PLEASANT GROVE — Behind the weedy overgrowth that choked the foundation and under the piles of trash that accumulated over the years of sloppy living, the cabin was still there.
As the elements conspired to hide the old log cabin from public sight, residents who had heard the rumors of its existence assumed it had been destroyed.
But when Pleasant Grove resident Joe Spencer bought the two acres of land near 500 East and 200 South, city officials thought they'd try to recover what they could, asking Spencer to alert them if any part of the cabin still stood.
When Spencer explored the lot, he found the cabin, still intact and amazingly untouched by the termites that plagued the home a short distance away.
Spencer said city officials initially were concerned that he would destroy the cabin along with the house, an idea that got a good laugh out of the first-time developer hoping to turn the two acres into a small subdivision.
"I'm not going to destroy something like that," Spencer said.
Pleasant Grove sent workers to examine the cabin and determine its age, and they were amazed by what they discovered. The small cabin, built by cattle herders in 1849, turned out to be the oldest structure in Pleasant Grove, built even before pioneers arrived to settle the area.
"I was thrilled to death to have the first building in Pleasant Grove," said Mildred Sutch, chairwoman of the Pleasant Grove Historical Preservation Society. "It means a lot."
In her research to determine the cabin's age, Sutch discovered it was built in fall of 1849 by Orlando F. Herron, Calvin Moore and Joseph Moore, three men who came to the valley to tend the cattle of Lewis Robison. The men stayed there through the winter and into 1850.
The three men arrived a full year before the first families came to settle Pleasant Grove in September 1850.
Spencer said he had no idea what the cabin was when he first saw it, mainly because it had been used to store junk for a number of years and was a mess.
"It was kind of sad to have something that historic be full of garbage," he said.
When the city asked him to donate the cabin, Spencer, still shocked by what he had uncovered, happily agreed. The historic building, in his opinion, should belong to the public.
"I was pretty surprised," he said. "I didn't have any idea it was that old. It certainly looked old, but you never think it's something like that."
The city's Department of Leisure Services is working on the logistics to move the cabin to historic Pioneer Park. Moving something so old and delicate is a challenge, but city officials said the details should be ironed out within a couple of weeks.
Sutch said the small cabin, which has two windows on one side, was very well built and is still in good shape. Moving a cabin in one piece requires a lot of work, she said, but the city has done it before and the job should not be too difficult.
E-mail: jtwitchell@desnews.com