GREAT FALLS — The Vinegar Jones Cabin has been in Gibson Park since 2002 - but many people drive by knowing very little about this piece of Great Falls history.
Take a look inside the historic cabin:
Candice Hering, a Great Falls resident said, “I know I've read the signs before…but I can't say offhand that I remember.”
Hering has lived in Great Falls her whole life and knows of the building, but not much else: “It kind of just seems more like...it's there. It's not really eye-catching or curiously compelling.”
Built in 1884, the cabin holds a lot of history for Great Falls within its four walls.
The cabin was once home to Whitman Gibson Jones, nicknamed "Vinegar," some say, because he built and operated a vinegar factory. Jones was the first cousin of Paris Gibson, the founder of Great Falls.
Ken Robison, a Great Falls and Cascade County historian, said, “It’s the very beginning of Great Falls, the townsite that turned into a city.”
The cabin is believed to be the only original building from the townsite of Great Falls, moved to Gibson Park from its original location at Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street South 23 years ago.
Robison said, “It's actually pretty unusual for a town or a city to have its very first permanent building.”
On Wednesday, Robison and some family members came out to clean the cabin and prepare it for the summer months.
Robison said, “We get it done in a few hours each spring, and then, open it to the public during the band concerts.”
The modest cabin is now a time capsule into the American past - so much more than just an old building.
Robison said, “It’s pretty cool to have his old cabin open to the public.”
From the City of Great Falls website:
- The Cabin was built on the Southside of the Original Great Falls Townsite in the Spring of 1884 by Fort Benton carpenter, Josiah Peeper.
- We believe the Cabin was the first permanent home built in the Townsite, and that it is the only remaining building from 1884.
- In 1890 W. G. Jones bought a lot across Fifth Avenue South and moved the Cabin to the new site. Jones built an addition on the back of the Cabin, and the Jones family lived there until 1912, when Jones moved a two-story frame house to the same lot.
- Until his death in 1931, and the death of his wife, Rosa, in 1938, the Cabin was preserved, protected, and rented.
- The Cabin survived fires, demolition permits, and in 2001 was bought by Mark Blom and Dale Nelson.
- In June 2001, Mark approached the City/County Historic Preservation Officer, offering the Cabin to the City. A committee, under the City/County Historic Preservation Advisory Commission, began planning how to save and restore the Cabin. The plan was approved by the City's Parks and Recreation Department, and the City took ownership.
- In December 2002, the Cabin was moved to the City's premier park, Gibson Park. With the support of a broad coalition of Great Falls businesses, labor unions, and individuals, restoration is underway.
- The "Little Cabin That Could" has survived time, the elements, fire, and demolition permits to take its place of honor in Gibson Park.
