Homestead restoration: Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuges historic Whaley house to become interpretive display

STEVENSVILLE It would be hard to imagine that retired Indian agent Peter Whaley had 130 years of longevity on his mind when he laid that first 12-inch-squared log onto the rubble foundation that would hold his new home back in 1885.

More likely, he wanted to make sure his wife, Hannah, and their nine children had a little bit of room to spread out after living in a nearby small log cabin for nearly six years.

Whaley had claimed 160 acres under the federal Desert Land Act.

On that land, his family built a two-story home from stout, square-hewn logs and then covered the outside with pine clapboard siding that was painted white.

For more than a century, that house was home to several families who raised horses, apples, corn, hogs, dairy cows and potatoes in order to survive.

In the early 1970s, the Hagen family sold the house and their land to Ravalli National Wildlife Refuge, which is now called the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge. The Hagens only stipulation was that their son, Harold, could live there as long as he wanted. Harold left in 1988.

Ever since then, the house has remained empty.

But this last remaining remnant of the homesteading era hasnt been forgotten.

Recently, Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge manager Tom Reed learned that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has set aside $200,000 to refurbish the historic building.

Our vision is that after its been refurbished, we would allow it to be open to the public from spring to fall as a site used to interpret the history of this landscape, Reed said.

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Homestead restoration: Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuges historic Whaley house to become interpretive display