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Posted By: pak Stuff found in old cabins - 08/04/22
I was sitting and thinking about stuff that was commonly found in old cabins, especially the remote cabins where items were ever removed. One such oroduct came to mind and it is Buach(sp). A smoldering ring of bug repellent that was everywhere fish camp, moose camp, duck camp, airplane stuff, stuff etc. I don't know if it is still sold.
Back in the early 70's, my best friend and I were hunting just south of Tazlina when we stumbled across a tiny old cabin built against the hillside in a draw. Typical trappers/prospector's cabin, the walls were short, with a barely sloped roof covered in dirt and moss.
The door was secured with a large crossbar and we could tell that no one had opened it in a very long time.

We lifted the bar and stepped inside. It was just as it had been left, possibly decades earlier. The walls were covered in layers of old newspapers to seal out the drafts. The newest one we found was from the late 1940's. All of the cookware and utensils were there, there was a small stash of kindling and firewood next to the old steel wood stove, and there were blankets folded up on the bed. There was an old kerosene lamp on the table and a couple of candles on a small shelf above it.

There wasn't the first sign of any food items and the mice and squirrels had pretty much left everything alone. The cache had collapsed sometime in the distant past and there was no discernible path from the cabin to where it lay.

We closed the cabin back up as we found it and went on hunting.

I tried to find it again many years later, but never could.

Ed
Posted By: Jericho Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
TY for sharing that APDD...........
Ed,

No 1895 Winchesters just laying about????😉
finally, a thread about something interesting, get tired of the political and what to do about travel, I enjoy this forum for stuff like this and bear stories.
Posted By: T_Inman Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
I have a crosscut saw I found in an old trappers cabin in the Idaho backcountry. It was brand ‘new’. Looking at the teeth style on the internet I think it was from the teens. I threw it on the pack saddle and brought it out and it now hangs on my wall.

Never found anything like that in Alaska though.
Posted By: 79S Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Damn in all my wanderings in this state I haven’t ran into anything interesting. Seen stuff that makes you go wtf! Ford 250 sitting in the middle of the delta river is one of them.. or the guys I ran into at the hub one night, they had a bull mooose. Asked where they were at they said the chisto I was oh damn how was the trail?? They said we had leave a razor back their broke 3 axles and broke the transmission.
Posted By: akpls Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Originally Posted by pak
I was sitting and thinking about stuff that was commonly found in old cabins, especially the remote cabins where items were ever removed. One such oroduct came to mind and it is Buach(sp). A smoldering ring of bug repellent that was everywhere fish camp, moose camp, duck camp, airplane stuff, stuff etc. I don't know if it is still sold.
You're talking about Buhach. I was able to buy it at Samson's Hardware in Fairbanks up until about 2011-12, but there hasn't been any around for a long time now. I believe the company that made it went out of business.
Originally Posted by kaywoodie
Ed,

No 1895 Winchesters just laying about????😉
No 1895 Winchesters but plenty of 1894's, 71's, and 1886's.
Out somewhere in the desert outside of Apache Junction Arizona our old friend had a claim on an amethyst mine and the spoils pile alone I wish I could find again. There was an old low walled cabin from the fellow that originally staked the claim. The jars and glasses alone would be worth something today. Back then they made good targets for the .38 I got to carry in the desert when I was a kid. I’d love to locate that place again…

Ohh…that old cabin had 1895’s still in their original crates with the 1896 shipping receipts. Crates and crates full that were well preserved, like new in fact. We just used the 1895’s for firewood and kindling since wood was scarce. 😁. I still have all the original big wooden crates though. 😂
As a kid I ventured far up a canyon outside Tonapah, NV with a friend and his geologist father. We came across a couple old cabins on a claim, and while dad went to explore a nearby shaft we ventured into one cabin with our .22 and found it skittering with packrats. The cabin didn't have much in it that would have brought comfort or collectibles, so we started plinking rats. One hid behind a board up on a rafter, and my friend shot thru the board, which shockingly triggered a substantial explosion. My buddy and his rifle foreend took most the blast, we both were knocked to the ground, and there was a hole in the roof you could throw a rocking chair through. The rat was nowhere to be found, or more likely everywhere. Luckily we didn't lose eyes or much blood. It was a slog getting to the hospital, but we made the local newspaper! Fifty years later I still have a scar on my chest where something glanced past putting entry-exit holes through my shirt. My buddy was full of splinters, small pebbles and other bits suspiciously looking like rat bone which floated out of his hide over ensuing weeks. Blasting caps? We were happy enough to just be alive that we never tried to figure it out. Be careful out there!
Posted By: blairvt Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Not alaska, but as a kid there was a creek my Dad would take me fishing on. Maybe 100 yds from the creek I stumbled on a dump that every farm seemed to have. It was full of those old glass insulators that people seem to collect. Next time we brought our 22's and had a blast shooting those things. 100's of them. I remember them being pretty tough and if not hit right the bullet would bounce off. What would they be worth now?
Was reclaiming wood from an old house ( with permission from the land owner ) about 5 years ago - nothing special just some rough sawn timbers and boards for projects I had in mind. Pried one off the wall and found a blue half gallon mason jar about full of coins. No gold only old pennies and silver. Gave it to the land owner and he then poured out and gave me a handful of them. Couple of Morgans and half dollars in the mix.

Found out about a year ago his crack head grandson stole and traded them for drugs.
Originally Posted by blairvt
Not alaska, but as a kid there was a creek my Dad would take me fishing on. Maybe 100 yds from the creek I stumbled on a dump that every farm seemed to have. It was full of those old glass insulators that people seem to collect. Next time we brought our 22's and had a blast shooting those things. 100's of them. I remember them being pretty tough and if not hit right the bullet would bounce off. What would they be worth now?

At today's prices I think I would try to revisit that spot.
Posted By: TheKid Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Blazo cans or their remnants in the form of shingles or patches over drafty holes in walls were a mainstay in some I’ve been to.

Found an old Jonsenrd chainsaw with an alder stob whittled to form a cork for the missing bar oil cap. Started right up with some fresh gas and used it to cut some wood for a fire.

I did have a chance to buy a couple 95s that came out of old cabins but they were pretty rough. Should have bought at least one.
This was in Maryland, not Alaska, but it was an interesting find.

Across the road from my house is a cattle farm that was owned by an elderly couple. I didn't know them, but about 15 years ago, the old man died. Shortly after that, their daughter and her husband subdivided a lot off of the farm and built a house. I've met the husband, but he's a weird azzhole and doesn't get along with the other neighbors. Out in one of the fields along side of the creek was an old run down cabin. Been there as long as I can remember and never really thought about it. One day the son-in-law decides he's gonna clean out the old cabin and see what's inside. He starts digging through the piles of junk that's stacked in there and comes across several wooden boxes full of dynamite. No telling how old this stuff was, but he backed out and called the fire dept. It was probably unstable. My wife called me at work to tell me that there was a bunch of commotion and they had the road shut down. About an hour later they blew it up. My wife said that it shook the house, but no broken windows. She said it was a pretty good blast.
Posted By: hanco Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Cool stories
Posted By: pete53 Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
i always wonder how life was for these people who lived in these remote cabins that many of them built themselves. i have never found anything yet that i wanted maybe someday ? 50 some years ago i remember talking to a old trapper who had a small tar paper shack he lived in on 40 acres he homesteaded on out in the woods he was probably in his 70`s then wood fire always year around ,kerosene lantern , no electric the DNR and county tax people left him alone i know dang well he lived on deer meat and other critters.my dad always gave him a bottle of whiskey and some type of food too that made the old trapper happy , we always parked in his yard when that two track was dry or froze. when i was young i thought how can someone live that way ? now i understand the old trapper being alone he had a better simple life than most of us do very few worries.
Posted By: Lslite Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Got an old hunters cabin from the 40's on my lease in the Hill Country that was a nice at one time. Land owner sleeps in it sometime along with the rats,coons,and nesting buzzards.Has a cool little woodstove that I've tried to buy from him and he won't sell.
Originally Posted by Lslite
Got an old hunters cabin from the 40's on my lease in the Hill Country that was a nice at one time. Land owner sleeps in it sometime along with the rats,coons,and nesting buzzards.Has a cool little woodstove that I've tried to buy from him and he won't sell.

Where abouts is your lease LSlite? Nothing specific, just general.

We have an old deer cabin on back of the ranch here. Sheet iron bldg. It’s been there since I was a kid. Probably dates from the 50’s sometime. Our lease hunters still use it. They have made a lot of improvements at the camp. Kitchen, shower, outhouse and such. They are all good fellas.
Posted By: RIO7 Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
First Ranch i bought in 1965, was a bank repo, was about 20 miles South of Jackson, Wyo i was riding horse back checking it out, found a old small cabin in the North East corner just about 100' inside the property line, the roof was caved in it was not looking good, had a native rock fire place, i got to digging around in the fire place and found a small copper tea pot, polished it up looks great still have it.
Rio7
Shot a couple of small Brown Bears off the Yetna drainage a lot of years ago, cabin bears that were wreaking havoc.
One of the bears had dug in under an old cabin had some neat stuff, knives and stuff left it all but removed the bear!

One of the bear had a lot of bird shot under the hide all around his butt!
Posted By: Boise Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
My brother in law who is 93 and lives in Reno tells of climbing down a gawd awful grade to a abandon old miner's shack. He says the shack was a mess but it was untouched and when he went to leave he spotted a rifle hung above the door. He says it was an old beat up Sharps rifle and it took all he could to carry it up the climb out. I asked to see it but he said he had given it to a friend that wanted it. He's not the type of guy that tells stories so believe this to be true.
There was a small stampede after the 1901 stock crash around here as guys, and families, that had no hope of finding a job moved to gold country to squat in cabins and on claims. They had hopes of squeaking out a few cents a day mining, keeping big gardens, killing the hell out of nearly anything that could be called meat. One of those old cabins near me has just about melted into the ground, but there is plenty of 'stuff' in his dump. I think the old guy was a hypochondriac or just plain addict, or likely in a helluva lot of pain. I have excavated dozens of old bottles from the site, and the more famous ones all had two things in common...laudanum and alcohol. Whoever he may have been, he lived a hard, hard life judging from the wore out shovels, picks, saws and axes.
Bearrr264 and his Father found a Marlin 1893 carbine in a tumbled down trapper's cabin somewhere in the brush of northern Quebec back in the late 1950s or early 1960s. They had flown in to a remote lake with canoes and gear, even firearms with no questions asked. He told me that they turned it in to the RCMP on their way home.
I live in an mountain valley and behind my residence is an old miners shack. The view from my front yard has thus old thing.
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Very interesting stories! Thanks for the thread.
Posted By: 458Win Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Alaska is a big state with thousands of interesting old cabins. I have found full tins of DDT and a few old weapons. Including two Sharps that had at one time been in a fire
Posted By: colodog Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
I was heading down the mountain and back to camp at the end of a day hunting elk in western Co.
Somehow I missed the usual chute that would lead me to the trail down and out ,so I took the next likely slot down.
It led me to a bench that held the remains of a cabin with a caved in roof, a small rusty bed frame and a cook stove.
After poking around for a few minutes looking for treasure I slid on down and out to get back to camp.

I was always going to rescue the stove "someday" but I didn't have the drive to get it that the owner had...

A few years before, my roommate was hiking the hills west of Denver, bushwacking away from the trails and stopped to rest.
He spotted a leveraction rifle leaning against an old broken tree. Win 25-20 badly weathered.
No saving it as a shooter but a cool find!
Posted By: TheKid Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
A guy I know had a perfectly preserved bottle, from the 1910s maybe just judging by the styling of the paper label, it was 3/4 full of Cod Liver oil. What that’s supposed to cure I don’t know, but it came from a long abandoned trappers cabin.

Cousin and his buddy used to hike a couple miles up into the hills near where they grew up in NM. They were teenagers and had been there a hundred times when they carried the buddy’s baby brother up there once while they had to babysit. When they walked in the little guy, probably shy of 2 years old at the time, started reaching and saying “Gun gun gun”. They looked where he was reaching and up by the rafters stuck in a crack was a revolver grip peeking out. They pulled it down and unwrapped the rag it was rolled in they found a pretty nice 1858 Remington revolver.
Posted By: Fury01 Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Old outlaw, ranch line shack, then miner cabin In sw co found pretty much a working house including running water gravity fed. My dad had told me about it before he died and I went looking.
3/4 mile away stove and piano in another. Both burned down by the blm clowns a couple of decades later.
Posted By: roundoak Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
A Uncle bought a Montana ranch next to his when the old couple retired. It had a remote old line camp log cabin on the place. He said when he first went inside it was as if someone just finished a meal and walked away. I have the copper boiler. [Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Posted By: kaboku68 Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
For folks out on float trips in remote Alaska just remember that if it appears to be abandoned it still may be private property. One of my friends Traver had all of their family pictures and many of their guns taken by float hunters who then sought to sell the pictures of his step dad Bob Harte from the Last Alaskans on eBay. Stealing from a trap line cabin is akin to murder because many times this is stuff that people have stored up to survive.
Posted By: roundoak Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
Scrounged thru this old cabin a couple of times and the most remarkable item was a tin of 38-55 Win. cartridges.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Posted By: Hudge Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/05/22
I haven’t found any old cabins in Alaska that I have entered while out and about, it I have found old homesteads in MT and AR while out hunting. Nothing of real interests in them other than some abandoned jars and old appliances. I have seen a few cars a trucks miles from roads here in AK and wondered how the hell they got there.

Not a hunting story, but around 1986 or 87, my uncle had my cousin and I clean up a mobile home as he used to move them for a living. We were told it was ketchup, yeah it was not, it was blood. Later found out the former owner had killed his family in it and we were cleaning up all the old blood with no hazmat suits or anything. Just some rubber gloves, bleach, 409, and paper towels. My cousin and I were 11 or 12 so we didn’t know any better.
In the '60s we found a carved podium in a burnpile at Tex Smith Lake/Roadhouse. Tex Smith fancied himself an orator but it was his son whom bacame infamous. He and another killed a Kansas farm family after being told in prison they had tons of cash in hand. Truman Capote wrote the story "In Cold Blood." Capote gave a talk here in the early '70s and my parents showed him the piece, which he tried to buy. My sister took it to the Antiques Road Show here in town years ago.

Port Hobron near Kodiak is a ghost town with whale fat rendering tanks, cabins with only their foundations telegraphing. Mostly tiny cabins, smaller than 6'x6', but mostly gone. I would love to wander around with a metal detector.

Prince William Sound has a bunch of miners' cabins but the simple work of getting to them is daunting for a day hike...
Posted By: Joel/AK Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/06/22
Originally Posted by kaboku68
For folks out on float trips in remote Alaska just remember that if it appears to be abandoned it still may be private property. One of my friends Traver had all of their family pictures and many of their guns taken by float hunters who then sought to sell the pictures of his step dad Bob Harte from the Last Alaskans on eBay. Stealing from a trap line cabin is akin to murder because many times this is stuff that people have stored up to survive.


Along with mines that "look" abandoned.
Posted By: Lslite Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/06/22
We're up in Comfort Kaywoodie, been there going on 20yrs.
Posted By: Fury01 Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/06/22
I rode my white horse in on Christmas Day to find the cabins. Dedicated the day to remembering.
Originally Posted by kaboku68
For folks out on float trips in remote Alaska just remember that if it appears to be abandoned it still may be private property. One of my friends Traver had all of their family pictures and many of their guns taken by float hunters who then sought to sell the pictures of his step dad Bob Harte from the Last Alaskans on eBay. Stealing from a trap line cabin is akin to murder because many times this is stuff that people have stored up to survive.
And yet, BLM burned many.
Posted By: 458Win Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/06/22
Yes BLM did, I worked for them as a backcountry ranger one summer while in college on the Rogue river. I was stationed at a remote miners cabin midway down the river and expected to report on the comings and going of hippies 🙄 So they could burn their cabins.

I was a bit more sympathetic to them than the BLM. In the cabin I also found a small vial of gold nuggets! Probably only a few penny weights of gold but a fun find. I still have it!
Not a cabin, but here is an old gold mill hidden deep in the mountains with a very rare roller style ore crusher still inside.
[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]
There would have been large leather drive belts turning these pulleys and operating the various power equipment throughout the mill, all powered by a single engine.
[Linked Image]
Ore would be dropped in the top of the structure, through a jaw crusher, into the roller crusher to pulverize the ore, then onto the separation or cyanide tables to extract the gold.
[Linked Image]
Posted By: Fury01 Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/06/22
When I was riding the Colorado mountains on a trials bike early 80’s, there was a full turbine generator originally driven by water at cliffs edge above Silverton. Two floor building. Production bottom living quarters above. Crews worked two week shifts. Cable car between plant and ground transport. Rode there with a fellow whose Grandfather worked at the site. We rode in from the other side of the mountain and back the same way. Don’t know the status of it today. If the turbine was removed it would have to be done by heavy lift air I would think.
I look at the giant wind turbines here on the plains now and we will likely see the same in their future.
Posted By: blanket Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/06/22
My father and his younger brother were playing under the old stage coach stop at Lime City Iowa around 1931. Up in the floor joist he found a Bacon 31 caliber cap and ball revolver and holster. Have it still
Originally Posted by Theoldpinecricker
I live in an mountain valley and behind my residence is an old miners shack. The view from my front yard has thus old thing.
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]


Con. Sil?
Posted By: 673 Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/07/22
Originally Posted by blanket
My father and his younger brother were playing under the old stage coach stop at Lime City Iowa around 1931. Up in the floor joist he found a Bacon 31 caliber cap and ball revolver and holster. Have it still
It would be great to see a pic of the revolver and holster.
Not Alaska, but my Dad and I were fishing and Blackbear hunting near Ear Falls Ontario in 1981.
While poking around one day we came to the old Uchi Lake Gold Mine Camp. It was abandoned many years earlier.
It appeared as if they were told, the mine is closed and everyone just left. A bunch of abanded log cabins.
Plates and silverware just sitting on tables etc.
The one cool thing we found was a purchase order for supplies.
I still have it.
I love old cabins and homesteads.
Lakeside or river existing cabins in Alaska are stopovers for sled dog rigs and pilots
if bad weather sets in unexpectedly. It is an unwritten rule to replace anything that is used
and to be careful with Yukon stoves with firewood. No locks needed on doors.
Sooner and later the bears visit near my homestead land. Black bears leave if a grizzly shows up.

Same with a cabin on the AZ-NM border in Greenlee County. This is literally
Ben Lilly country in the early 1900s. He hunted there with an 1886 Winchester in 33 WCF. There are old mine and prospectors cabins near Reserve and Mogollon across the line in N.M.
Back about 10 or 15 years ago the USFS found an 1873 Winchester stuck in or near the fork of a tree in NV or WY-MT. Snow storm or lost hunter.
It was placed in their museum.
Posted By: blanket Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/08/22
If I could figure out pics could post one
Posted By: las Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/08/22
Originally Posted by akpls
Originally Posted by pak
I was sitting and thinking about stuff that was commonly found in old cabins, especially the remote cabins where items were ever removed. One such oroduct came to mind and it is Buach(sp). A smoldering ring of bug repellent that was everywhere fish camp, moose camp, duck camp, airplane stuff, stuff etc. I don't know if it is still sold.
You're talking about Buhach. I was able to buy it at Samson's Hardware in Fairbanks up until about 2011-12, but there hasn't been any around for a long time now. I believe the company that made it went out of business.

I think the EPA banned it - what I was told anyway. I've a half can left. If I had known it was going to come unobtainium, I'd have stocked up.

Growing up in ND, my mother would run us kids out of the house whenever we got fly-blown and smoke those bastids to death. We have used it a lot in Alaska at our remote cabin.
Posted By: Raeford Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/08/22
There is an old dilapidated log cabin on the property next to where we used to live that has large beautiful wood cook stove in it.
Near 6' long with the warming ovens all across the top.
The cabin has basically become brushed in and is located at the head of a creek[spring comes up]
Most could walk within 20 yards and never know the cabin is there.
For years I tried to figure a way to get that stove out and up through the holler to our property.
The hillsides are typical Appalachian[almost vertical] and thick growth.
Posted By: Dinny Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/08/22
I have a cabin nestled on 40 acres near Ralph, MI in Da UP. It was built in the early 40s and has sustained a fair amount of tree damage over the years. Seems like everytime I'm up there fixing it I'll find something old that was stashed by family or friends from the past. It's been like a trip down memory lane and makes me miss some of my dearly departed family.

Attached picture IMG_20220808_57311.jpg
Attached picture IMG_20220808_57410.jpg
Aside from Sam McGee, the most interesting thing I can recall was a copy of the photograph of Margaret Trudeau pantyless at Studio 54. That was around 1979 so wasn't long after the incident.

I don't recall much else from the various cabins found canoeing in Canada and those found here in Minnesota have mostly been picked clean. I tend to stay away from them as cisterns and outhouse pits aren't uncommon and I don't want to find one the hard way. I've stepped on two cistern covers that luckily held my weight so feel I have pushed my luck.
Posted By: AGL4now Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 08/08/22
Originally Posted by Raeford
There is an old dilapidated log cabin on the property next to where we used to live that has large beautiful wood cook stove in it.
Near 6' long with the warming ovens all across the top.
The cabin has basically become brushed in and is located at the head of a creek[spring comes up]
Most could walk within 20 yards and never know the cabin is there.
For years I tried to figure a way to get that stove out and up through the holler to our property.
The hillsides are typical Appalachian[almost vertical] and thick growth.

My guess is the best way to extract it is the way it likely went into there. Disassemble it, photograph each step for reassembly.
These types of threads are the best. Keep the stories rolling
Great thread!
An old homemade bed still ‘rests’ in a circa 1910 miner’s cabin in the mountains.

[Linked Image]
Posted By: las Re: Stuff found in old cabins - 09/08/22
Not an old cabin, but a find anyway. I just spent the last 2 weeks across Cook Inlet helping a friend at his tide-water property. Properties... When he bought the lodge 20 years ago, he found a Win 1300 stainless marine shotgun stashed behind the water heater. He's kept it in the lodge since. Excellent shape - some saltwater corrosion on the receiver. They have not run the lodge commercially for at least 15 years, just go over for a month or two after Bristol Bay fishing is done.

I cleaned it and his Benelli of likeness yesterday before leaving.

Those guns are hell on squirrels with #1 steel! smile
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