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LEHI — The Lehi Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers on Wednesday prepared to have a cabin moved from its current location to a spot at the Hutchings Museum in Lehi.
The old log cabin dates to about 1894. On Thursday, the cabin built around 125 years ago was moved to the museum.
The Austin family cabin began its journey on the property of Lehi resident, Marilyn Larson, where it has stood for more than 50 years.
"My dad moved it from Hyrum Graves Dairy over to our farm," Larson. "Because the freeway was taking out Hyrum's Dairy and they were going to destroy it, and dad didn't want it destroyed."
The cabin was built in the 1880s, near Bull River in Lehi as the Austin family homesteaded 160 acres and began to raise 6 children.
"When those pioneers came to this area, the predominant tree was a cottonwood," said Melvin Anderson.
No one is more excited for the cabin here, than Anderson, longtime Lehi resident and president of the local chapter of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers.
"This is something we desire to preserve," he said. "Pioneer heritage, that's the mission of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers. We will spend our time and energy restoring it. Having the logs recheeked, a new roof on it, the end water tight."
Now that the cabin has arrived, the work to restore it will begin. A project to help future generations see for themselves what life was like for their forefathers.
"I'm glad the Sons of Utah Pioneers wants to bring it down here and restore it and keep it so people can actually see what people actually lived in," Larson said. "It's a good thing to know where we came from."
This will be the fourth location for the cabin from its original location, to the dairy, to the Larson property and now the Hutchings museum. It has cost about 10 thousand dollars to move the cabin. Fundraisers are in the works to generate the money needed to restore it.
