A House Shares its Past

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 14, 2006

DARRINGTON – Sometimes old walls do talk.

Ten students at Darrington High School are discovering as much after tearing down walls in a storied old cabin and making a connection to their community’s past.

Written on one board in the framing: “Leo Gunderson, Arlington, Wa., Dec. 1937.”

Punched into another: “Thor is a horse’s ass.”

The messages were left by another group of budding construction workers almost 70 years ago.

“In the classroom we are learning more about U.S. history, but here we get to learn a lot about our town and where we grew up, and it seems a little more real,” said Kegan Friddle, 19, a senior.

Friddle is part of a construction trades class that is delving into the past as it restores a former Civilian Conservation Corps crew quarters on U.S. Forest Service grounds in Darrington.

The CCC was a vast public works program that put to work more than 3 million Americans during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Workers at Camp Darrington built fire lookouts on remote mountaintops, fought forest fires and blazed trails and roads.

Along with messages from the past, students also discovered that some of the original work was far from precise.

“It looks like they kind of eyeballed it, and if it looked good, it looked good,” said Russ Hallgren, a sophomore.

The students searched National Archives records over the Internet to find the names of CCC workers. They have written reports and will soon put together a time capsule with a group picture, newspaper clippings and papers they write about their experience.

They are finishing the first year of the two-year restoration project. This year’s class has repaired the steep-angled shingle roof, updated original electrical wiring, replaced water-damaged framing and hung sheet rock.

They also will paint the ceilings and overhead angled walls.

In the woodshop at school, they are cutting old-growth fir that will become paneling for the upstairs.

Their teacher, Ray Franke, sees lessons that extend beyond academia and craftsmanship.

“The kids are getting a lot out of it,” he said. “They learned not only how to do whatever – hanging sheet rock and building electrical boxes. They learned to work in a large group in tight quarters.”

Each student seems to come away with a different experience, but all mention one thing voluntarily: They appreciate their teacher and his vision for restoring the past.

Senior Adam Lambert, 18, said, “I don’t want to sheet rock for a living, but I think it will help if I ever want to remodel my own home some day.”

The restoration was borne out of mutual need, said Adrienne Hall, who works with the Forest Service in Darrington.

“We figured we have a house that needs work and they have kids who need skills,” Hall said. “Why don’t we put the two together?”

Franke liked the idea, even if it meant giving up his planning period this year to make it work.

The project received plenty of help from the community: free use of a Darrington Family Support Center van; lumber from sawmill owner Dan Rankin and money and research from the Darrington Historical Society.

Hall suggests a parallel between the students’ restoration project today and the CCC workers at Camp Darrington who were paid $30 a month plus $6 room and board in cash.

“You might even compare what Ray Franke’s class is doing to what occurred in the 1930s – providing youth with hands-on training and job skills.”

There are plenty of other opportunities for learning while working on the compound.

Franke looks longingly at an old Forest Service mule barn behind the CCC quarters and smiles.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.