Work continued at the log cabin site on the north side of the Whitko Junior Senior High School on Tuesday, September 23, 2025.

Volunteers from Zimmer-Biomet, Ortho Pediatrics and Turf and Tasks removed tree stumps, split logs, collected brush and trimmed trees around the building. They also removed the cedar shingles from the roof in anticipation of a crew installing new shingles later this week.

A NREMC crew removed some and trimmed other trees around the cabin last Monday, September 15.

The cabin was built by Whitko students in 1976 as a project to mark the United States’ Bicentennial. As the cabin turns 50-years-old, the United States will observe its semiquincentennial – 250 years – in 2026.

Former biology teacher Luke Hunt sponsored the project and the late Walter Malicki, former art teacher, designed the building. The students used construction materials and methods European settlers in North America would have used in 1776.

Volunteers working at the WJSHS log cabin site Tuesday, September 23 included, from left, Dan Vandewale, Chad Jagger, Dave Crum, Tyler Sederlund, Ritha Annadurai, Nathan Harding, Kass Hammon-Zeller, Rick Bollinger, Ben Floyd and Brien Irving. Mark Bollinger is not pictured.

The area is used as an occasional outside classroom and members of the Indiana Maple Syrup Association use the site for maple syrup production demonstrations. Other organizations sponsor events at the cabin too.