Lining the western slope of the sacred San Francisco Peaks sits the Hart Prairie Preserve, a stunning 245 acre homestead in the backdrop of the dormant Humphrey’s Peak, a volcano named after a Civil War-era Union General and Arizona’s tallest peak. Just 30 minutes north of the bustling town of Flagstaff, the Hart Prairie Preserve is an almost mythological landscape made up of old growth ponderosa pine, active elk and deer herds, over 250 species of plants, and home to a globally rare community of Bebb willows.

From 7000 B.C. to 300 B.C. Archaic Indian communities occupied the area followed by the Sinagua and Cohonina tribes who arrived in 700 A.D., splitting the eastern and western slopes of the San Francisco Peaks. By the mid 1800s, Euro-American settlers pushing westward across the United States arrived on the western slope, and in 1877 Frank Hart began work on the first log cabin of what is now the Hart Prairie Preserve. Although he was unable to finish the cabin before his first winter, European immigrant Augustus Dillman Freudenberger would finish the partially completed cabin during the early part of the 1880s and begin homesteading, naming it the Fern Mountain Ranch. From 1892 to 1901 the Fern Mountain Ranch would play a significant role in Northern Arizona history, serving as the first stop on the tri-weekly stage run from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, a move that would drive the early stages of Grand Canyon tourism.

In 1928, the property was sold to Harold S. Colton, founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona, who transferred the property to his sister and her husband, Suzanne and Robert Wilson. In 1977 the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and by 1994 the Wilsons donated the majority of the property to The Nature Conservancy for land conservation purposes and stipulated that the structures must be maintained in accordance with historic preservation standards.

HistoriCorps is humbled to engage volunteers in the restoration of the barn at the Hart Prairie Preserve in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy. We anticipate spots to go fast and space will be limited over the course of the three scheduled volunteer sessions. Camping options are still available, but our fantastic partners at The Nature Conservancy have offered free lodging for volunteers at the historic log cabins onsite. We encourage all volunteers to take advantage of this incredible offer and enjoy the comforts and serenity of the private log cabins reserved for HistoriCorps volunteers. For more information about the Hart Prairie Preserve, please visit their website.