Cabin Linked To Curwood Found Home

CABIN LINKED TO CURWOOD has now found a permanent home in the Corunna Historical Village in McCurdy Park, Corunna. Some people believe the cabin was frequented by James Oliver Curwood on fishing excursions to the Houghton Lake region. The cabin was moved to the park from the property of the late Ivan Conger, on Wednesday, July 19. Ivan Conger had been a Curwood historian, and much of his collection is now represented in Owosso’s Amos Gould House on Oliver Street, which is part of the Owosso Historical Commission (OHC) collection. Conger’s daughter, Diane, donated the cabin to the Corunna Historical Village.
Plans to move the cabin to Curwood Castle Park fell through a little over a year ago when evidence to support the authenticity of the cabin had not been found by the OHC. There was some controversy over the decided outcome. Regardless, the cabin has intrinsic historic value as a fishing cabin and is now safely tucked back toward a row of pine trees on the northern edge of the park, where it will now be enjoyed by all of Shiawassee County.
S & W Structural Building Movers of Swartz Creek, led by Scott Penoyer, facilitated the delicate move of the old cabin to the park. Chairwoman Margaret Waters shared, “Scott was great to work with and did a fantastic job making the building secure to move. The cabin did not have a floor or ceiling to stabilize it for the move. Scott and his crew constructed a floor and put it under the cabin. They added a considerable amount of framing inside to make it secure also.”
The transportation cost was just $4,500, and the Corunna Historical Village had the funds saved for the move. The small, square cabin now has a scenic new home.
James Oliver Curwood once wrote, “Nature is my religion. And my desire… my ambition… the great goal I wish to achieve is to take my readers with me into the heart of this nature.” Whether Curwood had direct ties to this cabin or not, it is well known that he spent time in the Houghton Lake area where this cabin originated. It is not a far leap to allow his words to take visitors away to the natural habitat he so passionately wrote about.
(Independent Photo/Karen Mead-Elford)