The Prairie Portage Cabin is a historically significant structure located on U.S. Forest Service land in the Kawishiwi District of the Superior National Forest.
The cabin, with a full porch and hip-style roof, was constructed in 1929 from locally available wood by two lumberjacks, John Sansted and Austrian George. The dwelling served as a store and tavern, once part of a larger resort complex. The cabin was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. Today, the building is owned by the U.S. Forest Service and serves as a warming house and storage facility for individuals operating the motorized portage between Sucker and Basswood Lake.
Josh Preston, the 2015 field season crew leader, shortens a log end on the Prairie Portage Cabin to ensure it is protected by the roofline.
The objective of the project was to stabilize and maintain the existing integrity of the structure pursuant to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Superior National Forest Plan.
The scope of work as outlined by U.S. Forest Service, Superior National Forest included scraping, cleaning, sealing and staining the exterior logs of the cabin. The crew scraped the surface of the logs, removing debris from the checks, treated the checks with a borate-based wood preservative, filled the gaps in the logs and joints with foam backing rod, and sealed over the foam rod and smaller checks with caulk. Once the logs were repaired, the building was sealed with an oil based stain. The Prairie Portage project also involved removing portions of the log ends that had rotted due to exposure to the elements from improper positioning beyond the shelter of the roofline. Once the rotten material was removed, it was replaced with a wood plug when possible, and filled using a two-part epoxy compound. In areas where rot and decay had caused considerable damage, borate impel rods were imbedded into the logs.
Areas around the windows and at the roofline were patched with hardware cloth to prevent bats and other creatures from entering the cabin.
