History
The story of our cabin is indeed a story of the 20th century in Idaho.
The Front Cabin, our family home on Payette Lake, was built in 1934. It was originally the vacation home of our maternal family, a prominent Boise family of the early 20th century, and became the full-time home of their daughter and family until her passing in 2021. The next generations then took over to steer The Front Cabin into the next century. The cabin itself speaks to the entwined history of our family, and the histories of McCall, Boise, and the State of Idaho.
Roots in the West
1910s - 1920s
First picture we have of our family on our Wagon Wheel Bay.
Early 1920s
The patriarch, JL, was born to German immigrants in Chicago in 1891. He studied law at the University of Chicago and was sent west by his employer first to Butte, MT and then to Boise in 1915. JL met his wife, Clare, in Boise in 1916. Clare was born in 1898 in a small community of about 50 people on the Snake River, east of Twin Falls. Clare attended Stanford University and graduated in 1917. Clare and JL were married in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, WA in 1917 as JL was serving as an ensign in the naval reserve in Bremerton, WA at the time.
The couple settled near downtown Boise after WWI, and started their family. JL’s career grew; he became an influential lawyer, entrepreneur and Boise community leader. The family first travelled to McCall around 1928 when many of Boise’s upper echelon were becoming interested in the recreation opportunities of the area, especially as a refuge from Boise’s summer heat. JL and Clare leased a “vacation site” near where The Front Cabin stands from the State Land Board but could not purchase land until the lakeside was platted in the 1930s.
A Cabin by the Lake
1930s
The cabin in its original form.
1930s
In 1933, JL and Clare purchased the site just south of Wagon Wheel Creek amidst a grove of large Ponderosa Pines where The Front Cabin now sits on Wagon Wheel Bay. There, JL, carpenters, and his sons built a 2-room cabin in the summer of 1934. Using pine trees felled on the site, The Front Cabin was placed just above the lake high-water line, and had a main room, a stone fireplace and chimney, and a kitchen with sleeping quarters above for the children (of whom there were three: Ted, Bill, and Nancy). All of these features are preserved in the cabin today. The main room was notable for its large exposed log rafters jointed by iron rivets, and cut pine boards up to 20 inches wide. It was heated by woodstove and at first had no electricity, nor was it insulated. It did have large windows along the side of the house facing the lake, and a terrace built from uncut granite stones found locally, still in place. The home and terrace were built around 6 large Ponderosas, which they left standing for shade and atmosphere.
The Front Cabin became a fixture in McCall for exuberant summer activities and hospitality. JL, having served in the US Navy, fancied sailing and installed a wooden flat-bottomed centerboard sailboat, we believe the first private sailboat on the lake introducing recreational sailing as a sport to Payette Lake. (We continue that spirit.) The family also had a number of classic wooden motorboats, bringing aspiring water-skiers to the lake. Canoes and rowboats rested on the beach of The Front Cabin. In 1938, the filming of the movie Northwest Passage was ongoing on Payette Lake. Many of the actors (Spencer Tracy, Robert Young among them) were staying at Sylvan Beach Resort, just north of Wagon Wheel Bay. The sons ferried the actors to and from the shooting locations around the lake in the family’s motorboats, among other antics with the thrill of Hollywood present.
A Legacy of Leadership, Leisure & Love
1940s - 1950s
Always seeking adventure in the nearby wilderness, family poured over maps to plan their routes. We still do.
1940s
JL’s connections in Boise followed him to McCall. JL and Clare often hosted many notable guests, including Harry Shellworth of the Southern Idaho Timber Protective Area (SITPA) and McCall’s CCC camp, Governor C. Ben Ross, and Idaho Senator William Borah, all of whom became passionate about preserving the lake and surrounding mountains. Conversations led to big goals made from the granite terrace of The Front Cabin for the preservation of McCall. Additional meaningful conservation efforts were spearheaded by JL, in particular measures in 1948 limiting the fluctuation of the lake level within its natural high and low water marks after catastrophic flooding a few years earlier.
The Front Cabin remained mostly unchanged throughout the 1940s and 50s. One noteworthy addition was a tall canvas and wood navy dock acquired by JL in 1946 when the Farragut Naval Training Station on Lake Pend Oreille was decommissioned. Young Nancy picked up the relatively new sport of ‘water-skiing’ and quickly pulled impressive tricks at full speed and jumps off of floating wooden jumps.
While JL and Clare’s sons served in the military during WWII, Nancy spent every season in McCall and became a very skilled skier in Sun Valley. She prided herself on being an outdoorswoman in McCall with knowledge of the surrounding lakes and mountains. In 1955 while studying in Massachusetts, she met Cutler who had spent summers in Teton Valley, Wyoming. Also an avid fly fisherman, skier, backpacker and mountaineer, he was “hooked” on Idaho and Nancy alike. They were married in Boise in 1957, with a well-known engagement picture on the terrace of The Front Cabin. At the same time, JL’s sons were forging their own careers in Boise post WWII. One co-founded the Boise Cascade Company; both moved into politics in the Idaho House of Representatives; and one served as the (first Idahoan) Trade Ambassador during the Nixon and Ford Administrations.
A New Generation of Adventure
1960s - 1970s
Family members with Warren Brown and Jack Simplot and the original founders of Brundage Mountain Resort.
1960s
Nancy and Cutler grew their own family to 4 children between 1959 to 1967. The family again paralleled McCall’s recreational growth. Snowsports in McCall became a spotlight for the town. In 1959, businessman Warren Brown and Norwegian ski champion Corey Engen became interested in starting a larger and steeper ski hill near McCall. With help from US Forest Ranger Wally Lancaster and investment from Jack Simplot, they opened Brundage Mountain on Thanksgiving Day 1961. Cutler and Nancy skied together with Warren Brown and Jack Simplot on opening day. To accommodate the new bustling winter season, The Front Cabin received a brief but much required 1960s-style winterization.
In the late 1970s, McCall experienced an economic downturn, with the closing of the Boise-Cascade mill in 1977 and a crushing national recession. The economic moment led Nancy and Cutler to double down on McCall and its future. Recreational opportunities began to fill the economic void left by the timber industry with the popularization of backpacking, whitewater rafting, and mountain biking. The family strategized a restart. They acquired 80 acres in Long Valley near Jug Mountain. They founded High Llama Ranch, a llama ranch with the intent of accessing the Idaho backcountry for extended periods of time with llama pack animals. This was a revolutionary endeavor at the time, testing their outdoors savvy and adventurous spirit exploring the Big Horn Crags, Big Creek, White Clouds, Seven Devils, and Sawtooth Mountains, often for 14 to 20 days at a time. It also tested the waters for alternative outfitting to recreationalists and The Forest Service.
Restoration, Legacy & a Renewed Vision
1980s - Present
Honoring the age-old Ponderosas on our land, in 2021 the current generation hand carved a massive canoe from a recently felled tree on our beach.
2021
Meanwhile, Nancy worked with architect David Vala from Portland and McCall local Mike Walker to update and expand The Front Cabin while retaining the integrity, old-world charm, and the art and music soul of the original cabin. Adding two wings to the main structure to form a horseshoe shape that surrounded a small courtyard, they planted several spruce trees and many native plants. The mosaic of inlayed granite from the terrace was replicated in the stone floors throughout the house, and the bark-stripped lodgepole beams seen holding the ponderosa boards of the living room ceiling were used again throughout the house along with tongue and groove wood paneling. A now well known carved wood glass front door was fashioned to welcome guests in style. A finishing touch was a hanging antique wagon wheel-turned-chandelier in the living room referencing the bay’s history. A music room, a library to house family books, maps and documents, a fiber arts studio, expansive bedrooms and much needed office space to give utility and luxury to The Front Cabin. The structure, even more than before, embraced the grand mountain views and proximity to the lake. In 1984, Nancy and Cutler finally completed the fully remodeled and restored home. The Front Cabin once again became pivotal to new recreation pursuits, artist gatherings, political conversations, McCall community growth and the family.
Like JL and Clare, Nancy and Culter became leaders in the McCall community with efforts to enrich, protect and preserve McCall. Their impact on the town and surrounding beauty include McCall Music Society (with many of the national artists staying at The Front Cabin and The Back Cabin); reviving fiber arts groups; strategic planning work for Payette National Forest, McCall Arts and Humanities Council, and a number of McCall non profits; and most notably with key McCall leaders founding of the Payette Lake Protective League and the Payette Land Trust. Over nearly 100 years, JL, Clare, Nancy and Cutler truly forged a foundational path for McCall, Idaho and our small but adventurous enterprising family. The home’s inviting old-world charm serves as a refuge by the lake and carries many of the family’s and community’s memories therein.
Be part of the story.
Whether it’s coffee on the dock or sunset by the fire—make these moments yours.