PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Historic Buildings

The Fort

In December 1956 Park Engineer Wilcox made a test hole at the southwest corner of the fort to inspect the fort's foundation at that location. [1775] He checked the soil at the southwest corner of the fort with a seven-foot auger, hitting shale at a depth of about two feet. At five feet, the soil was quite dry and hard; at about seven feet he hit water that came up in the hole at a rate of five feet in two hours. Heaton later wrote, "So we have big problem to stabilize the southwest corner of the fort." [1776] In February 1957 Wilcox returned to make further tests. Heaton later reported, "We drilled a 17-foot hole on the southwest corner going through clay and some shale and water at about 3 or 4 feet. At 17 feet there was some quite hard shale. Mr. Wilcox took an instrument reading on pond water level and ground [level] at the fort. [There was a] three-foot difference so we may have water seepage from the pond back to the fort rather than [from] spring water." [1777] The drilling showed that the material to a depth of 17 feet was largely a reddish brown clay with varying moisture content. It was thought that at a depth of about eight feet the material would support a spread footing for the building corner.

After Wilcox's second investigatory trip, Superintendent Franke described the problem in a memorandum to Regional Director Hugh Miller. The cost of needed stabilization work was "beyond the reach" of Zion's available maintenance funds, Franke stated. He asked for Miller's ideas on how to obtain funding to accomplish the work. Regional Chief of Operations David H. Canfield wrote Franke that constructing the footing at a depth of six feet was adequate. He suggested providing tile drains beneath the new footing surrounded by crushed gravel. Canfield requested cost estimates for the work. Franke responded that construction costs to stop the settling of the fort's southwest corner would be $936, $500 of which they had in their historic buildings account. The regional office agreed in March to make up the $436 deficit so the project could move forward.

Wilcox visited the monument on March 18 and March 25, 1957, to make plans for stabilization work on the fort. On March 25 Wilcox made arrangements for two laborers and told Heaton what materials would be needed for the work (sand, cement, and mixers). Heaton bought 40 bags of cement from Kanab Construction Company then arranged for his brother Grant Heaton to haul three loads of gravel to the monument. Heaton also drained the fort ponds so water would drain out from under the building.

On April 1, 1957, Wilcox and Ward Axtel arrived to work on the fort stabilization, remaining on site for the duration of the project, and camping in a trailer. Work on the fort commenced on April 2 with a crew of four or five men (Leonard P. Heaton was hired to assist with part of the work; laborer Carl Johnson was also involved.) On the first day, the men excavated three 2 x 5 x 6-foot holes around the fort's southwest corner. No water was encountered, leading Heaton to speculate that the seepage Wilcox encountered had come from the ponds, which were now temporarily empty. A fourth hole was dug, then reinforced concrete footings were poured. Stabilization work was completed on April 9. Johnson cleaned up the site and refilled the fort ponds.

During December 1957, two laborers, Carl Johnson and Kelly Heaton, were hired to repair the fort's walls and ceilings, paint the floors with linseed oil, and to white wash the walls. That month the men painted the east and west walls with a mixture of water and dirt. They continued working in the north building until the end of December, replastering the kitchen walls with cement as a base and regular plaster as the surface, as well as painting, cleaning, and other work. During that month Heaton made several trips to area towns to locate carpenters and other men for restoration work on the fort and furnishings as programmed for early 1959.

Regional office staff Ken Saunders and Erik Reed were assigned to supervise the FY 1959 restoration work. Reed reviewed a list of suggestions prepared by Heaton, then submitted a list of his 10 "high priority" and two "second priority" projects to Superintendent Franke on November 24, 1958. High priority projects were repairing and purchasing old furnishings for the fort; hiring carpenters to repair all woodwork in the fort; painting all woodwork; wiring the building; closing up all exterior openings not original to the fort and reconstructing gun ports in outer walls; replacing flooring in the lower floor of the upper building; reconstructing the ladder to the trap door; making repairs to plaster and floors; getting the spring water running through the fort; and making shutters for two windows on the lower building's first floor. Of lower priority were rebuilding the telegraph line and replacing the fire cranes in the fireplace.

104. Scaffolding erected on south side of fort, January 19, 1959
(Photograph by Leonard Heaton, Pipe Spring National Monument, neg. 51).

Restoration work on the fort began on January 12, 1959. Locating local sandstone to infill the fort's windows and south doorway was the first challenge. Ray Mose and Clair Ford scouted around Heart Canyon and finally located some stone the right color. They spent several days quarrying then dragging pieces to the monument with a tractor rented from Grant Heaton. There Clair Ford worked the stone into the proper shapes. Scaffolding was erected on January 16 and 17, then work began on rocking up the fort's exterior windows. One of Leonard's sons, Sherwin Heaton, was hired to assist with this work for two months. At times the weather was so cold the mortar froze to the trowel. On January 22 Assistant Superintendent Charles Humberger, Regional Architect Ken Saunders, and Park Engineer Ed Bossler visited the monument to inspect work progress. The last opening was rocked up on January 29. Mud stain was used to "age" the new infilled areas and gun ports were created during the infilling work. While Ford and Mose were at work, a contractor from Hurricane Electric Company had a crew trenching and laying conduit to wire the fort, completing work on the 24th. [1778] Charlie Steen visited the fort in late February and later reported, "The new work blends very well with the old walls and the south aspect of the fort is vastly improved." [1779]

Replacement work on the upper building's deteriorated parlor and kitchen floors began on January 30, 1959, and was completed in April. (This was the third time these floors had been replaced, the most recent being 1948.) Five screened, external vents were added beneath the floors to reduce moisture problems and all materials were treated to resist moisture, decay, and termites. [1780] Work to restore the spring flow to the spring room was undertaken in February and completed in March. (See "Ponds, Fish, Fowl, and Springs" section.) The stone walls of the fort, the cabins, and the walls flanking the fort and around the fort ponds were all repointed as needed by June. In the upper level of the lower building, interior work included removal of old plaster from walls and partitions, followed by replacement with cement on the rock walls and gypsum plaster and lime on the partitions. Some patch work was also done in other rooms. In March Sherwin Heaton resigned and Ivan A. Goodall was hired to clean furnishings and assist with other interior work. Grant Heaton was also hired as a laborer in early March. Clair Ford did repairs to the woodwork throughout the fort's interior, repairing and replacing loose or broken boards. Interior painting was done where needed. Grant Heaton and Ivan Goodall were laid off at the end of March and Harry Judd was hired as a painter. Judd, Ford, and Mose continued working on the fort into the summer months. In May Grant Heaton worked on restoring the old telegraph line to the fort, replacing the old poles with new ones.

In September 1959 Superintendent Franke and Bob Utley visited the monument. One of the things discussed was the lighting system inside the fort. Franke did not like the floodlights that had been installed in rooms and wanted electric lights put in the old lamps and lanterns instead.

In the fall of 1962, linseed oil was painted onto the roof of the fort and on woodwork under the eaves of the porches as a preservative, following a recommendation made by Western Museum Laboratory staff.

The East and West Cabins

In March 1957 Heaton rebuilt the chimney of the east cabin and patched roofs of both cabins with blue clay which he wetted down with the fire pump and hose. [1781] In late July laborer Carl Johnson worked on the east cabin foundation, putting in a concrete footing and cementing up cracks. In November Johnson and Kelly Heaton removed deteriorated mud mortar from the wall of both cabins and repointed the stones with cement. They then painted the walls with water and mud to take off the "newness" of their work. The two-week job was completed in early December 1957. That month Heaton removed planking from the west cabin middle doorway so that he could use both rooms of the west cabin for a museum display.

In late April 1959, the east and west cabin foundations were treated with a termite repellant ("pendane"). During the fall a great deal of work was done to outfit both cabins with a mixture of reproduction and authentic furnishings for display purposes (see "Monument Administration, 1959" section). Other than routine maintenance, no other work was done on the cabins in the early 1960s. In May 1962 concern for the security of collections in the cabins led to the erecting of barriers, which allowed visitors to view displays from just inside the doorways.

The rehabilitation work begun in January 1959 on the fort and cabins continued until June 1961, when the account was finally closed out. As the funds included the purchase and repair of historic furnishings and the completion of room exhibits, this latter aspect of the project took a longer period of time than work on the buildings, most of which was accomplished in 1959.

During November 1963, the roof of the west cabin was patched with mud and bark.

The Lime Kiln

Heaton and Olsen shared an interest in the site of an old lime kiln, the kiln having been used during the construction of the fort and west cabin. The kiln burnt lime that went into plaster and the mortar for stonework. Olsen reported the kiln was located 200 feet west of the west cabin, "about 20 feet from where the road is now" (referring to the old monument road, State Highway 40). In 1964 the kiln was a mound of rocks, sand, and dirt, measuring four to five feet high by 15 to 20 feet wide. Heaton wanted to reconstruct the kiln, but the request was denied by his superiors. [1782]