Charles Meining built his handhewn homestead cabin on the banks of the Little Thompson Creek with the hopes of using it temporarily while he built a more suitable frame house covered with clapboard siding. Did he envision flowers growing in the yard, a corral with livestock just out the back, and a field full of crops taking root nearby? Sadly he wasn't to see such dreams come true or to grow old there. The cabin was completed, but he lived only a short time there before succumbing to pneumonia.
The 14 x 22 foot cabin still stood, perhaps filled with those unrealized dreams, hidden away inside a larger dwelling, waiting for the day it would be brought back to life and feel the sun once again on it's timbered walls.
During a remodelling episode in 2001 the little cabin was discovered and donated to the historical society by Gary and Julie Moon. Generations of plaster and clapboard were carefully removed dismantled, and the little dwelling was restored to beyond its former glory. The cabin was given a new lease on life.
After months of hard work, May 12th, 2012,there was a dedication ceremony. I felt fortunate to help by serving good old fashion pie to the crowd who came to see this bit of history unvailed. Jan, another Historical Society volunteer, and I dressed in period clothing, and when I later walked through the little cabin, it was like stepping back in time.
The cabin was so small, what was it like to live in such confines with room only for the most precious of items. The walls were chinked with a mixture of cement, sand, and lime. There wasn't a stove yet, but I knew which corner I'd want to put it in if I were the housewife. Tiny steps led to the upper floor where sleeping would be warmer in winter but dang hot in the summer. Did it stand up well to the wind coming off the foots, or to a Rocky Mountain blizzard or the dust in the summer months?
It's a lovely place to dream of what might have been and I hope somewhere Charles Meining knows how many people are admiring and appreciating his little cabin.
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