| 1. A beautiful day for a potluck picnic at "The Homestead"  2. Back of cabin  3. Ice box  4. The "Little Cabin." Note the "antlers" above the door, a brilliantly clever touch by Charlie Wiemeyer (they are scapulae)  5. Nice saddle notches   7. The original blacksmith shop  7a.  8. Three generations of Bob Roppel's family   9.  10. Ann & Dave  11. John & Honora Caldwell  12. Bill & Lucia Gill  13. Mayor Gary & Jane Grady  14. Sheriff Jamie and Lena Fitzsimons  15. Ben & Shelley Colios  16. Verne Smith  17. John and Ann Warren  18. Bob & Jackie Roppel  19. John Warren and Bill Betz (Pebble Creek)  20. Kurt Beam  21. Bill and Joan Betz  22.  23. Time to head home...  Bought the land July 1953. Fixed up little cabin in 1954. Started on big cabin 1955. Worked on the main room three summers. Finished it is 1958. I jacked up the old log walls and set them on a foundation of rock. What remained of the roof and rafters I tore off and burned. Also the old 2nd floor and room partitions (3 "rooms" in first floor). Tore out what was left of the floor and joists and shoveled the debris of 40 years out the windows. the animals had brought in leaves and branches, etc. for nests. I laid log stringers set on rocks the length of the cabin (3) and 2x6 cross joists from wall to wall. Then a sub-floor of plywood and the oak finished floor. Bob and I put up the new rafters and pine sheeting that was bought at the saw mill in (old) Dillon. I changed the pitch of the roof and ran new logs for a to course to replace those the snows had pushed out and bowed. Not new logs, but ones salvaged from the old barn that stood in the field by the stream. The beam work was lodgepole cut from across the creek; dragged over and peeled. Norm helped me put on the tar paper and roofing when he was 16 (1956). The west door was where a window had been as is the door going into the kitchen. (That old window is in the back kitchen wall facing uphill—original glass and hardware). I built the front door and windows; also the shutters. The door from living room to kitchen was salvaged from the old Brown Chambers Hotel in Denver. I also built the balcony window and hardware. The inside chinking is pine wedges chopped and fitted with a hand axe. The outside chinking masonry cement forced into metal lath strips. The little cabin had been a blacksmith shop but only about four courses of logs were left. I jacked those up and pulled the bottom row out as they were rotted. Sat it on a rock foundation and used salvaged logs and lumber to finish. I stayed in this while working on the big cabin. SUBSEQUENT ENTRIES MADE IN THE GUEST BOOK ON ADDITIONS, ETC.: May, 1960 – Brought up piano June 1961 – Put rafters and floor joists in wood shed; poured cement for side door platform. (west end) Roofed wood shed. Brought up new 100# tank of gas for frig. Sept. 1961 – Labor Day weekend with guests from Calif. Greeted with 16" of snow overnight. Neighbor pulled us up the road with his jeep after we broke track on snowshoes. Summer 1967 – Back bedroom built.   contacts: From: David Matthews (dmatthewsdss@comcast.net) To: Clement Ann (almclement@comcast.net) Cc: David Matthews (dmatthewsdss@comcast.net), VSmith (vms83154@aol.com), Bob Roppel (bob.roppel@summitexpress.com), john@jcwarren.com, gregm@themorrisongroup.org, jackie roppel (jackie.roppel@summitexpress.com), bcelius@gmail.com, carolbenson68@gmail.com, cjapmann75@yahoo.com, shred1@cox.net, nddoug@msn.com, Grady Gary D (gdgrady@msn.com), gjohnson@co.jefferson.co.us, honora he (honora_he@hotmail.com), jerrya872@gmail.com, jimben@q.com, joantbeam@comcast.net, joe delaware (joe.delaware@cfcc.com), john caldwell (john.caldwell@ucdenver.edu), jfhrdlicka@comcast.net, galouki@durango.net, lucia gill (lucia.gill@comcast.net), sharonandrandy@centurytel.net, els elysia (els.elysia@gmail.com), Jaimie FitzSimons (Jaime.FitzSimons@summitcountyco.gov), Joel Cochran (ToJoelC@comcast.net), Morrison Greg (gregtmorrison@gmail.com) |