After vandalism, Boy Scouts repair historic cabin near Frances Short Pond; water to return by winter, city says

Jim David stands with Moran Henn in front of the cabin at Frances Short Pond on Monday, Oct. 2. The two have worked on restoring the historic cabin, using donated money from the Elks Lodge and with the help of a local Boy Scouts troop.

Moran Henn, executive director of Willow Bend, talks about an interpretive information panel which was vandalized recently.

Frances Short Pond was a bustle of activity last weekend as Boy Scouts and other volunteers worked to repair the historic cabin that sits on the banks.

The work came after the cabin and several educational plaques around the pond were vandalized within the last year. The efforts were organized by Jim David, who has a long history of caretaking and improving the Frances Short Pond and helped found the Willow Bend Environmental Education Center.

“Flagstaff is full of people just like you. It's full of people that care about this community. It's amazing,” he said.

David said the Flagstaff Elks Club donated $1,000 for supplies to fix up the cabin, while the Boy Scouts were providing much of the needed manpower. Together, they rebuilt and replaced doors and windows, and added additional mortar between the log walls.

The hope is to bring the cabin back to a state at which it can again be used for school trips and educational activities.

Jim David stands with Moran Henn in front of the cabin at Frances Short Pond on Monday, Oct. 2. The two have been working on restoring the historic cabin.

Moran Henn, executive director of Willow Bend, said the group has long used the cabin and pond area as a second classroom.

While most of the field trips and education Willow Bend provides occurs around the pond outside, Henn said it stores educational materials within the cabin, and uses its shelter if the weather turns for the worse during a field trip.

“We have probably between 20 to 25 field trips a year out here,” Henn said. “[Students] do water quality testing. We do wildlife sampling, we do a whole bunch of things. [...] Students come, they sit in the classroom and I think it also connects the present and the past. It just feels really special to the students when they come inside. We talk about the cabin and then of course it protects our stuff, our materials.”

David was checking up on the cabin and pond last month when he found that the door and several of the windows of the cabin had been broken down or damaged. And Willow Bend’s education kits, which included microscopes and binoculars, had been smashed.

Outside the cabin, several bronze casts of animal tracks were also removed.

David and Henn both worry that the vandalism occurred in part because the pond has been empty for the better part of a year now. With the pond empty, far fewer residents are visiting the pond, which means there are fewer people passively keeping an eye on it.

Moran Henn, executive director of Willow Bend, talks about an interpretive information panel that had been vandalized recently.

“When people are here, they get to enjoy it and kind of keep an eye on it every day. And then when it's abandoned, it has an abandonment feeling to it,” Henn said.

David said he hopes the city can refill the pond soon.

“As soon as we get water back in here, there's so many people using this to fish, I could walk around here every day and not find a piece of [litter],” David said. “As soon as we get people using this, then this kind of thing doesn't happen.”

City Stormwater Director Ed Schenk said he believes the city should be able to refill the pond before winter.

Jim David and Moran Henn stand in the dry bed of the Frances Short Pond on the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 2.

It was originally drained so crews could dredge the thousands of tons of ash and sediment that were swept into the pond by postfire flooding. Schenk said although that dredging is complete, there is still some work they are looking to complete while the pond is dry, including improvements to the electrical line that runs to the island in the middle of the pond.

Those improvements will bring additional aerators to the pond, creating a better environment for fish.

The city is also building a new outlet on the pond’s southwestern corner so that less water overflows across the southern dam when the pond is swollen.

“If we don't build it, now we fill the pond, and then we're going to have to drain the pond again in two or three years just to build that structure -- which doesn't make sense when you have fish back in it and everything else. So it makes more sense, with the pond in its current state, to do all the work that we can,” Schenk said. “I know there's some frustration out there, but we're getting there; it's a process."

He added: "And the dredge is huge. It was great to have that done. There's no more ash in the pond, and we won't have the water-quality issues we had. We're looking forward to having some fish back in there and [water to support] the riparian zone.”

So on Saturday, more than two dozen people focused on working to return the cabin to its educational glory.

Henn said the effort is a testament to Flagstaff’s community spirit and the care locals have for the pond and surrounding area.

“Every few years, multiple partners come together. Some players are the same, some players are new, but they come together because there's something about this place that's almost like a magnet for people, for the community. And, you know, it's usually Jim involved,” Henn said.

Reporter Adrian Skabelund can be reached via email at [email protected], or by phone at (928) 556-2261.

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