Jefferson School Log Cabin to relocate to Creekside Environmental Center

[June 11, 2016]  LINCOLN - The miniature log cabin located behind Jefferson Elementary School in the Children’s Garden on 6th Street will move to a new home on Tuesday, June 14. Lincoln Elementary School District 27 has donated the structure to Lincoln College for use at the Creekside Outdoor Center for Environmental Education located north of Lincoln.

Matthews Construction in Lincoln is overseeing the move. According to Brad Matthews, crews will be on-site by 8:30 Tuesday morning to prepare and lift the cabin. They anticipate that it will be loaded on a lowboy trailer and transported through Lincoln to the Creekside center between 10 and 11 a.m.

The cabin was built by retired Lincoln business owner Pete Fredericks and donated to the school district in 2001. Fredericks has built several log cabins in and around Lincoln, including the small log chapel which is located on 5th Street. District 27 sold the Jefferson School building and property earlier this year; members of the Railsplitter Festival Committee recommended that the cabin be donated to Creekside.

After it is installed at Creekside, the cabin will be a focal point for the Center’s Pioneer Area along its “Peoples of the Past” boardwalk.

“This cabin was a marvelous educational gift by Pete Fredericks to the students and community of Lincoln back in 2001, and it will continue that same mission out at Creekside,” said Creekside Director Dr. Dennis Campbell. A proper rededication of the one room log cabin will be celebrated out at Creekside later this summer.

“Lincoln College is very appreciative of Kent Froebe and District 27 for this gift, and for our Board of Trustees whose financial support is helping with the cost of transporting the cabin. Moving even a small structure is a big undertaking, but we are thrilled to have it become a part of the educational experience offered by Creekside,” said Dr. David Gerlach, Lincoln College president.

The Creekside Outdoor Center for Environmental Education is an innovative 4-acre educational site recognized by the scientific community for its biological diversity and geological and archeological significance. The Center features a lecture pavilion, insectarium, greenhouse, restored tall grass prairie, native gardens, demonstration pond, council ring fire pit, solar and wind energy developments, storm water management and rain garden, nature trails and access to Sugar Creek near the location that Illinois’ largest wooly mammoth fossil was discovered in 2005.

Creekside is located approximately 4 miles due north of Lincoln, Illinois, off County Road 2000N halfway between County Road 1100E and 1225th Ave; from Co Rd 2000N take the gravel road Small-Edwards Trace north to the center.

[Tracy Bergin, Lincoln College]