Defending St. Louis from Attack Saves STL
The Colonial Days His Bride
Valles Mines, Missouri, U S A
Founded in 1749 by Francois Valle in the French Upper Louisiana before Lewis and Clark. 275 years later the Valle Mining Company's 4000+ acre property every year absorbs 21,000 tons of carbon dioxide and generates
14,000 tons of oxygen, enough to meet the needs of 63,000 people. [USDA Forest Facts]
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The Last Miner's Cabin, 1911, an all-oak building

From 1911 at 14161 Valles Mines School Road

Documented by the late architectural historian Phillip Cotton in 1986
1911 Miner's House - 14161 Valles Mines School Road
BEFORE 2018
AFTER 2018
OAK has proven to be a durable bio-plastic.
  • The framing and siding were sawn from local trees 110 years ago.
  • It took 72 years for the siding to need replacement and only then on the south side where direct sunlight pitted the unpainted boards deeply. Try that with vinyl.
Additions:
  • The front porch (pictured), added during the Rehab of 1986 matched the original siding detail.
  • The new addition to the front and rear preserved the style in matching detail as well, using native lumber sawn in the 1986 harvest by the late logger Tom Jarvis.
  • The main roof and front porch roof showed the original galvanized steel with a rolled seam where pieces join, a practice long since abandoned since the telegraph.
HISTORICAL NOTES:
This house had been continually occupied since 1911 (112+ years ago) but in 2018 a local Preservation Foundation gutted all the improvements of the Rehab of 1986 (flush plumbing, well, laundry, interior wall, porch), replaced the flooring on the first floor, but ran out of money leaving the building half-inhabitable (See "AFTER 2018").
The Lost History Museum has asked the Valle Mining Company to allow them to repair the building and make it habitable (see rehab plans).
In 2023, vandals stole the well pump and its controls. Later, locals visited inside and prayed for the building which somehow stopped the rash of windows getting broken. A cross was installed on the exterior to commemorate this small miracle.
While blueprints were drawn up for modernization, the house was gutted (see picture below), then work mysteriously stopped. In 2022, in hopes of restarting the project, the Lost History Museum hired restoration expert owner of John Sprague, Master Builder to consult on a plan for occupancy.
St. Louis architect Ken Burns generously donated calculations for the framing detail needed to bring the second floor up to Jefferson County's modern building code for occupancy.
The original well driller estimated the cost to restore running water after the vandals work at $1,200.
As a habitable building, this would greatly help the local and pressing need for security in the valley along Valles Mines School Road given the recent history of arsons, like the Rozier House and including the Donald Declue "Alta House", named after his late daughter, and the Howard Declue House, all burned mysteriously.