PARKERSBURG - Work is under way and people will be able to see the assembly of a log cabin at Fort Boreman Park.
The structure is being disassembled and reconstructed by members of Carlin's Battery, the county's Civil War living history re-enactors unit.
''We are rebuilding a 200-year-old cabin we had gotten off New England Ridge,'' said Jim Miracle, commander of Carlin's Battery. ''It is going to be the headquarters for Carlin's Battery.
''It will be close to a replica of a winter quarters that would have been up here. We have been working on it for a few weeks.''
Such a structure would have been used by soldiers to get out of the rain and other bad weather, Miracle said.
Fort Boreman was named for West Virginia's first governor, Arthur I. Boreman, a Parkersburg native. Union troops with the 11th West Virginia Infantry manned the fort during the Civil War.
Re-enactment group members have invited the public to watch them build the cabin whenever they are at the park.
''We will be up here working on it June 20 for West Virginia Day,'' Miracle said.
He did not know how long the project would take or when they would be done as many of their volunteers had other commitments dividing their time. As few as three and as many as 10 people have worked on the cabin at any given point.
The cabin, referred to by locals as the "Moore Cabin," was slated to be torn down, but the county stepped in and was able to acquire it, Miracle said.
''We got it, we're taking it apart and putting it back together,'' he said. ''When we were taking it down, we had all kinds of people up on New England Ridge telling us who was born there. It is a well-known cabin.''
Miracle said they are always looking for more volunteers to help.
''We always need more,'' he said. ''We will take all the help we can get. If you help, we will put your name on the plaque; we will put it on the inside of the cabin where we will put everyone's name who helped.''
For more information, call 304-488-2307.
