PRESERVING HISTORY

The skin on Mike Stitt's hand is tough as leather, weathered by years of building timber-frame barns from the ground up - or from the sky down, in some cases. Each crease can testify to the virtues of hard work, of a making an honest living, of the value of family.

Those hands, and the hands of his wife and five children, are helping rebuild a part of the Valley's history. Stitt, a fourth-generation barn restorer from Michigan, is putting back together an original Colony barn on Ron Smith's property in the Butte - taking it from a run-down eyesore to a beautiful structure that exemplifies the Valley's history. The barn is believed to have been built in 1931.

"Alaska isn't that old, and we're already losing our heritage," Stitt said. "It won't be long until all these original barns are gone, and residential areas take their place. We're helping keep Alaska's heritage alive."

Smith fondly remembers growing up on his family's homestead, which was purchased from the Neville family in 1951. In the upstairs of the barn, he points to a boxing speedbag in the corner, proudly saying his father put that up there for the boys. The Colony barn stood tall on the family's property, but in recent years, time took its toll.

About a year and a half ago, Smith had a decision to make - the old barn was in disrepair, and its time had come. He could tear it down, or start the lengthy process of rebuilding it. He tried to get people to move the barn, but because of the rough shape it was in, nobody would take the job. That's when Smith contracted Stitt to build a pull barn on his property. Smith didn't know Stitt was a barn restorer prior to their meeting.

"It was a total chance thing," Smith said. "Mike came out to the property and saw the barn and said, 'I can build you a pull barn, but I'd rather be working on [the Colony barn].'"

Stitt got started, straightening the barn's frame a fraction of an inch at a time.

"Barns go down over a period of years, and you can't bring them back up in a period of hours," Stitt said. "The more time you have with a building, the better. Mr. Ron has never rushed me on this project."

Stitt and his family moved to Willow three years ago, from Michigan. Restoring barns in the Midwest has been his family's way of life for more than a century, but Stitt moved his family north for a higher calling - to serve as missionaries in Alaska.

Stitt and his family started on the roof, and then worked their way down to the logs on the first story, hand-peeling them. While Stitt is restoring a barn, you won't hear the ping-ping-ping of a pneumatic nailer or the shrill twirl of a battery-operated screw gun - for much of the work, Stitt uses hand tools that date back to the 1860s. Two-man tongs, a hand adze and a draw knife sit among the tools in the Colony barn's second story, tools that require no batteries but plenty of human effort to power.

All of the logs used in the restoration project were taken from the Smith homestead.

"I wanted to keep the project as indigenous to this homestead as I could," Smith said. "I wanted to keep my family property intact."

The Colony barn will be fully restored later this summer, and Smith said he envisions a place where the history of his family will rest.

"It's where my family grew up, and I want to keep that history in this barn," Smith said. "I want to have some of that history up in the barn, and turn it into a great place to come out and visit."

Colony barns are slowly coming down around the Valley, as age catches up to them.

Seventy years ago, approximately 125-130 of the 32-foot by 32-foot structures were built as part of the Matanuska Colony project, according to Wayne Bouwens of the Palmer Historical Society.

Most were of the rounded-top design, such as Smith's barn, but a few had "V" peaks, Bouwens said.

Today, Bouwens estimated, there are less than 50 still standing around the Valley, and a majority of them haven't been restored.

"They're coming down pretty good now," Bouwens said. "There's not a lot of them left."