Hammer Corps Completes Successful Summer – 2019

Many of the cabins at the Bar BC Dude Ranch are being restored.

The 2019 Foundation-funded Grand Teton Hammer Corps hosted fifty-four people this summer who completed over 1,440 hours of historic preservation work. Residential groups included Tauck travel employees and students from Morgan State University and Tuskegee University. The students’ work was part of the Touching History: Preservation in Practice program that brings African American young professionals into historic preservation and related career paths. Local individuals, Foundation board and resource council members, and staff also participated in this year’s program.

The Main Cabin at Bar BC Dude Ranch before restoration work began.

Highlights include:

– Completed chinking of the Corse Cabin at the Bar BC Dude Ranch using historically appropriate mortar.

– Re-constructed the dining area deck on the Main Cabin at Bar BC and finished with coats of linseed oil and pine tar.

– Laid new foundation for the Main Cabin at Bar BC.

– Completely oiled the ADA Cabin and Girl’s Cabin at White Grass Ranch with linseed oil to protect exterior logs from weathering. The Main Cabin and Hammond Cabin were partially oiled as needed.

– Ongoing chinking and daubing on all White Grass cabins to prevent bat and pest entry.

Hammer Corps volunteers take a break in front of the newly constructed deck on the Main Cabin.

The Foundation would like to thank all of the volunteers, donors, and park staff. Without their support, this year’s great successes would not have been possible. We hope you have the opportunity to visit these special places in Grand Teton to see all that the incredible volunteers accomplished to protect some of the park’s well-loved historic sites.

Grand Teton Hammer Corps is a historic preservation volunteer program founded in 2016. Crew members work at historic sites throughout Grand Teton to maintain and rehabilitate significant structures and landscapes using methods that align with National Park Service preservation standards. For more information, contact Cathy Wikoff at cathy@gtnpf.org, (307) 732-0629.

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