A historic building in the Hunter Creek Valley has been unearthed and dated to tree rings

On Friday, September 20, a historic building in the Hunter Creek Valley was excavated and tree rings were dated.

The building, which experts believe was used to house farm animals, is made of wood that is about two centuries old, said Mardita Murphy, program manager at Historicorps.

Historicorps, a Morrison-based nonprofit organization, provides volunteers of all skill levels with hands-on experience preserving historic properties on America’s public lands.

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“We determined that the trees are over 200 years old and have had a constant supply of water throughout their lives, which means very little stress,” Murphy said. “Due to minimal variations from year to year, we need to spend a little more time processing the cores to get an accurate date. We may need to carbon date them to get a date for the fall. Hopefully there will be some updates in the next month.”

Tree ring dating, or dendrochronology, is performed by drilling a hole in the center of a log or tree. This core sample then tells researchers how old the wood was when it was cut and how many rings can be counted. These rings also tell researchers the tree’s life story. Wider growth rings indicate that the tree has received a lot of rain this year; a narrower ring indicates drought conditions.

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Excavations and restoration

Other buildings have been restored in the Hunter Creek valley near Aspen.

Since 2022, volunteers from Aspen and across the country have been working to restore these buildings to their former glory. Once a year in the fall, volunteers come to the area to work on various renovation projects. This year, the work lasted from August 25 to September 20 in weekly shifts.

About ten volunteers helped last week, mostly from Denver and two from Arizona. Some were regular volunteers, and for some it was their first visit to this place. There were also several Historicorps members, bringing the total to around 20 people.

One building, Hunter Creek Roadhouse, had its foundation replaced.

The foundations are “about the same” height, said Denis Moran, Historicorps operations manager. Moran, who was also on site last year, said a pine tar preservative was applied to the floor to prevent insect and weather damage. Most of the floor is made of original boards.

There was also a project on the history of architecture in relation to a building dating from tree rings.

The foundation was uncovered to allow the team to complete drawings, measurements and photographic documentation. This will allow the team to understand what needs to be done to preserve the building next year, as well as better understand why and when it was built.

Artifacts found

During the work, the team found horseshoes, horse bridles, kitchen pipes, bottles, cans, glass fragments, machine parts, tools, shoe fragments, cutlery, combs, beer cans, hundreds of nails, abalone shells and milk or white glass, buttons and bones.

“Some of the bones showed that they had been cut up, so they were probably butchered, and there were some tooth marks, but they were mostly small animals,” Murphy said.

These artifacts are cataloged and collected by the United States Forest Service.

The Hunter Creek Trail runs right next to these structures. Hikers and cyclists can see them on their trips, and backcountry skiers have even used these structures as shelters for decades.

A bottle of ski wax was also found, believed to date back to the 1970s.

“I know a lot of people who came here in the late 1960s and 1970s and found that they lived in these buildings for a while before they could find a place in the city,” said Graeme Means, co-chair of the Hunter Creek Historical Foundation.

“I think the story of Aspen is that it’s very late. There were no recorded traces of whites here until the 1870s. There were big cities on the west coast, and that was because Glenwood Canyon was really difficult to navigate, and there were fierce Ute Indians, and then there was Independence Pass, which was 10,000 feet long. So these buildings and their dates may not impress people from the rest of the country; nevertheless, they date from the very beginning of Aspen’s history. That’s why they’re quite intriguing,” Means said.

The full report on the website will be published in a few weeks and Historicorps will return to the website next year.

Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or [email protected].