4. Peavy's Cabin

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Anyway, they moved him into the Jackson house?

William A. Davies: Yes, and they spent some money fixing it up. And moved Yoder or Lloyd Hayes, whichever came first, in there [Oak Creek]. This fellow at Jackson Place - I don't know if he still lives there - he teaches; I think he is or was a track coach at Crescent Valley High School. He bought a piece of property right here he's going to build on and he rented this house. He just loves that place out there; he's got some horses he runs around out there, you know.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Still lives on the Jackson Place?

William A. Davies: Did when I retired six years ago. He used to call me up and say, "Something is wrong. The roof is leaking on one side," he says, "you know, I'll re-roof that thing if you'll buy the roofing." So we bought the roofing and he re-roofed it. He didn't pay much rent, but he paid some. And he'd paint the place if we'd buy the paint, and that sort of thing. He was a heck-of-a good tenant. And he kept people from vandalizing stuff around there; he'd see that the gate was kept locked. He may still be there.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What about this orchard that's marked there, right down below 612.2? Did you ever know anything about that, right below the Jackson house?

William A. Davies: No, I don't remember anything about it. That's over on the south side of the creek. There's an opening, kind of a meadow over there. This fellow's horses, I've seen them in there.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How about this "Orchard, possible homesite" that Marv has marked along Road 612? Have you ever seen anything there?

William A. Davies: Yes, I've seen an orchard; there's lots of trees. You know, there are trees right along the north side of Jackson Creek; they're right by the road where this road turns off here. A pear tree right in there - I used to pick pears off it - and then there's apples, pears all along in here. I don't remember over here. And I remember that opening over there; never saw any fruit trees of any kind in it.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Let's move up a little higher on the map now, right off Sulphur Springs Road. He's got an old sawmill site mentioned, on "An old pioneer road." Do you know anything about that?

William A. Davies: No, except there was an old road in there. Hard to find it now, I think.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you ever see any sawdust at this site?

William A. Davies: No, not that I remember.

4. PEAVY'S CABIN

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: He's got the CCC trail running from Peavy 's cabin over here connecting up with this trail that you mentioned. That starts at this bend in Road 600. Do you remember any of this trail that runs from Lewisburg Saddle up to Peavy's cabin? Is that part of the same system?

William A. Davies: Probably is, but see, they built this road up here.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Which one, the Nettleton Road?

William A. Davies: Yes, but they probably followed the trail. I don't remember the trail.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How about Peavy 's cabin, now that was falling down when you were manager, wasn't it?

William A. Davies: Right.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: And you had it completely burned down or taken down?

William A. Davies: Taken down. We did burn afterward. I think they cut a lot up for wood or something; took it down to the Forestry Club Cabin. We were afraid of fire there, also. Nobody was using it much, and the logs were getting all rotten and bugs in them, and kids would climb up the hill and build fires in the fireplaces. We were afraid they would burn it down so I talked to Dean McCulloch about it. Some of the people who had built the cabin for Peavy were still alive and he contacted some of them and told them what we thought we ought to do, and they said they thought that would be a good thing.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Just dismantle it?

William A. Davies: Make a memorial to Peavy out of it because Peavy loved that cabin. I had a concrete slab poured there.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: There was no floor there before that?

William A. Davies: Wood floor, just like a house.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: But you had the concrete slab poured in the exact location of the foundation?

William A. Davies: Yes, I believe they had a concrete foundation, so I had this slab poured, which would be permanent, and we kept the fireplace. We had to do some work on it. Had a plaque there and somebody stole the plaque; and there were a lot of nice agates and things in the original fireplace, and the kids would come up there and chip them out, stole them. We were going to plug the thing - I don't know if we ever got around to it or not - because kids still went up there and built fires, and we were afraid of fires again; we were going to close the fireplace off and put a sheet of metal and concrete in it, or something.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: It still looks like it's a functional fireplace. How about that radio antenna? Was it there when the cabin was torn down?

William A. Davies: I don't think so. It occurred about the same time though, I remember.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: That's on school land, isn't it?

William A. Davies: Yes.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Who gave permission for that to be placed there?

William A. Davies: Well, we did, through the dean. The dean and I decided that we shouldn't fight it, it's university property. We leased the property, and the State Board of Higher Education, the chancellor approached us about it. If we'd said no, they'd probably done it anyway.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: That was the educational channel?

William A. Davies: Yes, they wanted it, and we thought it was a good idea, and the people that were in charge of that here at the university were very cooperative, always cooperative.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What's their access point, Lewisburg Saddle?

William A. Davies: Lewisburg Saddle.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Has that ever been a problem in management in the years that you worked there?

William A. Davies: Not with the people over there; they were very, very cooperative. No problem. In fact, we liked to have them out there.

Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: To help you watch it?

William A. Davies: Yes, watch it. They had a key - we finally gave them a key - I think to Lewisburg Saddle and on down at the other end at Peavy Arboretum in case we got snow in there sometime and couldn't get up there. So we'd take the cat, Marv's cat, and go up there and clean the snow out so they could go up there, and they appreciated that. They see anything going on up there they'd always call me. Some hippies from California wanted to move into the