Historic Structure Report: Patterson-McDermott Cabin

Wackrow, Kathleen

This Historic Structure Report was completed to support the relocation, rehabilitation, and reuse of the Patterson-McDermott Cabin (AHRS # SKG-00209). The NPS manages the Patterson-McDermott Cabin as a historic resource within the Chilkoot Trail/Dyea Unit of Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (KLGO) in the Municipality of Skagway, Alaska. Park managers intend to perform treatment on the cabin and relocate it to the intersection of Dyea Road and Dyea Flats Road for use as an unstaffed visitor center for the Dyea Historic Townsite, the archaeological site of a Klondike Gold Rush boomtown that rapidly developed in the summer of 1897 and was largely abandoned by 1902 (the year the Dyea post office closed), after a wide range of circumstances and events contributed to its decrease in population. It is recommended that the exterior of the building is restored to the first two years Wesley and Vivian Patterson owned the property (1946 and 1947), and the interior of the building is rehabilitated for use as an unstaffed visitor center. It is also recommended that two historical photographs of the building that are located at the KLGO Library—dating to 1947 and 1949—are used as a guide, as they are the earliest photographs of the cabin that have been identified. In the summer of 2013, Park Historian Karl Gurcke and Student Conservation Association Intern Dave Simpson discovered a box of slides with photographs of Dyea dating to 1947-1950 in the KLGO library. The provenance of these slides are unknown. It is also recommended that KLGO staff complete a site plan for the future location of the visitor contact station, while taking into considerations the recommendations presented in the Treatment and Use portion of this report.

Historic Structure Report: Patterson-McDermott Cabin

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