PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Historic Buildings

The Fort

No restoration or repair work was done to the fort in 1946 and 1947, except for Heaton's efforts in April 1947 to clean tree roots out of the pipeline that led into the spring room. [1418] In September that year, Heaton visited a blacksmith in Kanab to make arrangements for making the big locks for the fort gates. During October 1947, Heaton planed lumber to be used as new floorboards in the fort's kitchen. In late November he removed the old kitchen floor (not the original). He reported during this process, "Worked all day taking up the floor of the kitchen of the fort. Found the boards very rotten and hard to get up. Broke most of the floorboards getting them up as the nails were rusted and the boards rotten. The floor joists were about 1/2 rotted away. Those in the west end were the worst, two or three of the east end fairly good, where there was more ventilation and less seepage of water. The back part is very damp and wet." [1419] He finished removal of the deteriorated kitchen floor in early December. While removing the floor, he made a discovery of some original flooring: "Finished cleaning out the kitchen rooms of the fort. Found a small section of the original floorboards. They are 1 full inch thick, 4-1/2, 5, 5-1/2, and 6 inches wide and tongued and grooved, nailed with the old square-cut nails to a 2 x 6." [1420]

Several other discoveries were made during Heaton's work on the fort's floors. Before the new floor joists could be installed, the kitchen's two cupboards that flanked the fireplace had to be removed. Under the north cupboard Heaton found "a teaspoon of a plain 'Roger Nickel Silver.' Under the south cupboard a small, very flat case with a flowered handle silver coated 'Standard,' also at the edge of the hearth stone an iron handle of some tool. Too rusty to determine just what it is." [1421] Work was suspended for several weeks while Heaton waited for Assistant Superintendent Art Thomas to come and inspect the project. Thomas approved the work at the end of December and Heaton proceeded with installing the joists and floorboards in January 1948. He poured cement along the kitchen's back wall and around the fireplace for the floor joists to rest on, and also braced the staircase. Unlike the first time the floor was replaced in 1926, this time an effort was made to make the replacement floor more rot-resistant. The joists were painted with hot linseed oil and wood preservative; more sub-floor ventilation was also provided. [1422] A large rock that lay beneath the center of the kitchen floor had to be chipped down to accommodate a 6 x 7-inch concrete strip centered beneath the floor to support the new joists. Toward the end of January, Heaton began relaying the kitchen floor, completing this job in early February. In March he repeated much the same process in the parlor (west room), only this time with the help of his brother Grant Heaton, hired as temporary laborer. The parlor floors were replaced by the month's end. Other work in the kitchen and parlor at this time included woodwork, plastering, and painting. [1423]

In mid-January 1949, Zion officials asked Heaton to make up a report on all stabilization work that had been done to the fort since 1942. He completed his report on February 1, 1949, recording the information on a Ruins Stabilization Record. (It is believed that no photographs were taken during any of the work.) Erik Reed later transferred this information to a copy of the earlier HABS (Historic American Building Survey) drawing of the fort. [1424]

The next big project at the monument was reconstruction of the fort's big gates. The first replacement gates were built and installed by Heaton in 1928, but these apparently weren't authentic enough for later Park Service officials. The new ones were to be replicas of the originals. [1425] In June 1948 Heaton prepared the lumber for the job by tonguing and grooving it with a plane borrowed from William C. Bolander of Orderville, Utah. No more work was done on this job until almost a year later. In April and May 1949, Heaton built gates for both ends of the fort, using square nails in the construction of one if not both sets of gates. [1426] In early June he put in a new sill for the west gate. When he and three of his sons tried to hang the west gates they discovered that they didn't fit, so they had to be cut down in size. Heaton wrote that he "painted the sill timber of the west gate with old motor oil, creosote and wood preservative and termite poison. Hope it will last 30 or 40 years." [1427] In mid-June the east gates were taken down. Heaton reported, "Found the sill log almost rotted away under the door frame uprights. Cut the door frames off about 2 inches to get [to] the solid wood. Replaced the sill timber and painted it with preservative. Bored some holes in the door frames about 12 inches up from the bottom to fill with preservative to keep out termites and rot." [1428] The east gates were hung on March 14 and 15 with the help of Heaton's teen-aged sons, Dean and Lowell. Heaton cemented around the frames of the gates, reset the top and middle hinges, and installed new locks. No other work worthy of note in the fort took place until July 1950. A considerable amount of plaster had fallen from the walls of the spring room and there were signs of stone deterioration. Zion officials recommended in April that Heaton install a few drains and replace the plaster with water-resisting cement to retard capillary action and preserve the room's walls. Heaton carried out this work in July. [1429]

In October 1950 Heaton removed and replaced the deteriorated catwalk near the fort's west gates. [1430] The fort's north balcony was in such poor condition, that in September 1950 Heaton installed three braces beneath it. "They don't look too good but [were] put up as a safety measure," he wrote. [1431] On November 18, 1950, the monument had a visit from Regional Architect Kenneth M. Saunders and his wife. Saunders returned the following day to inspect the fort and cabins. Heaton wrote, "Mr. K. M. Saunders called again about noon to see the fort. He is quite taken up with it. Wants to see it fixed up. Is going to try and get some money for repairs on the porches and southwest corner [of the west cabin]." [1432] Regional Director Tillotson later transferred $500 of ruins stabilization funds to Pipe Spring to enable additional work to be done to reinforce the fort's balconies during fiscal year 1951 (see Part VIII).

The West Cabin

The west cabin was in dire need of stabilization work by the end of World War II. In November 1946 Heaton noted in his journal, "The west cabin is again settling on the southwest corner, causing a large crack to come over the west door and west end of the building." [1433] Heaton thought spring water behind the west cabin was causing the building to settle. He called Art Thomas' attention to the problem during his and Erik Reed's visit of May 1948. In early April 1950, Superintendent Smith requested ruin stabilization funds for the west cabin from the regional office and submitted an outline of proposed work. The sinking of the cabin's southwest corner had caused a large crack from floor to ceiling on the cabin's west side. An old spring developed by early settlers on the hill above the building had become choked with weeds and grass, causing water to spread downward toward the cabin, Smith reported. Moisture under the foundation was causing slippage of the shale beneath the cabin. Smith's plan was for Heaton to install gravel drains to divert the spring water away from the cabin and to pull the cabin wall back into place with steel rods and turnbuckles. After the wall was back in place, Heaton was to reinforce the foundations with concrete footings and repair the cracked portions of the wall. [1434] It is presumed the funds for materials were received, for Heaton carried out the work as outlined by Smith from April to June 1950, at times with the help of his sons Leonard, Lowell, Sherwin, and Gary. [1435] Heaton then relaid those portions of rock walkway that had been removed in front of the cabin prior to stabilization work.

Monument Walkways

The monument's sandstone walks laid during the 1930s began to look a bit worse for the wear by the post-war years. Heaton blamed badgers for undermining about one-third of the walkway to the west cabin; this much he replaced in the summer of 1947. In 1949 Heaton was given permission to remove the stone walks that linked the fort and east and west cabins and to replace them with stone-bordered gravel walkways. This work was accomplished in July.