68.348.2

Photo shows Boy Scout cabin which was located on what was to become "Stagecoach Road," off of east 13th Street about a mile and a half northeast of Ames. Originally, this was the Craig family cabin, built in about 1854 by Presley Craig. Dr. W. B. Niles of Ames, an early graduate of Iowa State Veterinary College, had long owned the land where the cabin stood. For several years, Dr. Niles gave the local Boy Scouts permission to use the cabin and the surrounding area for camping and exploration activities. The scouts named it "Camp Machacammac" (little house on the hill). In January, 1938, the cabin was moved to its present site in Missouri Valley (Iowa) by Dr. Niles's son, Preston Niles, who owned a commercial orchard there. [For a fuller account of the cabin, see Fall, 1986, issue of "The Ames Intelligencer," the Ames Heritage Assn. newsletter.] (See also: 68.349.1)