Alpine County's Dangberg cabin gets new home

The only form of art which we are all exposed to on a daily basis is architecture. Several years ago, with family and friends, I drove up to Alaska and across to New York City in search of America.

Vast, magnificent stretches of wilderness were punctuated by architecturally impoverished little towns whose only redeeming features were the occasional Carnegie library or a proud old town hall that the townsfolk had had the sense to preserve.

In most cases the prevalent practice was: If it's old knock it down and start again. There is, of course, another option: When it's old, repair it.

At the end of the sixties my husband and I used to journey up to Markleeville for hiking and hot springs. As we drove through Woodfords Canyon we would often look over at a solitary old cabin, always in the shade and with never a sign of habitation.

Recently I heard that Nick Hartzell, who has been building in the county for 25 years, was moving the Dangberg cabin from Woodfords Canyon.

It turned out to be that same cabin. The cabin site was included in the U.S. Forest Service Hope Valley land acquisition in 1990. Since the cabin had not been used for so many years Nick suggested to the Forest Service that he move it and renovate it; they came to an agreement. Nick is committed to recycling building materials and reconstructing interesting old buildings.

In 1992 he supervised the reconstruction at Sorensen's Resort of three log cabins from the defunct Santa's Village in Santa Cruz. I was thrilled that the old cabin was going to be given a new lease on life and went to talk to Nick about the move.

I had imagined that the cabin would be hoisted onto a flat-bed and transported to its new location in Markleevillage. Nick disabused me of this notion.

The cabin has to be taken down and rebuilt, close to its original form but complying with modern codes.

There will be the additions of a bathroom and sleeping loft increasing the space from 600 to approximately 750 square feet. The logs have been numbered and stacked on the new site.

The cabin was built some time between 1928 and 1930 and occupied in the summer by Grant Dangberg, who is related to the Carson Valley Dangbergs. The walls were built of pine logs, apparently local as there are many stumps on the hillside behind the cabin. The logs have V notching made with an axe.

Few nails were used; in those days they were at a premium. The walls have been chinked with concrete mortar backed with chicken wire, probably not the original chinking. The logs have never been painted but the cabin was in very good condition because of the shaded location, good stone foundation and shingle roof.

Nick took me to the cabin's new home in Markleevillage. Late afternoon sunlight was finding its way through the pines onto the forest floor and I smiled to think of the cabin in a sunnier location. We chatted with a neighbor about the project. He commented: "It's more trouble than it's worth." When I was a teacher in England I used to take the children to historical monuments. Those threads of history had been maintained throughout the centuries. The children could wonder at the beauty of the mosaics which once graced the floors of Roman villas. Showing them history goes a step further than talking about it. Hats off to Nick and all those willing to take the trouble to preserve this perfume of our past, reminding us that the human race wasn't invented last week.

n Information on the cabin provided by the Alpine County Museum and U.S. Forest Service.