2 weeks Ago By CHRISTINE COMPTON [email protected]
East Helena's historic Manlove Cabin was disassembled Tuesday for a move to Helena Area Habitat for Humanity land. The cabin, also called the Manlove Homestead, is a 20-by-16-foot log cabin that is as old as Helena itself. It was built by Jonathan and Elmira Manlove in 1864 after parting from an Iowa wagon train through the Oregon Trail, digging some of the first potato fields in the region.
However, its location at Montana Secondary Highway Route 518 near U.S. 287 was at risk due to nearby construction.
If it didn't move, it could've been demolished. Despite having the $38,000 needed to move the cabin and plenty of volunteer labor, there was a scramble to find it a new home, East Helena Historical Society President Marty Folio said in July. The cabin was often called a "liability," Folio said.
There were requests to place it in the East Helena City Council's parking lot, where a historic train depot sits, but they were turned down by the council. But on Thursday, Helena Area Habitat for Humanity posted on social media it'd help disassemble and relocate the homestead. "With the help of Lewis and Clark Historic Society volunteer David Curd the Manlove homestead cabin logs are tagged and ready to be dismantled," the post says.
Curd was contacted by Pam Attardo of the Lewis and Clark County Historical Society around three weeks before disassembly. The logs were tagged and labeled so they'd be correctly rearranged, and the sod was removed from the roof by Curd and three Habitat volunteers. Proper disassembly began Tuesday and ended Wednesday, according to Heritage Timber crewmen on the scene Wednesday.
The cabin will be temporarily stored on Habitat land in East Helena. Later, it hopes to restore the cabin in park space near a neighborhood it is building in East Helena called Rose Hills. Curd doesn't call himself an expert, but he suspects it'll be a matter of years.
Jacob Kuntz, executive director of Helena Area Habitat for Humanity, was unable to comment before publication. Former East Helena Historical Society President Rick Pyfer, who died in December 2023, led the conversation for its move at least eight months before his death. Folio suspected he'd been surveying the problem months before even then.
"We're doing our best to pick up where he left off," Folio said in July. "But this was Rick's project." "Special thanks to our amazing Volunteer Coordinator Jeremy Ingram for helping to schedule volunteers in this last-ditch effort to save the cabin," the Facebook posting states.
"We hope Rick Pyfer would be proud." Christine Compton is a reporter for the Helena Independent Record..
