Arnold’s Park, Iowa — An engineer hired to evaluate a historic site in Arnolds Park is recommending major repairs to the Abbie Gardner cabin.
It’s the site of what’s known as the Spirit Lake massacre of 1857. About three dozen Europeans were killed by members of the Dakota tribe who used the area for hunting. Thirteen-year-old Abbie Gardner was briefly taken hostage. Three decades later she bought her family’s cabin and gave tours. Anita Bomgaars is with the Abbie Gardner Cabin Friends group that asked for the evaluation.
The cabin needs to have the shingles and boards on the roof replaced, repair corners of the structure and install a handicapped accessible door. Bomgaars says her group hopes the roof gets replaced before winter.
The cabin was one of Iowa’s first tourist attractions and Gardner operated it herself until her death in 1921. Her son sold the property to the Iowa Conservation Commission in 1941.
