m. I may wake up a little earlier than that, but the sun does not see over the ridge of the mountain immediately to our East until 7:15, and it is still really cold in the morning. (When you can scrape the frost off your car windows, I consider that cold). So I usually lay in my truck until I can see the sun, then I know it's a bit more tolerable to open the topper and climb out. By the way, this is what my sleeping arrangements look like for the summer.
I built a platform in my truck bed and put a futon mattress on the top. You see underneath I have space for storage- everything is under there, all of my clothes, gear, food, stove etc. The topper is lined with carpet, and my Mom helped me make some curtains for the windows from wool blankets so it stays relatively warm at night. It's not a bad alternative to a tent, and way warmer.

So after I climb out of my home, I walk the 80 or so yards to the vault toilet, kicking up lots of dirt along my way. The toilet is one of those Forest Service huts that you see at the beginning of trailheads, which this is at the beginning of trail so there you go. It's not the most pleasant place to be first thing in the morning, but it's better than a tree with scattered pine needles everywhere. Then I walk back to camp and attempt to wash my hands and face. This consists of pumping water from a nearby spring. This is about the best water I've ever tasted, and also freezing cold. Most of the time I resort to baby wipes for cleaning in the morning, it's just too cold for this business. The pump is pretty cool, it takes about 10 pumps to get it going, then about 10 more to fill say a medium size saucepan.
After filling the shower, washing my hands many times, filling water bottles, washing dishes, cooking, etc, I'd say I pump this about 300 times a day, maybe more. It's sooo much better than say, hauling water from the creek!
After pulling out my stove and cooking up some oatmeal or the like, we head straight to work. (This morning ritual takes way longer than it should. In the modern world I can be out the door in 35 minutes, shower, breakfast and all. In the mountains I don't pick up the first hammer of the day until about 8:15 or 8:30, how is that?)

Anyway, to work we go. So far we've mostly focused on demolition and trying to figure out exactly why the floor of the cabins are sinking, and how we can fix them. We're also busily attempting to replace a few rotted sill and spandrel logs. This might not sound like much, but this is serious work. Just check out our tool cache...
We usually work until around 6ish, and we bust some butt. I like the physical labor, it feels good at the end of the day to feel like you really worked, and not just stared at a computer screen all day. My wise father told me recently that it will take about 30 days for my body to adjust. I think he's about right, I'm not getting so sore anymore and I'm feeling pretty good at the end of the day.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty spent. This is when I take out the solar shower and grit my teeth if the wind decides to play. After the shower we pull out the trusty Coleman stove again, make something quick and then climb into our holes (either the truck or Elizabeth's tent). Once the sun catches the ridge of the mountain immediately to our West, it gets cold really fast, so usually by 7:30 or 8p.m. we seek shelter. For the next couple of hours we get to read or perhaps watch a movie on my Itouch if I can stay awake that long- usually not. Morning comes quick and then it's everything all over again....

Lake City Outbuildings...

2010-06-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was our first weekend with volunteers. Let me just say, they were awesome! I was so impressed by the hard work and knowledge of these volunteers; we got done in a weekend what would have taken our full-time three person crew several weeks or more. I wish we had them the whole summer!

We worked on the outbuildings of Lake City. If you don't know much of Lake City, Colorado, and most of you don't, you should google it. It's a super cute little town in the Southwest part of the state with amazing mountain views surrounding it. It's a designated Historic District so CPI (Colorado Preservation Inc.) recognized the importance of working on it's vulnerable buildings. We focused on the towns outbuildings. This may seem like a waste of time and energy to some (at least when we could be working on more substantial buildings), but outbuildings are contributing structures to the Historic District, and thus, still very important. They may not have been the grand primary residences of the town, but they certainly add much to the historic fabric of any community.

We worked on three buildings total. The main focus was on the Bent Mule Barn. This old barn was left to fall down, in fact, some hoped that it would fall down just to be rid of it. Others really wanted to protect this historic structure, and so CPI stepped in to preserve the building. Here's a picture of it when we arrived:
This picture actually makes the barn look a little better than it actually was. Here it looks fairly stable and in relatively good condition. What you don't see is the magnitude of the rotten wood from being buried in the ground and the instable surfaces. You also don't see the truck loads of trash we pulled out of the building and hauled off to the dump. When I say truck loads of trash, I mean more garbage than you can imagine...from old tires to broken plates, to an old salad bar, to scrap metal, to piles of old LP's etc. etc. It was kind of like a crazy old ship wreck of retro treasures, only not really savable.

We worked on the barn all day Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday. I'm still amazed at how much we got done in such a short time. Luckily our volunteers were very skilled and impressive workers like I mentioned above. Our main goal was to stabilize the building so that it would remain standing for many more years. This takes more structural assessment than I am currently able to produce. But I did learn a lot from our amazing team. We dug up around the corners of the buildings to assess the stability and quickly saw a lot of rotten wood (burying logs in the ground is a great way to make your wood deteriorate faster). We replaced the foundation and then worked on the stability of the roof and walls. With some brute force, ratchet straps and lots of nails this proved to be an easier task than I would have thought. (Well, it wasn't easy exactly but it went smoother than I would have anticipated.)

At the risk of getting too carried away or technical on you, lets just say that the entire project came out great. Here's some after photos:

Again, you really can't see how dramatic the change was on this building, but rest assured this building will be standing for many more years to come. Thanks to such a great group of volunteers. Remember, the Alpine Guard Station has LOTS of work to be done and we're always looking for help!! The sight is amazingly beautiful and right on a great little fly fishing stream. We'll even cook for you! Just picture yourself here...

Rat Nasty!

2010-06-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

WARNING! READER BEWARE...GRAPHIC IMAGES!

I'm not kidding, the images below might be a bit disturbing, especially if you're an animal lover. I don't know many people that love rats though, so it's not THAT offensive.

I really should have known this going into the Historic Preservation field. I mean I knew that it would be tough, hot, dirty work, but I never gave thought that it would also be nasty...as in, rat nasty.

A few days ago we cleaned out the garage at the guard station. When I say cleaned out, I mean removed every last piece of crap that was shoved in there from the last 50 years, tore apart anything that wouldn't come out, and completely ripped up the floor. Here's what it looked like before:
Actually that was only one side, there's a wall here separating the other side which was also full of crap. And when I say crap, I mean that in every sense of the word. The stench of rat urine and feces was outrageous. Thank goodness for respirators! This was some really gross stuff. Just think of stirring up years upon years of neglected dust and trash, with the pack rats having a freaking field day. The picture below is of the barn, not the garage, but it gives you a good feel for what years of rat urine looks like:
Seriously grody. I can handle this nastiness if I don't really think about it, and I have a mask and gloves on. I actually really enjoyed ripping up that floor. Demolition is just so fun and therapeutic! Along the way I also found a few surprises. This is were the warning comes in, if you're squeamish then don't look. I never had any idea a rat could get this big!
I'd say that mummified head was about four inches. I found another head, and a few detached bodies. To give you scale I'd say there were about the size of a house cat. Ya I know, scary stuff. You can see in the picture above all that debris around it. That's the top of a dresser that we pulled out- all that debris is mounds of rat poop. The grossness just continues. My supervisor Helaman and I were talking about how gross we felt at the end of the day, covered in this contaminated dust. We somehow came up with the term rat nasty, and I think it pretty much sums it all up.

We finally got just about everything out of the garage. But now there are mounds of dust, dirt, and rat poop that needs shoveling out. We have to get some bleach and water to spray on the dirt first, otherwise you're talking about a potential health hazard. Unfortunately we didn't have all the supplies we needed for that, so down to Lake City we go to buy a wheelbarrow and bleach. In the meantime, I found another treasure as I was leaving the garage. Again, reader beware, this next image might haunt you...especially if you're a cat lover. (Amy and Casino, you might not want to see this!)

Poor little kitty! I have no idea how old this mummy was, but I could read the tag on it's collar perfectly. The poor thing was all the way from Ft. Leavenworth Kansas. Perhaps someone brought it there on vacation? Who knows what happened, but clearly it either got lost and stuck in the garage, or the rat nastys got it. Boo rat nasty!
Well, such is life I guess. We all have a fate to live. I just hope mine is not similar in any way shape or form to that of my little kitty friend. On a positive note, the garage is looking good. Check it out now...
And now the work really begins. The stabilization will be tough, not to mention everything else we have to do to turn it into a habitable bunkhouse. But have no fear this will be a place you will want to rent out and bring your family to! Maybe not until next summer but still...I promise you not a single rat will be seen!

Exploring Colorado...traveler beware!

2010-06-11T17:18:00.001-07:00

So last weekend we had a couple of days off of work. My coworker Elizabeth and I decided to explore a little bit of Colorado in the area around Lake City where we're working all summer. I have been looking forward to all kinds of road trips this summer. Especially around New Mexico and the National Parks of Utah.

Given that we only had a day and a half free, we decided to make a quick trip of the area. There was a road at the end of town that read 28 miles to Ouray. On the map Ouray looked pretty cool, well, there was a hot springs at least and that was enough for us! And being only 28 miles away, it sounded perfect.

So off we went, driving out of Lake City for 10 miles or so. The road was slow, as many Colorado mountain roads are (they're narrow dirt roads with massive drop offs and no guard rails). I can handle that though, I have a great little Toyota Tacoma pickup which I call Taco for short. Besides, nothing can be worse than the follies of the Alaska road system I'm sure.

At about mile 11, the road became increasingly worse; bad enough that we actually turned around because we thought it couldn't possibly be a road anymore. It was like it suddenly turned into a hiking trail, foot traffic seemed fine, but vehicular traffic seemed out of the question. A few bikers passed us at this point (motorcyclists that is). They assured us that this was indeed the road to Ouray, and that my Taco would make it just fine. Well alright then. We turned around and headed back up the hiking trail slash road. Oh how I wish I would have listened to my instinct! Turns out this was Engineer Pass- a road notorious for four wheeler traffic and Jeeps- stunningly beautiful, but terrifying. I can't believe people actually think it's ok to drive a car on this thing. I was terrified going over massive rocks on gravelly road with the constant fear that I would spin out at any moment, go over the cliff and find an early death. I'm not exaggerating, I was really terrified. Everyone around here says I'm pretty weak for this. I have never considered myself a wus, but there it is. Perhaps if I knew before hand what I was getting into it would have been different. But the truth be known that I do not ever wish to drive this pass again in my life. However, it was incredible.

Ah beautiful day. This did make the trip worth it, almost. Now that we had gotten to the pass, surely going down would be easy, and after going 14 miles in two hours we only had half way to go. Oh but wait, what feels so funny on my Taco, is that a flat tire I have?? Yes indeed, that is one massively flat tire. So we stop, get out and try to change it. It was here that I was happy this road was so narrow. No one could pass us, so they had to help. Thank goodness that two cars approached us within 10 minutes or so. There was no way we were getting those old lug nuts off of that tire!
That was one tough tire. Even with four large burly men it still took us two jacks, a lot of kicking and about 30 minutes to get on the spare and continue down the road. But finally we got it. Down the road we went. It wasn't any quicker, still treacherous and scary, but thank you Taco my dear friend for being such an awesome truck!
We did pass some awesome abandoned mining towns on the way down. These places are everywhere in Colorado. The mining here was just outrageous back in the day. They're pretty cool to walk around and imagine what life was like there 100 years ago.

So I guess the day did end well enough. Finally we made it to Ouray, though about 6 hours later than we had planned. Luckily we found some climbers on the way who recommended that we stay at Orvis Hot Springs. Turns out this was a 'clothing optional' hot springs resort. Well, we were hot, tired, and ready to relax. So you know how the saying goes....when in Rome!

Summer Worksite Preperation

2010-06-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

We finally got to visit our summer sites! This was very exciting. Of our five person crew, three of us will be at the Alpine Guard Station in the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest, and two of us will be in the Rio Grande Forest working on two cabins near South Fork Colorado.

The past 10 days have been incredibly busy. I never realized how much preparation went into working at a remote location for the entire summer. HistoriCorps has been planning these two projects for months, and now we're finally ready to begin. After a few massive Costco trips, some organizing trailers and buying last minute forgotten tools, ordering unforseen items, and lots and lots of driving (with loaded trailers and flatbeds), we've made it to our sites, and they are AMAZING!

I knew they would be cool, but to finally get here and see the beautiful surrounding forest is so great. I will be working with Elizabeth and Helaman at the Alpine Guard Station.

The history of the building is pretty cool, as taken from the HistoriCorps website: "The Alpine Guard Station was first constructed in 1913 as a remote ranger station for the United States Forest Service; the site is located within the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest, in Gunnison County, and includes three historic log buildings: a ranger’s residence, barn, and garage/equipment shed. The ranger’s residence was constructed in 1920 by rangers Henry L. Spencer and Bill Doran to serve as a seasonal guard station within the Alpine District of the Uncompahgre National Forest (which later merged with the Grand Mesa and Gunnison National Forests). The site is associated with the early twentieth century sheep grazing industry of the Western Slope and stands as a good example of an early Forest Service administrative facility.

The work that needs to be done is extensive. Again, as taken from the HistoriCorps website: "Several projects will be conducted at the Alpine Guard Station site. All three structures will be reroofed with cedar shingles, all doors and windows will be repaired, and all of the sill logs will be replaced. Both the garage and dwelling will have interior repair and will be furnished. The dwelling will also have plumbing installed to accommodate a sink. The extended plan is to turn the garage into a bunkhouse with a wood stove, beds and a table. Crews will construct vault toilet facility and a solar energy shed, modeling a CCC-era equipment shed, to house photovoltaic panels, batteries and an inverter. In addition, the site will be graded for ADA accessibility. The proposed projects at the Alpine Guard Station will provide participants with knowledge of the layout and assembly of wall frames, construction of roof trusses and roofing techniques, construction of historically accurate hinged garage doors, and the siding of walls with board and batten."

I'm so excited to begin working on these buildings. There is so much work to be done it's a bit daunting, but to think about how great it will look when it's done is fascinating. Besides, when I got to sleep every night in the back of my truck, this is what I see: This picture certainly does not do it justice, but you can still see that it is quite beautiful. This is obviously a very remote location, about 20 miles from the very small town of Lake City, Colorado. We won't have internet or cell coverage while on site, and we plan to stay on site for the majority of the summer. I hope to come down at least once every week or every other week. I wish I could blog about this more often because there will be so much to relay, but given this 'off the grid' location, my blogs will be few and far between. Do stay tuned however, because I expect them to be so full of exciting developments as we move through the summer!

Wyoming!!

2010-06-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

Since classes ended in late April, I have been looking forward to beginning my internship with Colorado Preservation Inc. during the month of May. After a nice two week vacation in Alaska, I was really anxious to begin working. So on Sunday May 23rd, our 6 person crew headed out to LaPrele, Wyoming to work on an old Forest Service cabin at 8,000 feet. (If you haven't thought much about Wyoming, you really should, it's quite gorgeous and an excellent place to get back to the basics.)
Here is a picture of the cabin we both stayed at, and worked on.

This cabin was the home to forest service personnel, next to this was an administrative office and a barn. It was built in the 1930's, and really is in excellent condition. Today the forest service rents the cabin to the public for a nice get away in the Wyoming high country. Which brings me to my next point- be prepared! When you're dealing with mountain country and high altitudes, you must always be prepared for anything- that goes for animals, weather, cabin conditions etc. You would think that after living for 6 years in Alaska, and working as the Preparedness, Health and Safety Director for the American Red Cross of Alaska that I wouldn't have to even think about this. Ya well, when it's 85 degrees in Denver, it's so hard to think about the cold only 5 hours away. I know I know, I of all people should've known better. I packed for cool conditions, not a blizzard.
I mean seriously, who would have predicted this! You see the picture of the cabin above, that was at about 8am. This next picture, yes, same place, same cabin, only about 2 hours later.
Wow, that was really impressive. It snowed about 4 inches that afternoon. Needless to say, our work was put on hold for the rest of the day. And, I had a very restless, cold and somewhat miserable nights sleep given my lack of preparedness (I hope no one from the Red Cross is reading this!)
Well not to fear, the next day warmed up considerably. It left for some sloppy and muddy conditions, but if you're working, you might as well work hard and get dirty! We had several projects we worked on for the next 3 days, including building a new log gate for the campus entrance, refinishing the cabinetry in the kitchen, fixing a ripped screen door, putting tile up in the bathroom shower, and my favorite, getting fire wood from the surrounding forest! Yay, warm fire!! I got some practice with a chain saw which was much needed. It's not too hard to use, but my scrawny arm needs some serious muscle building.
After gathering some wood for heat, we also got a few small trees that we planned to use for the construction of the new gate. Building this gate was really cool. I learned so much in such a short time about using logs and hand tools. First we peeled the logs using a drawknife (I love this tool!) Then we coped the end of the logs with gauges and chisels. We did the coping so that the logs will sit nicely into the logs they're touching for the gate. You can see Nathan on the right with the drawknife, and Jonas is on the left coping the end of a log.
In the picture below you can see how the logs we're working on are being pieced together to make the gate. The coping of the ends of the logs takes some patience. If you can imagine it's pretty tricky to chisel that log just right to fit over the log next to, below or underneath it. It takes several rounds of chiseling, fitting, re-measuring, and chiseling again. We did pretty good though, as you can see from the pictures below, I think the end result looks pretty amazing!

Log work can be fairly strenuous, and after using that chain saw for the morning I was happy to get a break and do some tiling in the bathroom. I was surprised how easy this was. There's really not much to tiling, just slathering on the adhesive and making sure your tiles fit correctly. Then of course is applying the grout the next day or so after it's dried. I actually really liked working on this. It was a bit monotonous, but I'm a perfectionist at heart, and I really got into my groove fitting these pieces together. It almost felt like a piece of art, and was very therapeutic.

All in all it was a great week. I learned so much about log work and I am really excited to expand on these skills this summer. And, I certainly learned a valuable lesson. My truck is now fully loaded with 2 hot water bottles, two down comforters, long underwear x3, a sleeping bag and a slanket. No way I'm getting cold again! Too bad we're not returning to Wyoming though, it was really beautiful!

Ethical Dilemma of Historic Preservation...

2010-04-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

What, this sounds strange to you? What possible dilemma could I have with preserving old buildings? Blame it on my world travels, or my guilt ridden Catholic upbringing, or my sensitive nature...I'm not sure what to blame, but I definitely struggle with the idea of preservation in America.

The key here, is preservation in America, I don't struggle as much with say, preservation in Europe, though I still question it. I've always been a very sympathetic and worldly-conscious person. I've always related to the struggles of others, the poor, discriminated, neglected, persecuted, even if they were half a world away. I've often felt that their problems were my problems too. And I do believe this, if there is persecution and suffering anywhere in the world, it brings down the spirits of all humans, there's only one energy in the world, and we all share it. Ok, but let me not get too off track. The point is, I'm sensitive to human life, and this is where my dilemma comes in.

When you consider Historic Preservation in the U.S., we're talking about relatively young time periods, 100, 200, maybe even 300 year old buildings. Child's play to the thousand+ year old homes in a lot of the world. With our history so young, it's not hard to relate to only 100 years ago. I mean, our grandparents were likely living in these 'historic' times. So when I think of American history, inevitably, I think of Native Americans.

The history of the Native Americans since say, oh maybe 1492, sucks. Any person living in America can tell you that the white European man came to these lands 500 years ago and destroyed the way of life that Native Americans were living. I'm not saying that they lived in Utopia, I'm not saying that their way of life was idealistic. Certainly the land was fraught with war, violence, drought, starvation, disease etc. But it also saw thousands of tribes that flourished, and lived reciprocally off the land, and had harmonious relations with their neighbors. They lived their lives as they saw fit. After Columbus' 'discovery' however, the 'savage' way of life was changed forever. Native Americans were killed with astonishing speeds, they were driven out of their homes and their lands, they were forced to learn English and the 'civilized' way of life, they were forced into Christianity and boarding schools, they were placed on reservations and introduced to alcohol, they were exposed to diseases and terrible white man food...etc. etc. No one can argue that they have suffered a terrible fate at the hands of the 'pioneers'.

So lets switch gears for a second, think of some of the cute little towns historic towns in America like Williamsburg, Savannah, Jonesborough...etc. Oh their so cute and so quaint. They just scream America! They're so fun to walk around and look at the old buildings, and window shop in the cute little antique stores. I am guilty as charged. But what do these towns really represent? Is this America? Is this the true pioneer spirit of our forefathers? What is missing here....

What is missing, is the true history. What was here in Williamsburg before these cute little colonial homes? Hmmm, how about locals such as the Pamunkey and Mattaponi. Where are they now? What, you've never even heard of the Pamunkey and Mattaponi? Most Americans haven't, and that I think, is a big problem. This is the foundation of my dilemma, do I, as a historic preservationist, want to be involved in preserving a building that (in my mind) directly represents the persecution of thousands of peoples? The wigwams, longhouses, tepees and lodges are gone. We can now walk the streets of the perfect little neighborhoods with white picket fences and nice Christian families. I might seem bitter here, well, I am! What has happened to the first peoples of this land is horrendous. And the bigger problem still, is that their situation is still grim today. Native Americans have very unproportional rates of debilitating illnesses like diabetes, alcoholism, HIV, heart disease etc. Their unemployment rate is far beyond the average for non-natives. The struggles from the past are as present today as ever.

By now it should be easy to see my problem. I'm not saying that I am completely against preserving Americas built environment, obviously I'm not or I wouldn't be in this program. I believe it's important to promote community solidarity, preserve the past for education purposes, and to preserve the environment as much as possible (preservation is very green). But I am very conflicted by what should or should not be preserved and glorified.

I've talked to a few good friends about this, and I keep getting the same answer. It's our history, like it or not. It should still be preserved. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I was in Germany this past summer, and while there are a few concentration camps preserved for educational and memorial purposes, most of the Nazi error propaganda has been destroyed, rightly so in my opinion. Ok maybe that's not the best analogy, but you get my point. There's also the idea of life being circular, not lineal like we live it today. This also happens to be a strong theme in Native American life, coincidentally. There's a big part of me that respects this way of thinking. Like we are born, live through adolescence, the teen years, adulthood, old age, and then die. So does all of the world. We wouldn't want to preserve our dead relatives, so what's the difference in preserving our old buildings. Why not let them live their lives and be recycled back into the earth. What's the point in holding on so long....what are we trying to prove?

I don't know the answers to these questions. I didn't expect to be faced with such problems when I chose this career path. But there they are. And to be honest, I tend to have such dilemmas no matter what I'm doing (again with the Catholic guilt). It doesn't mean I'm going to abandon this field. Like my brother told me, 'you have to follow your true passion, and don't forget to keep asking questions along the way'. So for now that is what I'm doing. I continue to ponder these ideas, and question what is best (I don't think there is a right or a wrong here). I think it's important to ask ourselves such questions no matter what we do with our lives. That's just being human I guess.

In the meantime, I'd love some thoughts, feelings, suggestions about these ideas...

Sheet Metal Class

2010-04-19T10:59:00.001-07:00

When most of us think about historic buildings, likely we think of wood. Old log cabins, timber framed homes, or simple balloon framed houses that are so common. Where here's a question for you, what do the following pictures all have in common:

All of the these elements, the cornices, the posts and the cupola tower, are all made of metal. That's right, these are not wood structures, like I initially thought, but they're made of metal.
The abundance of metal work in historic American buildings was a total surprise to me before I started my Sheet Metal class this semester. Though the use of metal has been around for thousands of years, the new found land in 1492 was filled coast to coast with trees (minus the Southwest). Of course wood was the most common building structure among the new European inhabitants, though there were certainly other materials used, like brick and stone etc., depending on the precedent of the settlers.
Nonetheless, metal made its way to American buildings. Its use became popular in the 1800's, especially among tinplate, tern-plate, cast iron, lead, copper etc. The benefits of using metal were that it is inexpensive, decorative, lightweight, and resists the elements well. Decorative you say?? Check out this metal wall from a restaurant right here in Leadville:
Pretty cool huh? There's a lot of these impressive metal workings in Leadville. The next time you're in a building you think might be around 100 years or so, look up. The ceiling very well could be made of metal, in a similar kind of fashioning as this wall. Again, they're lightweight to use, sanitary (much more so than wood), and can be quite decorative as you can see. Metal may even be used as a faux finish in many ways, look at this stone wall:
Got ya, that's metal alright! Looks pretty convincing though don't you think? And it will last for quite some time, at least longer than wood does.
Metal can be used for so many things, its really quite impressive. Most of us walk by metal structures everyday with no idea that they're actually metal. I've definitely been fooled. The closer and closer I look, the more I see metal, all over the place! Don't be fooled, check out some of the buildings around you, and see where you can pick up on a piece of metal here and there, I guarantee you'll be surprised!

Stanley Hotel.....ooooooohhhhhhh, spooky!

2010-04-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last semester I took an Architecture class that focused on American History. I found this class incredibly interesting. I always wanted to know what people meant when they threw around terms like 'Victorian, Gothic and Greek Revival.' I'll write more about all of these house styles in another blog. First, I want to talk about the super cool field trip we took one blustery and snowy November day.

My professor had always wanted to check out the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Many of his previous students had done projects on this building. Being a big fan of the dark side (ghosts, halloween, and spooky things in general) I was excited!

Can't quite place the name Stanley Hotel?? Think "The Shining." That's right, that spooky movie with Jack Nicholas, REEEEEDRRRUUUUMMMMM. The story goes like this, in 1974 Stephen King and his wife took a small vacation from their Colorado home and went to stay in the Stanley Hotel. As the hotel was closing down for the season, they were the only two in the hotel for the weekend. They stayed in room 217, which was reportedly haunted. They dined in the large dining room completely alone, with recorded orchestral music playing in the background. King explored the hotel on his own in the late hours, and gained inspiration for his novel.
Remember the little boy riding down the hallway with on his bigwheel?

Our class received a tour from one of the hotel workers. It mainly consisted of the rumors of hauntings, and the ghostly experiences that so many guests have experienced. I was kind of hoping to see something in the distance, or feel a kick in the shin while going up the main stairway (as many guests have reported). Unfortunately I didn't see or feel anything, well, expect for this:
If you look closely, this stairwell going up to the roof says Redrum on the door!! Spooky!

The hotel has quite an interesting history. It's a 138-room Georgian building located within sight of the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was built by Freelan O. Stanley of Stanley Steamer fame and opened on July 4, 1909, catering to the rich and famous. The hotel was built entirely with hand tools. This is very impressive considering all of the impressive wood work and detailing throughout the building.

The hotel was also of the first equipped with running water, electricity, and telephones. Unfortunately it did not have heat as the hotel was designed as a summer resort. Besides that, it was quite the posh establishment for the rich and famous, and in a stunning location of the Rocky Mountains. A very impressive building to say the least. I definitely recommend a stay at this lovely Colorado resort, if you're not afraid of ghosts! Just beware of hanging out in the lobby or bar area all by yourself...

Historic Log Workshop...

2010-04-14T13:05:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this past August was the International Preservation Trades Symposium here in Leadville. As this semester draws to a close, and I am gearing up for my summer of restoring wooden cabins, I am fondly reminded of an excellent workshop we had at the IPTS this past summer.

There are several old ranches in these parts of the mountains, and lots of neglected and deteriorating buildings. In the log workshop during the symposium, we had the opportunity to work on an old log building from a nearby ranch. We actually disassembled this small living structure and moved it to another location where we reassembled it. Please note, this is almost NEVER allowed in the preservation world. It is considered very bad practice to ever move a historical building from its original site. You would be altering its history after all. Typically the only exceptions are if the building is in some kind of danger of abolition, from modern development or from an unsafe environment. In this circumstance, we used it solely as a learning experience, and have no intentions of documenting this building for preservation purposes.

With that in mind, we chose a small log building that was likely the home of workers on this ranch. We first removed the floor boards, and the roof. Then we labeled each log and removed each one, very gingerly, one by one. (Imagine a lincoln log home that you built as a kid).

All of the parts of the home were loaded onto a big truck and moved to the Hayden Ranch (our schools outdoor laboratory). Here we started with the labeled logs, and put them back together, one by one.

This was great work. Some of the wood had rotted, mostly from being in the soft earth, so we treated it with some epoxy. Supposedly this will keep the wood from further rotting for quite some time. Then as we put the puzzle back together, it was amazing how it fell into place. There were some challenges however, like fitting the doors back in properly. It's amazing how the wood shifted and changed so much! We eventually figured it out though, with a little muscle. Unfortunately we did not have scaffolding to complete the roof, but rest assured that we'll be tackling that in a class very soon.
This session was very informative, and great learning opportunity. One of the highlights of the day, was to see our friend from the cemetery the day before. I can't remember exactly the story he told us about this very cabin, but if I'm not mistaken, I believe he said he was born there, in this very cabin that we just moved across town. Talk about a coincidence! He was more than happy to help us out with reconstructing the cabin. It was a joy to have him there. It really helped put some meaning into the wood we were touching, a face to the place so to speak.

Human Rights, Phrenology, Sexual Liberation and Octagon Houses...

2010-04-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

Uh, what do these things have to do with Historic Preservation you ask? I know it sounds strange, but they have a lot in common....Orson Squire Fowler! Never heard the name before? Well be prepared to be wowed, this man was something else.
Picture taken from http://www.steubencony.org

I'm currently doing a paper for my Research and Documentation class on an Octagonal home in Loveland, Colorado. So naturally I had to do a bit of research on Octagonal homes in general. I have to say they're pretty fascinating, well at least Fowler is. He was the name most credited with the promotion of the eight-sided homes. He didn't exactly create it, there are plenty of examples of octagons dating back several hundreds of years, but it was responsible for making it popular in the general housing market.

Fowler lived from 1809-1887. He began his varied careers as a phrenologist. You know, the study of the shape of the skull as an indication of mental abilities and character traits.
Image taken from Amazon.com

Fowler would lecture around the country on phrenology and felt your head for assessment at a measly 25 cents a pop! Me next! I really like this chart...

Ok, so on to human rights and sexual liberation. Yes, Fowler was a proponent for these too, and in the Victorian days nonetheless! As a proponent of various forms of self-culture, he published his book in 1843 "Perfection of Character." He was also the author of one of the more notorious sex manuals in Victorian times, "Sexuality Restored And Warning And Advice To Youth Against Perverted Amativeness: Including Its Prevention And Remedies As Taught By Phrenology And Physiology."
As taken from the website http://www.crookedlakereview.com "Orson Fowler held forth for the equality for women at a time when women had virtually no legal rights in the United States, and he stood for children's rights when child labor was quite acceptable in the burgeoning industrial factories of his country. He proposed ideas on how to discover the ideal mate, on marriage counseling, sex education, hydropathy (the curing of diseases by internal and external use of water), mesmerism, the improvement in farming as well as in the enhancement of health and daily life. Moreover, he condemned the use of tobacco by men and tight corsets for women. Orson Fowler was obviously a universal reformer whose ideas were much ahead of his time, but above all he was a nineteenth century individualist in what many have seen as an age of orthodoxy, piety, and conformity."
And he was doing this in the 1800's!!

So again you ask me, what does this have to do with Historic Preservation. Well, these philosophies led Fowler to his octagon homes. For an octagonal house was much healthier for its inhabitants. The open space with a cupola allowed for much better ventilation throughout the home, and more sunlight. It was heated more efficiently in the winter as the heat could reach the top floors easily. And, it was much cheaper to build. Sounds pretty good to me!

Here we see the floorplan for a Fowler designed home (taken from Wikipedia) and a picture of the Hyde Octagon House from Mumford, New York. (image taken from http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/allegany/.
So if these houses were so great, then why weren't they more popular? There were only a few thousand built, and only about 500 remaining today. Well, if you look closely at the floor plan above, you'll see that though Fowler promoted this shape for ventilation, sunlight, and eliminating useless corners, the inside rooms were actually square. And this further caused some triangular shaped rooms as well. This didn't exactly follow his line of thinking. We still have some useless corners, and even more so awkwardly shaped rooms. Now these smaller rooms like closets and pantries receive the ventilation, not the living rooms, and they only have one exposure to light. Hmmmm, maybe this is why they didn't exactly take off in popularity. Furthermore, the argument that these homes were cheaper to build wasn't because of the shape of the house, but because Fowler was promoting this new "gravel-wall construction" aka, poured concrete. In fact, most of the octagon homes were built of wood or brick, actually making them more expensive because the materials then had to conform to the 135 degree angles.
Well, it was certainly a good try. I think they look pretty cool. I'm not sure I could live in one everyday though. Here's a picture of the McCreery House which I am currently researching for my paper.

It was built between 1888-1901 by W.H. McCreery, a Presbyterian Minister from the east coast. Today it is a Bed and Breakfast and is the sight of many beautiful weddings and other fun events in Loveland. This house was officially registered on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. Rightly so, this a fine example of the few remaining octagonal homes. All thanks to Orson Squire Fowler!

Building Structure Analysis Class...

2010-04-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, so if you know me at all, you know that the word MATH will bring forth sighs, groans and eye rolls (and possibly a little twitching) from me. For whatever reason I have always struggled with math. Give me a paper to write anyday, and I can fly through that, but computing x=y/nq or whatever that means just gets me riled up. So when I found out I had to take Technical Math last semester, I about fell out of my chair. I had always prided myself on getting through High School and two Bachelor's degrees without taking any physics, chemistry or college math.

Well hello humility, there I found myself one warm August day last year in a classroom with 20 other students, all boys, all under 20, and all Ski Area Operations students. That was one long semester. But me being the determined person that I am, I studied my rear off. With some sweat, tears, and banging of my head on my desk, I triumphed through the course with an A. Ya I know, I was shocked as well!

Man was I happy when I turned in the final on our last day of class. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy learning, and I found the brain exercise very good for my vitality, but man it was hard work, and I was ready to relax and not have to think about equations for a long long time. I was really looking forward to the second semester. I was scheduled for Sheetmetal, Carpentry, Research and Documentation and Building Structure Analysis. I was so excited to have the book classes behind me and start getting my hands dirty (other than the Research and Documentation class, but as I said before, I can knock out a paper in no time).

My first week of classes back in January went well. Until that fateful Thursday evening when I showed up to Building Structure Analysis class and was handed a geometry and algebra test...um, excuse me. Is this a joke? I took Math last semester. Please tell me this is a nightmare, please!

Oh no, no joke indeed. This was the real deal. Not only are we doing math, but we're doing engineering, that's right, straight up math processes I didn't even know existed.

What in the...what is this?? A little engineering, a little physics, a little calculus. Lord help me this is going to be rough. Rough indeed.
Yes, this is quite the struggle for me, but let me tell you the other side. Throughout this semester we've been learning things like how to assess a building for its live load capacity, and its dead load capacity. Do you know that trusses are very strong structures and that's why you see them so much on bridges. Do you know how to figure out how much each member of that stress can hold and whether its in compression or tension.
How about that column on your front porch. Any idea how much its actually holding. Ever wonder how something that skinny can hold up your house? I must say that learning about these processes is pretty dang fascinating. Really I never gave it any thought before, but bless those crazy geometry gods, there's some amazing things you can do with a few little equations!

Yes I know, I probably should have realized that getting into this field was going to require some math usage. But really I just want to hammer and drill stuff together, so I didn't think about it. But after going through the pain and suffering (and a little throwing of my calculator) I guess I can say I'm better off for it. I bet you don't know how to design a house to meet the Earthquake code for a house built in Missouri made of wood. (Seriously, the EQ code for Missouri is higher than that of the Pacific coast. Weird huh!)

Summer Internship!

2010-03-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

During the past 3 months or so, I've been busily working at refining my resume and writing cover letter after cover letter. While work is hard to find in Leadville, summer internships abound for Historic Preservation students.

I found some really interesting opportunities all over the country. With my humanitarian work and administrative background, I had a leg up on the college students without much 'real life' experience. But on the other hand, my lack of hands-on experience and only one year of classes put me at a disadvantage.

Honestly I was pretty worried about getting a internship that would really challenge my trade skills (or lack there of). It appears that most of the students that apply for these internships are graduate level students. When I started looking at all of the opportunities, they were overwhelming. The National Park Service and the National Council of Preservation Education had about 42 different opportunities, then their were about 10 or so private organizations that I seriously considered. Including this fascinating position that I really wanted...Faith & John Gaw Meem Preservation Trades Internship...http://historicsantafe.org. This internship works with earthen architecture in Santa Fe New Mexico. These are mostly Native American buildings built in the original earthen style. Talk about inexpensive and energy effecient, I would have Loved to work on these buildings.

All in all I applied to about 10 different positions. I got roughly 3 call backs. One dismissed me altogether because it didn't end until mid-September (classes start in August so I don't really understand the logic here.) Another was a fantastic opportunity was in the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve in Florida. I would have worked on the Kingsley Plantation old slave quarters. As taken for the Park Service website: "Many of the buildings at Kingsley Plantation are made of tabby. Tabby is a mix of lime, sand and water. The lime was obtained by cooking whole oyster shells in a kiln, then "slaking" the shells by adding water to them - in this process the shells break down." The history of the plantation is fascinating, you can read more about it and see pictures here: http://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/kp_tabby.htm

I was really excited about this opportunity. This would have been the perfect job for me combining my studies in Anthropology and Historic Preservation. The only problem, this was an unpaid internship. Under normal circumstances that would not have influenced my decision, but given that I have been unable to find a full-time job in Leadville, and I still have another semester at least to go, I just could not afford this for the summer.

Then I got a call from another internship right here in Colorado that I was also very interested in. The program is called HistoriCorps and is run by Colorado Preservation Inc. Basically they will be focusing on about 5 different projects all in the Southern part of Colorado, in the Gunnison and Rio Grande National Forests. They're all a bit different, but for the most part they are very hands-on opportunities for restoring old wooden and log buildings. I applied for an assistant position, I would be responsible for helping out the crew leader in organizing volunteer crews and of course, working on the structures.

I was very excited about this opportunity given its remote location in the mountains (I love to camp), the hands on learning opportunity and the fact that these projects are open to volunteers all summer long. So needless to say, I was SUPER excited when I was offered the position! Read more about HistoriCorps here: http://www.historicorps.org/about.html And really, if you want a fantastic summer vacation, please check out the volunteer opportunities, I would LOVE to see you there for a few days or week!

We start around May 21st, first going to Wyoming for a week to meet our fellow crew members and get some hands-on training for the summer. Oh I love Wyoming too, so excited for the summer! In the meantime, I'm desperately figuring out how to rig my truck for the summer. I opted to outfit the back of my truck as a sleeping space rather than sleep in a tent all summer. Now I have to make sure my truck topper is water tight, (which it is not at all at the moment), then make some kind of sleeping platform, leave space for my gear, and figure out what to do about heat (it will snow at 10,000 feet during the summer). I know it might sound miserable to you, but I am so excited. I love the sense of adventure and can't wait for the road trips on my days off. The four corners area is choc-full of outdoor recreation that are among my favorites...mountain biking at Moab, hiking at Taos and the Arches, wondering at Mesa Verde...endless opportunities.

Only one month left of classes for this semester, and then I'll be spending the summer doing what I came here to do- hammer and nail some stuff and road trip in between. Woo-hoo!! Once again, please consider volunteering for HistoriCorps, you won't regret it and I might even let you sleep in my truck!

Cemetery Workshop

2010-03-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

What? That sounds strange to you? Well, cemeteries are actually the site of a lot of preservation. The elements can cause quite a bit of damage to that headstone, add in time, neglect, settling ground, expanding tree roots, abrasive cleaning, and the unfortunate occasional vandalism, and you've got some work to do.

This past August Leadville was the site of the annual Preservation Trades Network symposium. Lucky for me, I was able to get some real hands-on experience my first week of school. One of featured workshops was the 'Cemetery Preservation Workshop' led by Jonathan Appell, an expert in the field of both cleaning and restoring deteriorating monuments in aging cemeteries.

I gotta say this workshop was really fascinating. Restoring monuments in cemeteries is far from any image I have in my mind when I think Historic Preservation, but when you think about it, it certainly fits right in.

Here's a question for you...What would you say is the most common material used for headstones in U.S. cemeteries today? Marble you say? Well actually, very little marble is used in American cemeteries today, (though it used to be) it is in fact barred in some states altogether. The most common material used in U.S. monuments today is granite. Granite is extremely strong and will show very little weathering over the course of many many years. As we learned throughout the day, typically headstones were made of whatever material was available to the geographical region. With the connection of train lines however, larger and more varied materials were used for monuments as they were more accessible. As seen in the Leadville cemetery, marble, zinc and granite were the most common materials used for headstones. (We're talking about 100 years ago)

In addition to the above mentioned enemies of monuments, water is any mason’s biggest foe. Water can come from below, or through the ground into the structure. It can come from above, in the case of rain, and more specifically today, acid rain, and it can come from within as in condensation. Water can draw out the salts of the material, and cause rapid deterioration.

In addition to learning all about the materials and history of U.S. cemeteries, the participants got to work on 3 different monuments. I'll share the details of the largest one we worked on.

You can see the challenge we faced. This marble headstone had fallen off of it's base and substantially sunken into the earth. This was a pretty big monument, I couldn't see how we were going to get this sucker out of the earth and back onto its base without throwing out a few backs. Jonathan must have some magic that I was anxious to see.

The first thing we did was dig up around the monument to clear some of the earth so that we could get under it with a level and pull it up out of the ground.

We then cleaned off the marble using a soft brush and water, using care not to be abrasive as this could cause further damage.

Then Jonathan pulled out his magic. He demonstrated how to use a tripod to lift the headstone onto the base after the cleaning and leveling of the two fragments. This was a simple yet effective process for using a pulley system to lift the very heavy stone.

Before placing the monument back on its base, we applied a monument setting compound, epoxy and very small pieces of lead to the base of the monument to allow the headstone to secure to the base, and to allow for proper fitting of the two fragments. The base retained it’s metal pins, which the headstone was reaffixed to. After joining the two pieces, we cleaned off the compound, and that was it, done!

Pretty cool huh. It was actually much easier than I would have thought. Though this workshop was only one day, I learned a ton. My favorite part though, was meeting the wonderful man that takes care of the Mason's tract at the cemetery. He's been coming here for many years to clean and preserve all of the headstones associated with the Masons. He doesn't get paid, and no one asked him to do it, he just wants to. He's made makeshift wooden signs for those missing their names, he waters the lawn, cleans the monuments etc. He just happened to be there that day, and after talking to him for a bit, he decided to join our session and learn a few things himself. What an amazing man!

Wood Class Update...

2010-03-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

Where oh where does the time go? With only 5 weeks of this semester left, students are starting to think about finals and wrapping up their semester projects. Finally I finished my bench that I've been working on in Carpentry class.

I really had great hopes for this bench. You know, it would be the nice little piece holder when you walk in the door- throw your keys down, toss the mail on it, and kick off your shoes. Well, I don't know what the heck to do with this dwarf of a bench. It IS big enough to hold my phone.

But really, what do I need an entire bench to hold my phone for? Plus, I'd have to bend down awfully far to get it, not very convenient. I certainly can't sit on it, I mean, I might be good, but not that good, this 'bench' is just too small. I certainly can't stand on it, I'm not sure I trust the glue enough for that. If there's any ideas out there for this one, let me know! Otherwise I'll just continue to admire it from above.

I did finish another project in class the other night. I kind of pulled this one out of nowhere, found some cedar in the scrap pile and pulled this little guy together. I know it's not much, but oh does it add to the ambiance of my fabulous 125 year old apartment.

Don't look to closely though, I still need to stain it and sand down the edges a bit. But it still works, space for three little tea lights. Not really sure what to do with it, but I think it's pretty cute still.

So what's next you ask? I have big plans to make a bowl (well, a basket really) in the remaining four classes that we have. I'm not sure how that's going to work out, but do stay tuned so I might impress you!

Old is the New Green

2010-03-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

Concerned about saving energy, environmental conservation, your families health...? Want to go green and protect the planet? Well don't think new and improved products, think old, as in recycle, keep what we already have, expend less energy.

In addition to Historic Preservation providing us with live history, community cohesiveness, and beautified neighborhoods, its also one of the best tools we have in combating global warming and becoming eco-conscious.

The craftsmanship of 100 years ago was significantly more refined than it is today. With imported power tools, compressed wood board, new growth lumber, and shortcuts galore (time is money), a lot of today's construction just doesn't live up to building practices of yesteryear. When you build a new home, or do remodeling, or replace windows, etc., (even with eco-friendly products) you're still using significant amounts of energy in the production of these products, and possible lots of greenhouse emissions.

So logically, preserving the old and already existing, is much more environmentally friendly. At this point I know you're saying, "But my old house is so inefficient, my windows leak, there are cracks in the wall...." Have no fear, there are answers. Your home can be improved without drastic changes, and without replacing those windows!! (Seriously, vinyl windows are cheap, poorly made, and filling up the landfills at record speed. They may seem nice at first, but they will not last- unless you buy the super expensive ones, but who does that? Lets get back on course, windows deserve their own blog entirely.)

I hear from a lot of people that they would much rather live in a nice new home than invest in an older home. The older homes have soooo many problems, and they're hard to maintain. In a new home, you know everything is going to work. Well yes, to a degree that is true, it's the long term you need to consider. How sustainable is that new house, how long is it going to be before you have to replace or fix major components. And how much energy was expended in building it?? Think cutting down lumber, shipping the lumber, textile production (carpet is extremely toxic in production), shipping of textiles, paint toxins, manufacturing new appliances, etc. etc. Also consider that most new homes are built on available land, that land being farther and farther from the city, so naturally your daily commute has just gotten longer. If you're riding the bus or your bike, no problem! But come one, we're Americans, likely you're driving your car.

It's just obvious that the existing building is the most resourceful. And yes, you will have maintenance, but if you get a hold of a knowledgeable and honest contractor with Historic Preservation experience, this should not be a painful process. Even better, taking some classes and learning to do it yourself can be immensely rewarding. Just think of the good you're doing for the planet and future generations. Remember, old is good, and can be a key ingredient we need to cool us and the planet down a bit.

To see more ideas on this subject, check out these links: http://www.nhtinc.org/green_affordable_housing_preservation.php and http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2010/march-april/green-architecture.html

Field Trip!

2010-03-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

During our Archaeology class last fall, we took a field trip one day to St. Elmo. This is a fabulous little ghost town in Chaffee County, just west of Buena Vista. It is often referred to as America's best preserved ghost town. How exciting, I love ghosts!

St. Elmo was officially founded in 1880. Like many small towns high in the Rockies, people came here for gold and silver mining. It is reported that there were over 150 mine claims in the area. St. Elmo was considered a Hub town for supplies arriving
by train. At it's peak in the 1890's, the town was fully functioning with saloons, several hotels, a very popular general store, a town hall, a school house and even a telegraph office.

Thanks to the rail line, St. Elmo nearly reached a population of 2000 people at it's peak. When mining began to decline around 1920, the town was sadly abandoned in 1922- a pretty short lived ride for the prospectors here, though lucrative. The Mary Murphy Mine detained over $60,000,000 worth of gold while it was in use.

Though St. Elmo is defined as a 'ghost town' there are actually a few year round residents, like maybe 5 or 10. There are quite a lot of tourists that visit the area in the summer, mostly for recreation (fishing and four wheeling) and for some good old fashioned ghost town site seeing.

Fortunately for the students in my class, we had a very knowledgeable tour guide. My classmate Nick works for a Preservation company that spent a good deal of the summer last year actually working on the preservation of these very buildings. He was able to fill us in on a lot of the areas history, and about the condition of the buildings. Lucky Nick, what a fabulous job!

They've done a tremendous amount of work on in the town already, and there's plenty more to be done. That's the thing about historic preservation, you're work in NEVER done. Time keeps on ticking and things continue to get old. There were some very interesting buildings in town. I especially curious about the building on the left, if you look closely at it, you gotta wonder why the three doors, what was going on here? And below was one of my favorites, the inside of the school house. It looks like the kids just left for the day, still in perfect condition, desks, blackboard and all.

What an amazing town. I would do anything to live just one day in this world back in 1890, just a day to see what it was like. Can you imagine, I'd probably be grateful for the modern conveniences we have today, like indoor plumbing and the lack of corsets, but it would still be cool! Today the town is just very quaint and very quiet, set among some of the most stunning scenery you can imagine. Such a shame the railroad stopped its line here...although, I guess in a lot of ways that's a good thing.

HP and Archaeology

2010-03-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are surprised when I mentioned that one of our required classes is Archaeology. At first glance it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Historic Preservation. When you think about it though, it makes a lot of sense.

Perhaps I should first talk about the types of archaeology that are out there. Most people immediately envision a person dressed in khaki digging for dinosaur bones in the middle of the Sahara. While this is a type of archaeology, there is so much more to the field. Ever heard of ethnoarchaeology, what about underwater archaeology. I'm not kidding, there really is a whole field of under water archaeologists out there- just think about all those lost pirate ships filled with booty! There are also forensic archaeologists- trained in examining human remains, and zooarchaeolgists trained in examining faunal remains. The list goes on, but what we Historic Preservationists' are concerned with is....Historical Archaeology of course!

Historical Archaeology is the study of the material remains of past societies that have other forms of recorded history. Compare that with PRE-historic archaeology, and hopefully it starts to make sense. In prehistoric times, we have no written or recorded documentation of life. In historic times of course, we do. But then why would we need to employ archaeology to find out what was happening say 100 years ago if we have written records?? Well, we don't know EVERYTHING people may or may not have done in their daily lives. What was life really like in 1910? What kind of beer did they drink? What kind of toothpaste did they use? Did they even brush their teeth? What kind of T.V. dinner was the most popular? Wait, did they even have food in a box? We may know when Louisiana was purchased, and when Abe Lincoln was shot, but on a day to day basis, there are many things that archaeology can tell us.

This is especially important when we're trying to discover the history of an old homestead we're trying to preserve. We may have the house, and documents about who lived there when, but what really went on inside those walls? Or perhaps, maybe we don't know who lived there. Do you think prospectors climbing the Chilkoot trail in Alaska were concerned about documenting their stay? Doubtful, but it would sure be cool to find out! Enter Historic Archaeology.

Fortunately for us students at Colorado Mountain College, we have our very own 'laboratory' just south of town. The Hayden Ranch was purchased by the school a few years ago so that HP students would have a constant to lab to work on, not only for archaeology, but for the actual work of preserving buildings. And believe me, there's plenty of work to be done.

The ranch is really pretty big, with about 16 structures on the property. It was founded in 1859 and the buildings were constructed between 1880-1930
The Hayden Ranch operated mainly as a hay ranch through the 1890s, providing feed for the horses and mules serving Leadville's mining industry. Though many people have studied the history of the ranch, there is still plenty left unknown. In our attempt to learn as much as possible about this amazing place, we hold our archaeology class right on site during the fall. (Spring is way too cold and wet to excavate.)

The picture above shows the plot that I worked on this past fall. There are a couple of buildings that are no longer standing, and we're not exactly sure what those buildings were, or exactly where they were. We're going off of old hard to reach photos, sketches and documentations that aren't very clear. So we're using the archaeology to try and figure this out- what other buildings were there, and what exactly they were used for.

As you can imagine, archaeology is hard work. You must be very meticulous, and very patient. (It's hardly as glamorous as the movies make it out to be- in all of the digs I've been on, I've yet to see Indiana Jones and pits of snakes to keep me entertained). Regardless, it's still very interesting. In the plot that I worked on (along with my co-student Nick), we found lots and lots of small broken pieces of glass, some square nails, charcoal (indicating fires or hearths), what we think were animals teeth, maybe cow, and lots of ceramic pieces, among miscellaneous other items. I was most intrigued with the ceramic. There was enough of it, and large enough pieces that I began envisioning a kitchen or dining room of some sort. There were large pieces that suggested items like a plate, or mug, or serving platter. Coupled with the glass we found, it makes sense that this could have been a kitchen area of some kind.

We didn't get nearly as far in our excavation as I had hoped. With only a few hours a week to actually work on the plot, we only dug down a few inches on about 4 squares. Documenting the items you find takes more time than you'd imagine. So, we really aren't much closer to really finding out what the uncovered items mean, and their relation to the ranch. A considerable amount of work still needs to be done, a lot more digging of artifacts, and a lot of lab analysis needs to be done on all of the items. Once all of the artifacts are gathered, documented and analyzed, then we can begin to formulate ideas about what it all means. This takes a long time however, and needs to be coupled with whatever written documentation exists. You also need to consider the weather. At 10,200 feet, snow is often, and the times when you can actually dig are few. Sadly this all means that I may not know what once stood on my plot, at least not before I graduate from CMC. Hopefully the findings will be published however, as is the custom, and I'll be able to see if my visions of that kitchen are accurate.

Crazy Leadville History...

2010-03-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

Ok so I must admit that this blog entry isn't entirely preservation related, but it definitely catches the historical spirit of Leadville, and I really just had to share this.
Recently moving from Alaska, I am very familiar with skijoring and running dog sleds. If you've never ridden on a sled behind a pack of running dogs, put this on your to-do list asap! It's more fun than you can imagine, and those little dogs go fast! So when I heard of Leadville's Winter Carnival, and their skijoring event, I thought it sounded kind of fun. Then I saw pictures of past years, wha?? you use horses?? Now that is just absurd. Skijoring with horses...insane. Well, this does go along with the Leadville spirit, and this event has been going on since 1949.

Now of course I had to see this, especially because they're passing right in front of my apartment building. I'm not sure what it is about animals pulling people on snow that is attracted to me, but for six years in Anchorage, the Iditarod passed directly below my office window too...lucky me I guess.
Yesterday was the first run, in the morning snow machines (or do they say snow-mobiles here?) towed kids up and down the track for $5. Then later in the afternoon they brought out the big dogs, I mean, horses. Holy roller! Those horses are not messing around, and then they throw in a few 8 feet jumps, yikes!

There were two different tracks used, the first set with smaller jumps. Actually the course was a bit of an obstacle course, you have to hit the jumps, and then spear several rings that are hanging from a magnetic pole. If you drop a ring, 2 seconds get deducted from your time. The fastest person through the course wins, and you must be in control at the end of the course, not really so easy behind a bucking bronco. I was pretty impressed by how well most of the skiers did, and as far as I could see there were no major injuries- always good!

Watching people get pulled by horses going about 30 miles and hour was pretty intense. It definitely drew a pretty good crowd. Lots of spectators enjoyed the festivities with lots of 'aaaah's and ooooooh's, oh that looked painful..." Good times in Leadville regardless. I guess when winter lasts this long and you have this much snow dumping on the ground you do what you can to have fun. I only have one complaint, to those folks with the prime spot as seen below, please, seriously, get off the fragile historical ledge of the 100 year old building!

Living in a Historic Hotel

2010-03-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Seeing as how I am studying Historic Preservation, it's quite fitting that I am currently residing in a Historic Hotel. The Tabor Grand Hotel was converted to low-income apartments (I am a student!) in the 1990's, but before that it's had quite the interesting history.

You can see from the photo above that the Tabor Grand was quite the elite and prestigious hotel when it opened in 1885. While Leadville was becoming a very important city to the state of Colorado, money was pouring in with the heavy mining activity. The businessmen of Leadville wanted the town to have a hotel that was first rate and could compete with any metropolitan city. With a total cost of about $100,000, this four-story Second Empire hotel boasted all of the finest amenities. It had steam-heat, an elevator, a bar, kitchen, wine cellar, library, a waiting room for the ladies (ya I don't like that either but this was 1885 and I suppose NOT having a 'waiting' room was worse), a dining room that seated several hundred, 117 rooms that were 'very elegantly appointed', a barbershop, public parlor, two chefs, a billiard-room, several shops and a restaurant. This was quite the statement for Leadville!

The hotel went through many changes over the past 100 years, but for the first 70 or so, it remained a functioning hotel that hosted several famous people, including the Colorado famous Molly Brown- well, the actress that played her anyway (Debbie Reynolds) in the 1964 film "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." What? You've never seen this movie? Well if you'd like a brief taste of Leadville life, do rent it...http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/unsinkable_molly_brown/

Like a lot of America's finer buildings, things went south for the Tabor Grand in the 70's and 80's. Leadville began to struggle more and more with little mining activity, and little else to keep its economy alive. By the late 80's it was abandoned, except for the frequent squatters and otherwise shady happenings going on inside. You can see from these two pictures, the building was in pretty rough shape.

Most people thought it was through, and it would be torn down, too far from being saved. In the 1988 however, the Santa Fe Land Company bought the building for $2.3million. The very day after the sale, a rain storm brought down the northwest corner of the building in a pile of rubble.

Some deal huh! It get's better though, you see this corner, completely collapsed to the ground, well look closely at that second floor opening, yep, that's my very own apartment! I have to admit it was quite shocking the first time I saw this photo, and I noticed myself becoming a bit more ginger whenever I moved to the corner of my living room. That was prior to the $4million renovation though. In the early 1990's, the rehabilitated building was reopened with 32 apartments, and several retail businesses on the first floor. This is how it still stands today, as you can see from the picture below that I took in October of 2009:

I must say I think it's pretty cool to live in a building with so much history. I gave you a very brief overview, believe me there's lots more to this place! I sometimes like to think about what life was like here 100 years ago. Who has stayed in my room? Thousands of people, I wonder what kind of rough and tumbling mining town activity took place on my floor. It's rumored there were some pretty wild times in this grand hotel, almost makes me wish I could have been there. But for now I'm content with just thinking about it, and of course, studying this beautiful building in my Historic Preservation classes. It's actually quite convenient that I am writing a paper on my very own home. Don't have to go too far!

And the winners are....

2010-02-25T14:20:00.000-08:00

So I've shown you all kinds of colorful homes here in Leadville. Below are the most fabulous in my humble opinion. First let me tell you a bit about some of these houses. You've probably noticed that a lot of these houses look the same. The have a simple gable roof in the front, with a large window underneath, and door to one side, or set back just a bit. Most of these houses are called 'shotgun' houses. These are homes that are one room wide, and have two to four rooms going back. They are easy and inexpensive to build, and thus may have been quick, cheap housing for mine workers that flocked here in the late 1800's.

The popular theory of shotgun houses is that they were a precedent in Africa, and came with slaves as they arrived in Haiti. As many slaves were soon brought to the American South, they brought this house style with them, mostly to New Orleans. You can find lots of shotgun houses in New Orleans, and a lot of Haitian culture of course. Now how these spread as far as Leadville is to be determined. Actually you can find these homes as far as California and in most U.S. states. (Though I don't think I ever saw one in Alaska.) Likely they spread with workers of different trades as they were easy to build. You can find more about shotgun houses and look at floor plans here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_house.

Keep in mind that of the pictures I've already shown you, that 'Victorian' detailing was NOT original to the houses. These laborers were not so concerned about adding nice pink shingles to the front of there homes. This detailing was likely added years later as they were sold to new residents and the town tried to add some color to their lives. The houses I'm showing you below are not all shotguns, you should be able to tell the difference pretty easily. They are all fantastic however, and I would live in one in a heartbeat! This first one goes out to my friend Sara who will no doubt love the color...you know you want to Sara!

Seriously....pink??

2010-02-24T20:03:00.000-08:00

Oh ya, Leadville loves their pink houses. I find it very odd coming from a rough and tumble mining town, but maybe that's just it. A lot of these are really in your face pink. At least your friends will have no trouble finding your house. "You turn left on 4th street, go two blocks West, and its the third house on the right, about the color of Pepto-Bismal, can't miss it" ...I'll say...

Looks closely at the painting on this house below, a little treat for my deadhead friends...

Purple and Blue!!

2010-02-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

Ever since I lived in Portland Oregon, I've wanted to live in a purple house with bold trim. I know it's crazy, but they're just so fabulously fun. I like blue a lot too, but not nearly as much as purple. While most people wouldn't dare take a majestically colored paint brush to their personal kingdom, blue is a bit more acceptable. I was pleased to find at least a few purple houses here in Leadville, but blue is obviously more popular.
Note the very popular 'Victorian' details and the colorful shingles. This is very popular in Leadville, and I'll talk more about that in another blog. In the meantime, enjoy these fabulous houses....

Let's Talk Leadville...

2010-02-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

Leadville is a great place for a Historic Preservation Program given it's unique character and small town charm. The history of Leadville is quite interesting. Placer gold was discovered in the nearby hills in 1860 and prospectors flocked to the area. While the gold was limited, large silver deposits were discovered in the 1870's. In 1877, the City of Leadville was founded. Since then, it's had economic highs and lows within the mining industry, and today is a struggling town without an active mine. It relies on it's quaint history and Historic District for tourist dollars.

What the mines have left behind are some fantastic homes in all kinds of unique Leadville style. Among many nicknames, Leadville is known as Cloud City. So you can imagine that people around here want to add a little color to their lives. I LOVE fun colored houses, purple, blue and red among my favorites. I know it sounds absurd, but the standard beige and white just doesn't do it for me. So today I went jogging around town and decided to bring along my camera, below are a few of my fave's. There's so many I'll have to post multiple blogs to include them all. Today I'll start with the green ones...

Wood class...

2010-02-17T13:17:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, preservation of the trades is a crucial part of Historic Preservation. Among classes in theory, math, architecture and other 'book' classes, we take several 'hands-on' trades based classes so we actually know how to fix up that old house of yours.

Unfortunately, in my all girls high school we did not have shop class. Certainly we had home-ec, so I could sew you a pair of pants if you want, but build you a bird house, good luck. Personally, I think this is a shame. Everyone should know how to handle basic maintenance around their home. I mean how hard is it to fix a door hinge or put together a swing set. For a lot of us we don't even know where to start, so we either beg our boyfriends to help or we shell out a decent chunk of change to have someone do it for us. Like my classmate Chris seen here...
While taking my first carpentry class is a bit intimidating (it seems most of the other students at least know how to use the table saw), it's high time I got some calluses on my hands and figured out all of this wood business.

Once we got started and I figured out what that triangular metal ruler thing does, it's really not so complicated. For my first project I thought it would be pretty cool to make a Shaker style piece of furniture, very small that is. For more on the very interesting and brilliant carpenters that were the Shakers, check out Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers. So I found a nice little bench that I thought would be perfect in my apartment for things like mail and keys. Well clearly I need a lot of practice reading plans, after I got all the wood cut out I realized this was a chihuahua sized bench.

Maybe it will hold my keys, but that's about it. If anyone knows any ferries or gnomes out there that need a bench, let me know. Ah well, I guess its all part of the learning process. Stay tuned for the final touches of my 'bench'. I might even stain it, I think the gnomes will appreciate that.

Mt. Vernon!

2010-02-13T12:27:00.000-08:00

Being new to the preservation field, I have a whole new world to explore. There are so many exciting historic districts and buildings out there that I never really gave much thought to. This past Christmas I went to the Washington D.C. area to visit my boyfriend and his family. Oh the possibilities! The East Coast is teaming with history from the built environment. It only seemed appropriate to start with the home of America's first President, so Jimmy and I caught a beautiful sunny day and drove out to Mt. Vernon.

Wow! We all know George Washington was an amazing person, but you can only learn so much about a person in a book. Experiencing his home was pretty surreal. This is a great example of how important Historic Preservation is. Can you imagine if this home had been torn down? Well it almost was. It was in shambles in the 1850's but thanks to the rallying efforts of the The Mount Vernon Ladies Association, the home was saved. This was no small feat, people didn't really get the whole idea of 'preservation' during this time. Clearly these ladies were pioneers for the preservation movement- go Ladies!!

The main home has 3 floors and about 21 rooms. Washington had fairly eclectic taste, his home had some unusual shaped rooms for his time, and he really liked the color green, lots of green! Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside the home, but check out this link for pictures of the interior: http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/plan/index.cfm/pid/543/
Here's an interior picture of one of his workers' quarters, you were free to photo everything outside of the main house

Looks pretty cozy to me! There is so much to see here it's hard to fit it all in in one day. The Washington's were pretty self-sustainable, they had their own gardens, farms, animals, distillery, stable, mule shed & paddock, coachhouse, washhouse, smokehouse, shoemaker's shop, blacksmith shop, dung repository, salthouse, etc. etc. They grew most of their own food and relied on resources from the area. The estate is really big, and really impressive! Here's a photo of the farm, you can see some sheep in the middle of the picture, and behind them you can see the gristmill.

There's so much great stuff to see here at Mt. Vernon and to learn about, certainly I don't have room to explain it all here, but if you'd like to learn more, or to plan a trip to Mt. Vernon, see this link: http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/index.cfm/ You can see a short movie on this website as well as take a virtual tour of the Mansion, and a plethora of other learning tools.

Mt. Vernon was really interesting and definitely recommended for all, whether you're into preservation or not, you'll still learn a lot about life in the 1700's and how our forefathers lived.

What exactly do Historic Preservationists do?

2010-02-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

So a lot of people have been asking what we do as preservationists, or a lot of people ask me how my 'Historical Conservation' classes are going. This isn't exactly a new field, but most people aren't aware of the details, and it's just now starting to gain a lot of awareness given our current social, political and environmental issues.

So today I will try and briefly give an overview of what this field is all about. First lets start with the definition of preservation:

1. the activity of protecting something from loss or danger
2. the condition of being (well or ill) preserved
3. a process that saves organic substances from decay
4. an occurrence of improvement by virtue of preventing loss or injury or other change

It should be noted here that Historic Preservationists are concerned with the 'Built' environment. That means we'd like to see those really cool 100+ year old houses in Chicago preserved, rather than torn down and replaced with new construction. From what I've been learning, construction in the U.S. in the last 100 years has become less of an art, and more of a business. Unfortunately it seems as though Americans have really lost their best craftsmen, and the trades have somehow lost their prestige and importance. We place much more emphasis on academic education, and have left the trades for those that we feel aren't fit for 'book work'. (This misconception couldn't be farther from the truth- it takes considerably more mental and physical intelligence to be a good craftsperson than most of us realize.) This is a tragedy in my opinion, but that's a whole 'nother blog and I'll get to that another day.

Preservationists believe that our built environment plays a very important part of our society and culture. We should preserve our past for educational purposes, aesthetics, and craftsmanship. Ever notice how that hutch you inherited from your grandmother is still in great condition, it's super heavy, made of great quality wood and is nearly indestructible? How is it holding up to that entertainment center you bought just a few years ago? We used to place a lot of pride in our work, and that has declined in the 20th century as American's wanted their goods quicker and cheaper. Preservationists desire a return to quality, and want to make sure your Great-Uncle Henry's Queen Anne house stays there, rather than replaced with that house-in-a-box that became so popular after WWI and WWII. Don't get me wrong, a lot of these are great houses, and they met a tremendous need for inexpensive housing for a large population during this time, but the art and individuality was lost, and we'd like to gain that back.

This is surely a very quick introduction to Historic Preservation, and is clearly riddled with my opinions, which I should say, are my views, and not necessarily shared by all. But hopefully you get the point. So that's what I'm learning here in Leadville, how to preserve those old buildings that we all think are so great, I mean, somebody has to do it, right?