Reconstructing the past

Kenneth Pile, a volunteer at the Mojave River Valley Museum, pounds a nail into a log with a sledge hammer while his wife, Frances Graceffo, holds it in place and Steve Richards looks on Thursday. Pile, Graceffo, Richards and museum vice president Brent Gaddis, will spend about two weeks reconstructing a log cabin that came to Barstow from Big Bear.

The log cabin was built in the early 20th century, and had been at the Pacific Crest Trail Ranch near Big Bear Lake, Gaddis said. Gaddis bought the cabin, dismantled it and used Doug Bevins Trucking of Apple Valley to transport it to Barstow. The cabin will house a blacksmith exhibit, and will honor Gaddis’s family, who worked with cyanide at the turn of the 20th century.

According to Barstow historian Steve Smith, a past president of the museum, even though the cabin is from Big Bear it’s historically accurate to Barstow.

“We borrowed buildings from all over the place,” he said.