Mae Ciechanski was one of the original founders of the Soldotna Historical Society and Museum.
Twenty years ago, she donated her husband’s old homestead cabin to the society. But for a long time, the cabin was closed off to the public, due to concerns about a chemical fire that burned the place while her husband, Ed, was making pottery there.
Now, it’s open inside to the public, joining several other houses, an old school and post office at the Soldotna Homestead Museum off Centennial Park Road.
“I tell you, we’re the best-kept secret," said Carmen Steph, treasurer of the Soldotna Historical Society and Museum's Board of Directors. "I was ashamed to say that I lived in Soldotna for so long and didn’t even know this was here. Now I spend all my time here. I spend a lot of my winter months here.”
She said visitors to the museum used to be just look into the windows of the small log cabin that belonged to Ed Ciechanski in the 1950s. The fire marshall was worried about the char on the cabin from the fire.
But the society got an engineer to take a look at the cabin and said it was OK to bring visitors inside. Stephl said she’s glad they did.
“And when you come into this building – I mean, the smell," Stephl said. "Right? Right there you’re going, ‘This takes you back.’”
Ed Ciechanski was born in Ohio and came to Alaska after serving in World War II. Like many veterans, he capitalized on homesteading laws, and built a cabin eight miles upstream of the Kenai River. The now-named Ciechanski Road, between Kenai and Soldotna, points toward that spot.
His cabin, at the museum, is rudimentary, with a narrow door and entryway that lead to a main room containing a cot, stove and some of Ed’s woodcarvings. Stephl said he was known in part for those carvings, plus the strawberries he grew in his garden.
He was not known for his construction skills. Stephl said he didn’t have much experience building when he put up his house in 1947, using a hatchet and handsaw to cut small logs for the cabin’s walls.
“Talk about tough, right? But I get the feeling, though, that – Mae and Ed got married in 1959 – maybe she came up and took one look at it and said, ‘I don’t think so. You’re going to build me a house,’" Stephl said. "And that ended up being more of his mancave later on.”
The pair moved out of the cabin and into another home, though Ed kept the cabin as a studio.
After Ed died in 1998, Mae donated the cabin to the society. It was moved to the museum lot in 1999.
“We’re finding that with the log cabins, they'll stay pretty sturdy as long as you keep water off them. You keep them raised off the ground, make sure the logs aren’t rotting," Stephl said. "Overhead, make sure that the roofing – or even if you have to put some kind of roof over them to protect them.”
The society also put in interpretive signs last May with details about each cabin and the homesteaders who lived there.
Mae is no longer around to talk about the cabin’s history, and the Ciechanskis did not have children.
But there are clues about their life sprinkled around the property, from shelves of carvings and pottery in the museum’s main building to a slew of artifacts in Damon Hall.
“I think it’s like a history treasure hunt" Stephl said. "When you go, ‘Now, where is that thing?’”
Tucked away in a filing cabinet in the building’s basement is an album filled with Mae’s photos – of the river, Ed and the cabin, set against a grove of snowy spruce.
It’s one of a myriad relics from that period in Soldotna’s history. Stephl said the society has been working on curating its collection the last two years.
“The list grows and grows — who donated, who has contributed. All these items are not only just Ed and Mae Ciechanski – there’s the Gerharts, the Littles … there’s tons.”
Today, the Ciechanskis are still contributing to the historical society through a fund. The City of Soldotna also offers an education scholarship in Mae’s honor.
The homestead museum, including the Ciechanski cabin, opens this June.
