J.D. Burke Cabin
The J.D. Burke Cabin is a surviving cabin in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area that was built in 1972 by J.D. Burke and James Anderson.
Today, it is one of only a handful of surviving structures that predated the establishment of the Big South Fork NRRA. Besides the ones being used for administrative purposes, other surviving structures include the Oscar Blevins Farm and associated buildings, the Lora Blevins Farm and associated buildings, the John Litton Farm and associated buildings, and Charit Creek Lodge.
History
Burke had deep ancestral roots in the Big South Fork River settlements. His second great-grandfather, Jonathan Burke, settled on the west side of the river, between Parch Corn Creek and No Business Creek. It was at that cabin where the Battle of No Business was fought in 1863. Burke’s grandparents, Lewis and Mary Ann Burke, are buried on the edge of No Business Creek.
Construction
Burke and his friend, James Anderson, lived in the Oneida area outside the Big South Fork River gorge when they decided to build the cabin almost directly across the river from where the Jonathan Burke cabin had once stood, on a three-acre plot of land. J.D. Burke was 31 years old at the time.
The men hauled in most of the materials for the cabin using Jeeps and traveling into the gorge by way of Big Island Road. Concrete trucks transported cement that was used for the foundation, and an Oneida building supply store, Lumber King, hauled in metal sheeting for the roof.
The single-story cabin featured a wrap-around porch and a large sandstone fireplace. It was intended to be a hunting and fishing get-away, as well as a retreat for Burke and Anderson and their families.
In a 2014 interview with the Independent Herald, Burke said: “Me and my family would go down and stay a week at a time. I’d work and my wife would go down there, and I would drive out to work while she stayed down there.”
Throughout the 1970s, the cabin was frequently used by the Burkes and the Andersons.
Burke said: “Sometimes James and his family would stay a week when I didn’t, then we’d stay a week when they didn’t, and different people would come and borrow the key and use it.”
Purchase by the federal government
The U.S. Congress passed legislation backed by Senator Howard H. Baker Jr. of Huntsville in 1974 to establish the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was charged with purchasing land for the national park and establishing facilities. The Corps of Engineers purchased the Burke Cabin in 1981. The road into the gorge was closed soon thereafter. Today, the cabin can only be reached on foot, by horseback, or mountain bike, by way of a horse trail that links Big Island Road to the Station Camp River Access.
Latter Years
After the establishment of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, the J.D. Burke Cabin became a popular — though unofficial — backwoods lodge for horseback riders, hunters and other people traveling through the backcountry. It also became common for people staying at the cabin to sign their names on the walls. Today, there are thousands of signatures scrawled on the walls both inside and outside the cabin.
The Big South Fork NRRA’s General Management Plan, formally adopted in 2003, calls for the cabin to be demolished. So far, however, it has not been.