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Crockett Cabin Restoration

By Joe Bone

Pat Young, who was a history major in college, is now a “hands on” preservationist. Today, I watched this owner-manager of The Log Home Resource Center of Little Rock, Arkansas work with five other specialist to preserve the logs of the Davy Crockett Cabin-Museum in Rutherford, TN. Pat’s enthusiasm inspired his fellow workers, as he did not allow physical difficulties nor extreme heat and humidity to prevent him from working on this last home and memorial of a unique American hero.

Paul Peebles, from Nashville, took the lead on Pat’s project, ably representing the Sashco Company of Brighton, Colorado.  Sashco donated the materials for cleaning, preserving and chinking between the logs.

Dustin Burkhead, who works for Pat, eliminated our large” carpenter bee” population and plugged up their former homes before helping to clean, repair and repaint chinking.

The six-man crew was completed by Matt McCraw, Chris Wages and Kevin Strom, who are the River Ridge Log Home Restorers. (They just completed restoring a 5,500 square foot home in Fayetteville, Arkansas).

Bob and Joy Bland of Paris were among those who visited the cabin while the work was in progress. Joy, who is the retiring president of the Direct Descendents of David Crockett, expressed her complete approval of the work and her gratitude for those firms who contributed their Resources to preserve this also home and memorial of her illustrious ancestor.

All of us in and around Rutherford and Northwest Tennessee owe a big “thank you” to Pat Young, who answered my call for help and brought Sashco and River Ridge here to give our cabin and its 180 year-old logs a “new lease on life”.