Historic Workers Cabins Protected as Eagle Scout Project

Aptos resident Jonathan Chaney, a senior at St. Francis High School in Watsonville and member of Scout Troop 609, recently completed his Eagle Scout project to help protect a cluster of historic Cowell Lime Works structures on the UCSC campus. Working under the direction of campus planner Alisa Klaus and local historian Frank Perry, Jonathan constructed a protective fence around the historic workers’ cabins, replicating the style and materials of traditional ranch fencing.

Jonathan began the project last summer, first developing the concept and plan. He then organized workdays, supervised other volunteers from his troop “keeping them on task,” and did much of the work himself over the period of August – January. In the process, he not only gained experience in planning and completing a project; he also gained a new appreciation for the area’s social, economic and natural history.

The cabins enclosed within Jonathan’s fence were constructed in the19^th Century to house the industry’s immigrant workers who quarried the limestone, hauled it to the kilns, packed the finish lime in barrels and shipped it off for use throughout the west. The complex of historic structures at the campus entrance is exceptional for its completeness and its significance to California history, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

For Jonathan’s fence project, the University supplied fence posts and rails from trees cut on campus. Some of the pickets were original to the Cowell Ranch site. Others were old redwood grape stakes—cut in half—that were donated by Ken Christopher in 2011.

Frank Perry, chair of the Friends of the Cowell Lime Works, expressed deep appreciation for the careful thought, diligence and hard work that Jonathan demonstrated in completing his project. For more information about the history and ongoing preservation efforts related to the Cowell Limeworks, visit www. http://limeworks.ucsc.edu/.