SANTAQUIN -- Who knew that when Wes Morgan was working on the Saturn 5 rocket for NASA, he was honing the skills he would someday need to build a log cabin in Santaquin? And who would guess that the same principles would apply to rocket science and a rustic, pioneer home?

"When we started on this, it was wrecked," said Morgan, who is retired from Boeing Co. "Thirteen logs were so rotten they had to be replaced, which made trying to move it intact impossible. Instead we disassembled it, numbered the logs and hauled it over. Then we put it back together. I thought it would be easy. It wasn't.

"I have to hand it to the pioneers, I'm still amazed at what they were able to do with an ax and a cross-cut saw. You have to remember, these logs were round. They made them all rectangular and the dovetailing (fitting logs together at the corners with pre-cut notching) is ingenious."

Morgan said it actually took pages and years of pre-planning, a process very similar to what he did when he worked for NASA designing rockets and the space station.



He resisted at first when his wife asked him to "help" with the restoration of the cabin for the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, but it wasn't long before he was fully committed to the project.

While his wife, Nell, researched the cabin's history and helped raise more than $4,000 to pay for the restoration, he made a step-by-step outline that included replacing the logs, the doors and windows, the roof, the floor and adding power.

He found new logs in Gunnison, prepared, donated and dovetailed with the notches on the ends by Satter White Log Homes.

He asked LaVell Hone, a local retired cabinetmaker, to make new windows and a plank back door to match the orginal sashes and frame.

Another craftsman, Richard Bettis, was invited to make a new paneled front door.
A Santaquin roofer, Jeff Trujillo, put on the shake shingles after LaRon Taylor made multiples trips to Heber and Gunnison to find wooden planks.

The members of two DUP chapters helped rechink the walls with a mortar made from cement, lime and sand. The Sons of the Pioneers pitched in to help excavate, haul lumber and build walls.

"We have a list of more than 30 volunteers who have helped us," said Nell Morgan.
Great care has been taken to re-create the original structure. The paneled front door looks like it might be too fancy for the rest of the cabin, but it closely matches the original door. The sliding glass windows are the kind that were built into the 1870 cabin.

Where possible, the original square-cut nails were reused. The power lines are slipped in between the plank flooring and the rock foundation and will be inconspicuous.

"The only thing we did was I probably bought too much new wood," Wes Morgan said.
The result is a sturdy, compact 16 feet by 18 feet, fully restored wooden structure that represents the core families of Santaquin.

"The families involved are the nucleus of the community," Nell Morgan said. "Now I can see where this cabin began and how it branched out. This represents the community."

Early in the process, it was assumed the first female postmistress of Santaquin lived in the cabin. Further research showed that Ann Jarvis Stickney lived nearby. Widowed with four young children, she is an example of the hard-working, selfless kind of pioneer women that DUP wants to honor, Morgan said.

The DUP will furnish the cabin and fence the property and then make it available for tours and visits.

"This is going to last a long time," Wes Morgan said. "It's a monument to the skill of those then and now."

A dedication ceremony is planned on June 13, starting at 10:30 a.m., at the cabin site, approximately 45 W. 100 South, west of the Santaquin Library.

E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com