A cabin located on King's Hill became something of a giant Lincoln Log set for a class of would-be historic preservationists.

The Missoula-based Ninemile Ranger Station, in conjunction with the US Forest Service, conducts a week-long class each year in this area to train people in the art of historic preservation.

Kirby Matthew, one of the trainers, explained, "The goal of the training center at Ninemile is to offer training to people outside the agency."

USFS archaeologist Sandra French said, "We have folks here from five states, I believe, and they are receiving the training to go back home and do this kind of preservation work at their own forest."

For a few hundred dollars tuition, students gain hands-on knowledge of old-school log cabin construction.

Matthew continued, "In this training we have a lot of things going on - there's a lot of work in this building so it'll be several years, but when we're all done, we'll have another building that'll last another 80 years with a pretty low level of maintenance."

Many cabins in the National Forest are available for rent, and using them as classrooms serves two purposes...they get fixed up, and students learn about a time when construction was truly "green."

"You know a lot of these buildings were built with old-growth timber and we're operating under the philosophy of 'if it's sustainable, it'll last as long as it took to grow'," said Matthew.

Ninemile conducts about five training sessions each year, and they are open to everyone. Click here to learn more about the program.