Sean C. Morgan
The Cedar Shack restaurant will be replaced when funding for a new building can be raised.
The Cedar Shack was destroyed by arson in September apparently to cover up a burglary.
“The insurance money was $50,000, which is not enough to rebuild,” Manager Jan Hufford-Wilson said. “We’re looking at other financing to try to come up with a plan to get us back open.”
To put the Cedar Shack the way it was will cost about $400,000, Marvin Wilson said. Cutting back on square footage doesn’t reduce the cost much because restaurants have a number of requirements that drive up the cost.
“We want to put in one building,” Wilson said. The goal was to have it open and running for Grampa Tom’s car show in June.
The Cedar Shack will be back for that event one way or another, even if it’s a portable building, for that annual event, Hufford-Wilson said.
The Cedar Shack opened on Feb. 17, 1965. Hufford-Wilson has worked in the family business ever since. She has managed the restaurant since 1985.
The Cedar Shack became a Sweet Home landmark where truck drivers could place their orders over a CB radio and have it waiting.
When it was destroyed by the fire, along with it went plans to open a pizza parlor and movie rental service.
Wilson had worked for CDI as a contract technician for Hewlett Packard until about three years ago when the job was sent overseas. He spent a couple of years harvesting timber from family property affected by the February windstorm three years ago.
Over the last year, he and the family had been fixing up the Cedar Shack. He had hoped to finish before looking for work again. Now the family is focused on replacing the Cedar Shack.
Both are looking for work in the meantime.
“Grandpa (Tom Hufford) wants it,” Wilson said. “He wants it. That’s good enough reason.”
“I don’t like the idea of somebody taking something away from us,” Hufford-Wilson said in defiance of the arsonist.
“We’ve had people as far away as Portland come up to us and say, when are you going to get the Shack going,” Wilson said. “We miss the hamburgers.”
The couple would welcome input into what people liked about the old building and what they would like to see incorporated into a new design.
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