Built from local red beech & dressed by hand, it is beech-pole framed, clad in slabs & roofed with shingles (later covered with iron). Named after Cecil King & built Sept., 1935, he was one of a party, including Boyd & Hunter who worked the claim around the hut & it may have been built by all three. Each summer for the next 46 years, King returned to work his claim, becoming a well-known identity, offering billy tea & conversation to passer-by’s. King died 22/6/82 & his family scattered his ashes around the hut. The wood-slab chimney was replaced by the NZFS with a galvanised-iron one in the 1970's. In 1991 Max Polglaze repaired the hut using silver beech, replacing the rotten exterior cladding & floorboards, & reinstating the internal framing. The bunks & leaks in the roof were repaired. Edit Hut
As a young boy my father and I would sometimes stay with Cecil in his hut on our way to our camp in the South Branch of the Wangapeka. We would sometimes carry in supplies for Cecil in return for possum stew and a bunk. The diggings below the hut are quite a feat to know that it was only one mans work, with limited equipment.