Hammers rang last week at Longbow Campground as volunteers replaced cedar shingles on sleeping shelters, working toward completing a project that began during the COVID pandemic.
U.S. Forest Service Archaeologist Cayla Kennedy said that the project to restore Longbow, built by Civilian Conservation Corps workers from Camp Cascadia in 1937-39, began in 2021.
work on the roof of a sleeping shelter at Longbow Organization Camp last week.
The 10-acre campground, originally called Long Bow Forest Camp, has six sleeping shelters, a community kitchen with attached dining, an amphitheatre that seats 75 people, and a water system for the campground, all built by the CCC. Modern vault toilets were installed more recently.
Longbow Organization Camp, as it now is known, hosted annual picnics to honor local CCC veterans until recently. Over the years, the rustic structures have deteriorated due to weather, and un-kind restoration efforts began.
Job Corps students repaired the bases of the main picnic shelter and some benches by jacking the structure up and replacing wood that had deteriorated over the years, she said.
In 2022 volunteers replaced the cedar roofs on three of the six sleeping shelters, but “unfortunately, our shipment of cedar only stretch to cover three,” Kennedy said.
She said that volunteers from HistoriCorps who put the roofs on in 2022 left instructions and the current volunteers, from Cascade Volunteers, followed the instructions to put shingles on two more shelters.
“They’re all experienced roofers and went through the appropriate safety trainings, and they’ve been honestly going much more quickly and efficiently than I was hoping for,” Kennedy said as she and a reporter walked through the campground. “So it’s been really awesome to see it this week.”
She said that the district will need to purchase enough shakes to finish the final shelter “or we’re thinking of doing a volunteer event to teach folks how to make shakes right right themselves. So it’s something we’re exploring, but haven’t really made any solid plans for.”