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Questers to award grant to Cave Creek Museum
July 14, 2022 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm MST
Questers to award grant to Cave Creek Museum to restore Arizona’s only tuberculosis cabin
The Cave Creek Museum will receive $9699 from Questers to restore its tuberculosis cabin, the only remaining structure of its kind in Arizona.
According to the museum’s executive director Evelyn Johnson, Questers will make a formal presentation to the museum board, with visitors onsite, in front of the cabin on Thursday, July 14 at 10 AM. The grant will be used to rehabilitate the cabin’s physical structure, which is more than 100 years old. The cabin exhibit will be restored and ready for the museum’s season opening on October 1, 2022.
Questers, which was established internationally in 1944, is an organization that appreciates history and items of a historical nature. The Arizona Four Peaks chapter raised the funds via a grant for the restoration.
“We are involved in preservation or restoration of anything of historical significance,” says Four Peaks Questers president Alice Helton. “Our chapter began looking at renovating the TB cabin more than three years ago. We are excited to present the monies to Cave Creek Museum and to see the cabin’s revitalization.”
“The cabin’s boards are leaning and the overall structure needs additional support,” says Johnson. “We want – and must – preserve this amazing building as it is listed in the prestigious National Registry of Historic Places. Recently, the (Arizona) State Office of Historic Preservation approved the exterior preservation effort. The tuberculosis cabin is one of the most popular exhibits at Cave Creek Museum.”
The July 14 event is open to the public. Buildings by Don Fredricks, In. will perform the restoration.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM’S TUBERCULOSIS CABIN
The historic tubercular cabin was built in the early 1920s and was located along Cave Creek Road with several other cabins. The cabins were built for use in central and southern Arizona and inhabited by patients trying to recuperate from tuberculosis, a contagious lung infection. People came by train, horseback and car as they sought a dry and welcoming climate to help cure their symptoms. People like Doc Holliday of Tombstone and Peggy Goldwater, mother of Senator Barry Goldwater, sought help in Arizona.
The 11-X13-foot cabin is one of 14 units that were located on the south side of Cave Creek Road across what is now The Horny Toad. The cabin is a big part of Arizona history because people with tuberculosis, known as lungers, came to Arizona and the Cave Creek area for the sunshine and dry climate, which were considered beneficial. There was no known treatment at the time.
Sam and Helen Jones first opened the TB Camp in Cave Creek around 1920 as Desmount Sanitorium. The camp consisted of the simple cabins that were clustered around a dining hall. The camp closed in the 1940s. The tubercular cabin, which was moved to Cave Creek Museum in 1984, was restored to its original condition by the Cave Creek Museum, Humana Hospital and the residents of Cave Creek and Carefree. The cabin, for awhile, belonged to Dixie Nisan then Santos Rubira, used it personally for 12 years before assuring the museum would take care of it for all time.
The one room cabin had no indoor plumbing or kitchen facilities. The windows had screens but no glass and wooden shutters. It had a couple of cupboards, a small closet, a sink and a wood burning stove. Food was prepared and served in a central dining hall. The cabin was restored and filled with furnishings original to TB cabins. During the construction of Bartlett Dam, the cabin was moved and used as “manager quarters.” Five were relocated to the Oregano’s site where they were used as vacation homes.
The cabin, the only one left in the State of Arizona, once housed dozens of tuberculosis patients. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, where it is considered a structure of great historic and architectural significance.
The 51-year-old museum’s mission is to preserve the artifacts of the prehistory, history, culture and legacy of the Cave Creek Mining District and the Cave Creek/Carefree foothills area through education, research, and interpretive exhibits. The Cave Creek Museum is located at 6140 E. Skyline Drive in Cave Creek, Ariz., 480.488.2764. Open October through May.