Windfall Harbor Shelter Cabin – Admiralty Island AK

Description

The Windfall Harbor Shelter Cabin is a historic cabin in the Admiralty Island National Monument. It is one of the several cabins the Civilian Conservation Corps built in the Tongass National Forest for public recreation during the 1930s, and is part of the Admiralty Island Canoe Route.

A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places reports on the condition of the cabin as of 1995: “The Civilian Conservation Corps built the Windfall Harbor Shelter Cabin during the 1930s as part of the Admiralty Island Canoe Route. It is a three-sided Adirondack shelter cabin with a peeled log superstructure and shake walls and roof. In 1986 the sill logs, vertical posts, and angel-braces on the cabin were replaced. The horizontal lintel logs forming a top-plate on the wall were not replaced, as indicated by 1966 graffiti. Although chainsaws were used to cut the new structural logs, the essential post-and-beam form was retained. Some cross-bracing was squared with a chainsaw, rather than left round as it had been originally. Wall shakes are thirty inches long and abut vertically. None of the roof or wall shakes is original. The front of the shelter has a single set of shakes protecting the ends of the horizontal poles used as nailers for the wall shakes. The structure is in fair condition. The natural setting is similar to the 1930s. The view from the shelter is of a pleasant tidal beach extending into Windfall Harbor. The trailhead leading to Hasselborg Lake is not evident.”