It has been a long time since we got the idea to move and restore the block house at Fort Yargo. When we got approval from the state and the plans were approved in Nov. of 2004, things started to move rather fast. I do not know about the others, but it was a little bit of a shock. Now that we have the go- ahead, we now have to make it happen.
The state approved the plans for the foundation that were drawn up by Bramblett and Associates in November of 2004. December came, and the park got the trenches for the footing dug, poured the concrete for the footings, and laid the block for the foundation . With the foundation set, we started getting ready for the move. A moving company that specializes in historic buildings put the block house up on beams to get it ready for the move.
The real work of moving started with the chimney coming down. The park brought in a backhoe and we pulled the top down first. When that stone hit the ground it was a sure sign that there was no changing ours minds now. All the old stone was removed (not original) and placed on a truck to be hauled away. We then spent a couple of weekends removing the roof and rafters. The old boards that the roof was nailed to were badly damaged by powder puff beetles and had to be thrown away.
The park then cut a road up to the main highway and the wait for the actual move started. Finally, the day came and the movers came in with their jacks, trucks, and workers, picked up the blockhouse, and hauled it to the new site.
Now the real work started!
One weekend was spent putting the rafters back up. Roofers were then able to come in and put on a new shingle roof. No, it is not period correct, but few will know. The rain water had to be kept out. The new roof looks good and the color has already grayed so that it looks old, and more period correct. Also located on park land was an old shed that was falling down and a hazard. It was sided with old mill cut boards, which are just what we needed for the gable ends. We stripped the boards from the old shed and fitted them to the block house. They look like they were always there.
Most of the window openings now have hand forged hinges as do the doors. As our blacksmith makes more we will change the leather or modern hinges with correct ones.
Artie Dougherty, Senior Ranger of Fort Yargo's park staff, did most of the foundation and chimney work. He did a perfect job, and unless a person crawled under the blockhouse, no one would ever know that it had a concrete foundation.
While Artie was working on the stone work the Fort Yargo Living History Society and the Coalition of Historical Trekkers were putting the chinking in place. Wanting things as period correct as possible, we checked around with other living history sites and got the best recipe for the chinking filler. What a chore! This took about 4 or 5 weekends, and was dirty, dirty work. No one came away with out some cut or splinter in their hand.
The "Friends of Fort Yargo" not only raised most (if not all) of the funds for this project, but made crushed stone walks around the blockhouse, and