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Cooper Cabin Restoration, California
September 23 - October 1
FreeNorth of Yosemite Valley in the heart of the Stanislaus National Forest is our next adventure! Join us for a HardCorps trip of a lifetime as we hike and camp in the Sierra backcountry to restore the Cooper Cabin!
PROJECT PARTNER: Stanislaus National Forest
SESSION DATES: September 15-20 (w/ members of American Conservation Experience) and September 23 – October 1 (8 day backcountry hitch)
PROJECT SUPERVISORS: Brandon Alleman
Project Site Description & History
Within the rocky hills and the towering conifers of the Stanislaus National Forest, in an area known as the Emigrant Wilderness, lies Cooper Cabin. One of two extant properties in Cooper Meadow, this cabin represents a history of Chinese immigrant laborers, California politicians, and a 100-year tie with an Italian-American ranching family.
Cooper Cabin, built in 1875, was built by California miner, newspaper owner, and eventual rancher William F. Cooper. Cooper maintained an expansive ranch area, including Cooper Cabin, where he spent many of his days following a very peppered early life; although some attribute his belligerency to a traumatic brain injury, Cooper murdered his own wife and injured a housekeeper who attempted to intervene. He fully settled into the ranch after spending one year at the mental hospital in Stockton.
The cabin has touched many lives, as evidenced by the many names and initials carved into the cabin’s walls. The earliest known signatures come from 1881, only six years after the cabin was built. In 1907, five Chinese visitors to the cabin carved their names into the walls, eternalizing a small part of the history of Chinese immigrant laborers in the area. Chinese laborers contributed to the creation of the Columbia and Stanislaus miner’s ditch, segments of the Westside Lumber Companies railroad grade, and the Big Gap Flume. However, several of the Chinese immigrants in the area were also cowboys, despite facing racism and intimidation from many of the white Americans.
Cooper Cabin was listed on the National Register for Historic Places in 2009, along with the other historic property nearby. Since 1912, the grazing permit has been held by the Sanguinetti family, who also work to maintain and discover more about the property’s history. Cooper Cabin’s soaring pine roof and granite foundation have stood strong for almost 150 years, but it needs careful work to keep it standing for future generations. HistoriCorps invites you to be a part of this area’s rich and enduring history. You can read more about the history of Cooper Cabin at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website.
Scope of Work
HistoriCorps is committed to educating and training volunteers in preservation skills, with an overarching mission of inspiring a preservation ethic in all those involved. Learning and working alongside expert HistoriCorps field staff, volunteers and applying the traditional skills necessary to restore Cooper Cabin:
- Construct temporary framing to lift cabin
- Remove and replace rotted wall logs
- Hew replacement logs by hand using broadaxe and adze
- Carefully remove historic carvings from rotted logs for preservation
- Replace clapboard siding on shed addition
- *All work to be performed using hand tools due to Wilderness regulations*