Vertebrae Lodge Foundations

There were many debates about foundation materials for the new lodge. Besides green spruce, there are no building materials readily available at the Chatter Creek building site. For a concrete foundation, cement would have to be hauled from Golden and sand and gravel would have to be brought up from natural deposits near Kinbasket Lake. It would take months to get the materials to site. There was insufficient time and insufficient funds. Some local rock was discovered, but it was too difficult to get a proper strength analysis performed and the size of the deposit was unknown.

In the end, the local material was the only practical and affordable choice and large spruce butts were used. At some future date, they would have to be replaced, but it was the only choice that would let the project proceed.

Click here for more information on the foundations of Vertebrae lodge

Before we get ahead of ourselves, a detour needs to be taken to tell a little bit about the logging and milling effort at chatter creek.  The structure of the building was entirely of green spruce selectively harvested from the surrounding forest.  Click here to learn about the logging and peeling effort required. 

Most of the logs harvested were required for dimensioned lumber for floors, walls, the enormous roof and for door casings and trim.  All of this lumber was milled on site.  Click here to learn about the operation of the Chatter Creek Sawmill.