Historic cabin is moved for study and protection

In addition to natural erosion from elements and the briny air, summer campers and fishermen annually squat in the cabin. Others have pulled down boards and logs to use for firewood at their own campsites. Vandals have spray painted the walls with graffiti and a few unsavory folks have even used the interior of the building as a latrine.

"There was just a total lack of respect for our history," said Gary Titus, an historian for the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, who was among two dozen or so volunteers that took part in a cabin raising party recently.

It was the first step in moving, restoring and preserving the historically significant structure, which has long sat in a bureaucratic limbo that prevented action from happening sooner.

"The technical owner of the land is the Alaska Department of Natural Resources," said Kasilof Regional Historical Association board member Catherine Cassidy, but the property the Watchman's Cabin resides on also has been designated as School Trust land, which has prevented it from being identified as park land, which would have helped preserve the cabin on site.

"We couldn't get administrative control of the land, and we couldn't restore it on land that wasn't ours, so we did the next best thing," Cassidy said.

In July, the state Division of Mining and Water gave permission for the cabin to be moved 5.5 miles to the Kasilof Regional Historical Association museum grounds on Kalifornsky Beach Road in Kasilof, where roughly six other historic structures already stand.

The state will retain ownership of the cabin, Cassidy said. "There it will be restored and hopefully one day moved back when the land issue is resolved."

"This is one of the oldest structures on the Kenai Peninsula," said Alan Boraas, anthropology professor at Kenai Peninsula College. Through the Watchman's Cabin historians will be able to tell the tales of the early days of the commercial fishing on the peninsula, as well as the story of the Industrial Revolution spreading north.

The second cannery in Alaska was built at the mouth of the Kasilof River in 1882, Boraas said, forever changing the cultural landscape of Cook Inlet by reallocating salmon resources into the hands of Outside interests.

The Watchman's Cabin's came shortly after. The exact date is unknown, but it was believed to have between 1882 and the late 1890s. "During the summer months the structure served as the residence for the cannery's superintendent, one of the earliest of which was Harry M. Weatherbee," Boraas said.

Weatherbee was probably the most important person on the peninsula during that time, since he would have been in charge of hiring and firing people, and largely been responsible for maintaining law and order.

The Watchman's Cabin reflects this power. For the period, it was nothing short of a mansion. With a later addition, the total structure is 33-feet wide by 35-feet long -- two stories and seven rooms. There are several large windows, which was uncommon during a time when it was difficult to heat buildings. Evidence indicates wallpaper -- another extravagance for the era -- covered the interior.

Weatherbee was a photographer and made many pictures of the structure and area, many of which currently are on display in the Walter Ward Building at Kenai Peninsula College. The cannery was closed during the Great Depression, and in the 1930s the house saw its last occupant.

Watchmen lived there into the 1950s, Boraas said.

"A real craftsman built this," he said. "It's a step-and-latch notch from Bohemia. It's the only one I know of on the Kenai Peninsula." The strong construction will allow the main cabin to be moved as is in October, but the newer addition to the cabin will come off, after each log and board is systematically cataloged, in case it too is restored.