Volunteers from a national historic preservation group will spend the next two weeks replacing the roof and doing other smaller restoration work on the West Shelter high on Cape Perpetua.
The rock shelter was built in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and today is popular for its spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.
Eight volunteers and two staff members from HistoriCorps arrive Sunday for the first week of work. Ten more volunteers will replace those on Sept. 22 for another week’s work.
The cedar shingles on the 86-year-old structure are failing and some large cedar beams are rotting.
The Civilian Conservation Corps was part of the economic stimulus of the Roosevelt administration in reaction to the Great Depression. During their time at Cape Perpetua, young men in the CCC built their camp near the current site of the U.S. Forest Service’s Cape Perpetua Visitors Center, and then a series of trails, the public campground that’s still used today and then the West Shelter overlooking the Pacific.
During World War II the stone shelter became an observation station, looking for enemy boats or aircraft.
According to the Siuslaw National Forest, which oversees the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area, the headland is the highest viewpoint accessible by car on the Oregon Coast. On clear days, views extend 37 miles out to sea, and along 70 miles of coastline.
Based near Denver, HistoriCorps was founded in 2009 as a nonprofit to coordinate volunteers to preserve historic structures in public place across the country. The Cape Perpetua project is one of 26 it is tackling this year across the country; it completed 36 projects in 2018.
The group is also working on two buildings at Silver Falls State Park near Silverton this month.
Siuslaw National Forest officials approached HistoriCorps about getting the shelter on its list of projects, said Jamie Tobias, a spokeswoman for the group. HistoriCorps determines if it can handle the project, does design and material work, assigns project and crew leaders and then sends out a blast of emails to people on its list of volunteers and to project partners.
The first week, all but one of the volunteers are from Oregon. The second week they come from as far away as Iowa and Arizona. No more volunteers are needed for the shelter work.
They will stay at Cape Perpetua’s campground.
Tobias said volunteers “run the gamut” from 20-somethings to retirees, and not all have construction experience.
“A lot of people come to gain experience in historic preservation,” she said.
Work the next two weeks will prevent public access to the shelter, the Forest Service said, and hamper parking in the nearby day use area.
