Trapper's Cabin finds new home at Heritage Site
A little trapper’s cabin has found a new home. Everett Lee Greenlee, born Dec. 18, 1895, built the 12-by- 14 foot cabin in the 1930’s out of cedar logs, a slit log and sod roof, and rough two-by- four floor boards.
Greenlee and his wife Edna Marie made the cabin their home during the winter months, November to February, while they set and checked trap lines.
They would travel the trap line which extended from Canim Lake, to Bosk Lake to Big Timothy Mountain using several leg hold traps. His daughter Toody Shirran, now 79, recalled that it took two days to walk the trap line.
“He trapped whatever was in the wood,” she said.
Coyotes, fox lynx, squirrels, weasels, martins and even cougar were trapped and sold to the Vancouver Raw Fur Company
“But once in a while, a fur buyer would come around,” she remembered.
Furnishings in the cabin included a hand-made log bunk, a stove, an apple box nailed to the wall for cupboards and a bench to store things.
“To eat lunch, we would sit on the bed,” she recalled. “Right in the floor where you walk back and forth, we dug a big hole two feet deep,” she explained. “That was where we stored stuff that couldn’t stand to be frozen like canned milk, potatoes and stuff like that.”
Everything was cooked on the little stove that didn’t have an oven. But Edna would place three rock on top of the stove covered by an old metal dish pan to make an improvised oven.
“She would bake the loveliest chocolate cake,” said Shirran.
When Greenlee had to go off on business, Edna and Shirran would take care of the trap line.
“My mother got so she could skin a squirrel in a minute,” she laughed. “I couldn’t quite keep up to her. It took me a minute and a half.”
It was a hard life, but her father made a living at it, she said. During the remainder of the year, he spent time minding their ranch, working for wages and doing carpentry work.
Formerly located on the Weldwood 6000 Road at 22 km on Hendrix Creek, the trappers cabin was moved to the 108 Mile Historical Site.
“I think it’s wonderful. It’s better than being left in the woods to rot.”
Cabin unusually constructed
Vice President of the 100 Mile District Historical Society is thrilled to see another building come to the 108 Historical Site.
He is also impressed by the size and construction of the old trapper’s cabin built in the mid 1930’s by Everett Greenlee.
Fashioned with cedar logs and on a stone foundation, the structure was moved from its original site near Hendrix Creek Aug. 10 and 11. The bottom logs has started to rot out. They will be replaced when the cabin is resurrected at its new location adjacent to the Clydesdale Barn. The front door and the side windows will both have views of the lake.
As for inside furnishings, Babcock was particularly impressed with sleeping arrangements.
A whole log lined the end of the outside of the bed.
“It was shaped so to fit the edge of the bed,” he added. “It’s unusual in a way.”
The 12-by- 14 foot cabin, according to Babcock, is on the large side for those days also.
“Most were eight-by- 10,” he added.
A bought iron stove, used for both cooking and heating, sat to one side of the cabin.
“It’s also different than lots of them I’ve seen,” he explained. “It sits on a pedestal with one big door on the front that latches and extends out.”
Because of numerous initials carved in the logs, Babcock feels that the cabin has been well used over the years. Dates go back as far as the 1940’s and continue to just recently.
Plans are to have the cabin up and ready within a few months. The 108 Historic Site first started taking shape in 1977 and has expanded throughout the years. There are hopes of obtaining a hunter’s cabin from the 111 Mile area. As well, the group is hoping to see a chapel and a school house on the site.
