| Monday May 20 2013
Juneau: 33°F
Now in Digital HD on Ch. 5.1!
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| Monday May 20 2013
Juneau: 33°F
Now in Digital HD on Ch. 5.1!
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Dan Moller Cabin being re-built from the ground up this summer Published: 06/10/2010 18:20:00 Updated: 06/10/2010 19:11:02 The Dan Moller Cabin is one of many State and Federal recreation cabins in the Juneau area. Known to many as “3rd Cabin”, due to its location as the 3rd ski cabin in the valley above West Juneau, it was built in 1936. Until the construction of Eaglecrest Ski Area in the mid ‘70s, the valley was Juneau’s downhill skiing area, with multiple cabins for warming up and even staying overnight to avoid the need to hike back down to town between days of skiing. Ed Grossman is the Recreation Program Manager at the Juneau Ranger District of the US Forest Service, and in charge of the project. “Over the years, that structure saw a lot of use. But it had a design flaw that it was a vertical log structure, and what you have with that is, all the logs stand straight up and down. And the problem is, in our wet climate, water will accumulate at the base, and each log rots.” Explained Grossman. After extensive attempts to control the rot problems in the 1980’s and ‘90s, the cabin has again succumbed to Juneau’s wet climate. And recently the funding has become available to pay for a new cabin. The new cabin is made from Tongass Yellow Cedar, and has been pre-built in Ketchikan, from where is it traveling to the site on Douglas by way of barge and Helicopter. Ketchikan based Tongass Forest Enterprises has published the plans for the new cabin on their website here: http://akforestenterprises.com/danmollercabin.pdf With construction getting started in about the next week, access to the site will be closed. The public is asked to avoid the area as it will be a construction zone with helicopter operations taking place. Due to the short summer season, work crews have to move fast. Grossman elaborated “The snow up there will start accumulating in September again, and only 2 weeks ago, it was waist deep, and now it is clear of the site. So, with good weather like we’ve seen this year; we’re hopeful that maybe sometime in August the structure will be done.” The new Dan Moller cabin should be available for rentals by October. The 1-hour Southeast Spotlight entitiled "Skiing The Past" with historic skiing footage, including skiing at '3rd Cabin', can be found on our Southeast Spolight page. http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/districts/juneau/jrd.shtml By: Mikko Wilson - mikko@kath.tv |
