Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Hufford family says it hopes to have the Cedar Shack rebuilt and back in business in time for Grampa Tom’s Get-Together in June.
The Cedar Shack drive-in restaurant, at 4102 Main St., burned down in September 2004 in an arson fire set to cover up a burglary.
Insurance money mostly covered the cost of tearing the original structure down, said Marv Wilson, a son-in-law to the restaurant’s founders, Tom and Mardy Hufford. Since the fire, the family has been working through the building process, and recently, the family was able to begin construction.
“The goal is to have it done and cleaned up and putting out hamburgers by the time of Grampa Tom’s Get-Together, putting up owl burgers for the car show” Wilson said.
Since the fire, Wilson, who is married to Jan Hufford Wilson, went back to school to get his contractor’s license so he could be the general contractor on the project.
“As far as I know she’s (Jan) is going to be doing the management,” Wilson said.
Hufford Wilson ran the restaurant, a Sweet Home landmark where truck drivers could place their orders over CB radios and have them waiting.
The restaurant opened on Feb. 17, 1965. Hufford Wilson went to work there as soon as she was old enough to sack fries, she said. She started managing the restaurant in 1985.
A second building was constructed in 1971. It housed the manager’s office, and Hufford Wilson’s Girl Scout troop met there. It also provided extra seating. Both buildings were damaged in the fire and removed.
After the fire, Hufford Wilson said people from as far away as Portland were calling them asking when the Shack would be reopened.
When the restaurant was destroyed, the family had plans to introduce pizza and video rentals.
The Hufford family, long in the logging industry, offered specialty menus such as the Chipper Burger, which, after the timber decline of the 1990s, was referred to as the Spotted Owl Burger.
The fire followed another, unrelated arson at Lester’s Shingle Mill. Two people, Steven Jayne and Marna Ringheimer, were convicted in the Cedar Shack arson and burglary, but the Lester’s fire remained unsolved.