Historic cabin at Town Hall sports new plaque honoring Clem Thein

The late Clem Thein set the ceiling high when it came to extending goodwill and sharing camaraderie among his many friends here.

He did the same when it came to masterful handiwork, a trait handed down to his son, Steve, and still much in evidence more than 15 years after Clem Thein's passing.

For confirmation, look at the roofs of historic Magnus Anderson Cabin and the covered Native American canoe shelter below Town Hall.

Clem Thein hand-split the cedar shakes protecting both structures using a metal froe and wood mallet cleverly fashioned from a bowling pin.

His efforts are now memorialized with a handsome plaque placed on the cabin recently by La Conner Public Works Director Brian Lease.

Steve Thein, who had donated to the town the cedar roofing shingles fashioned by his dad, was joined at the plaque reveal by longtime friend and 1975 La Conner High School classmate Randy Torseth to share insights with the stream of tourists who stopped by.

Steve Thein and Torseth are now retired. Blessed with an ability to fix anything, Thein planned to restore a vintage pinball machine. But Torseth, a keen local history buff, convinced Thein to design and order the plaque first.

"Randy has been pushing to do this for years," Thein said.

The plaque features an image of Clem Thein riding a tractor on Pleasant Ridge accompanied by a script outlining his life in Skagit agriculture, as a U.S. Army medic and a golf course greenskeeper.

Thein said Torseth, a son of late La Conner teacher and school administrator Arnold Torseth, donated generously to the project.

Thein and Lease noted that the finished product was a longtime work in progress, but the pandemic slowed completion.

The plaque was mounted three days removed from Father's Day. Thein had made donation of the cedar shakes a tribute to his dad.

"He had split the shakes for all the buildings on the (family) farm," Thein said. "There were some left over after he passed away but not enough for a major project. One day I was driving past the cabin and saw that its roof was in rough shape. So, I thought the town could use the shakes to fix the roof and that it would be something that Dad would be very proud of."

Lease said public works was proud to receive the donation, allowing the department to reroof the cabin and nearby canoe shelter.

"We did that a number of years ago," he recalled. "Steve's right, the cabin's roof was in bad shape. He brought up the idea of donating the shakes that his dad had split. He didn't want any money for them. He just wanted them to go to a good project. He didn't want the cedar to be wasted."

The plaque, meanwhile, fulfills what Lease said was Thein's wish "to do something nice in recognition of his dad."

"This is something Dad can be recognized for," Thein said. "And the plaque will be here for eternity."

That recognition should spread since the cabin is one of the town's more popular attractions.

Built in 1869 by Magnus Anderson on the North Fork of the Skagit River, the 12-foot by 20-foot cabin was gifted by S.B. Miller and his mother to the Daughters of Pioneers of Washington and subsequently moved to La Conner, initially sited along Sherman Street at the base of Pioneer Park.

Today's location is now tourist friendly. When it came here in the early 1950s, La Conner was at least a generation away from becoming a destination.

Anderson was born in Sweden and made numerous trips as a ship's carpenter around Cape Horn before settling in Skagit County. He homesteaded 160 acres near La Conner. To build the cabin, Anderson crafted a small scow that he rowed to and from Camano Island for the lumber.

Thein and Torseth expressed amazement at the undertaking.

"Look at the size of those beams," Thein said admiringly.