Located on the east shore of Mendenhall Lake, the Skater’s Cabin has offered shelter and a view of the the glacier since built in 1936. The Civil Conservation Corp (CCC) constructed it from stones gathered from the surrounding moraine. That year my father built roads in Montana as a member of the CCC. Funded by the federal government to put men, like my dad, back to work during the depression, the CCC enriched Alaska with shelters, campgrounds, and even totem poles. The men’s work product showed pride and care. You can see that in the still straight walls of Skater’s Cabin. After skiing this morning, I took this picture of the cabin, a little proud of myself for using it to frame the lake and glacier. Back on Chicken Ridge, I found almost the exact content in a better photograph taken by Trevor Davis shortly after the cabin was built. You can see the crisp and beautiful photo here: http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cdmg21/id/2354/rec/10   Mr. Davis’ picture shows a strip of cleared ice for skating to the face of a much larger Mendenhall Glacier. It reminds us of the beauty of black and white photography, and how much ice we’ve lost in 70 some years.