FAIRBANKS - The rumor within Alaska State Parks is that the old public use cabin at Quartz Lake was made out of recycled outhouse panels. “That’s what my story always was,” said former state parks ranger Brooks Ludwig, who is now superintendent of the northern region.

If the rumor is true, it’s ironic, because at this point, sitting next to the shiny, new 20-by-24-foot log cabin that a state parks crew erected in the past two months, the old cabin looks more like an outhouse than a cabin.

Of course, the word cabin is probably being generous when referring to the old structure.

“It was a shack with a little deck on the front,” McClurg put it. “It’s pretty tiny and run down.

“There was hardly any, if any at all, insulation in it,” he said. “It’s something we’ve wanted to replace for a long time.”

The new cabin is built with three-sided, eight-inch logs and features three big spruce purlins supporting the roof. There are two bunks in a back room separated by an eight-foot high wall that will sleep six comfortably. A big, new wood barrel stove sits in one corner. There is a small deck stretching across the front of the cabin.

The new cabin becomes an instant centerpiece for the 600-acre Quartz Lake State Recreation Area, a campground and boat launch about 85 miles south of Fairbanks off the Richardson Highway.

From May 1 to Sept. 30, the cabin will be used to house volunteers from the Lower 48 who serve as laborers and campground hosts. During the winter, however, it’s available to the public.

The Quartz Lake cabin is one of six roadside cabins state parks offers for rent during the winter months. For anywhere from $20 to $50 per night — Quartz Lake rents for $20 on weekdays and $25 on weekends — you can rent a cabin that you can drive right up to the front door like you do at home except you’re in the middle of woods, on the bank of a river, or in this case, on the edge of 1,500-acre Quartz Lake.

“They’re very popular,” McClurg said of the road accessible cabins. “They pay for themselves in no time.”

The kit for the cabin at Quartz Lake, excluding doors and windows, cost only $14,000, McClurg said. It was easy to assemble, taking a crew of 3-4 workers only about a month to put up.

On Tuesday, McClurg stood outside in the wind and admired the new cabin. “You can see what a difference that cabin will make in this park,” he said. The new cabin will be popular with ice fishermen who frequent Quartz Lake, the Interior’s hottest fishing hole during the winter, McClurg said.

The cabin became available for rent on Tuesday without any kind of advertising on state parks’ behalf and it was already booked for this weekend, Ludwig noted.

The old cabin, meanwhile, will be converted to a storage shed in state parks’ maintenance yard in Delta Junction and the spot where it now sits will become a parking spot for people who rent the cabin and the summer campground hosts, Ludwig said.

The old cabin was built back in the early 1990s by former Delta parks ranger Fred Vreeman, according to Delta seasonal ranger Maureen “Mo” Gardner of Delta. “Basically it was built because we were trying to have facilities to house volunteers so we could get more volunteers to help us out,” Gardner said. “If we had housing we thought we could get more volunteers.”

Given the size and dilapidated state of the old cabin, however, that wasn’t necessarily the case in recent years. The new cabin could change that.

“We’ve been needing it for a long time,” Gardner said. “I’ve had a hard time selling that old place to hosts as a place to stay in.”

Contact outdoors editor Tim Mowry at 459-7587.

IF YOU GO

How to get there:

Drive south on the Richardson Highway from Fairbanks. Take a left on Quartz Lake Road at 277.8 Mile and follow it 3 miles to Quartz Lake State Recreation Area.

For Rent: You can rent the new publicuse cabin at Quartz Lake, or any Alaska State Parks public-use cabin for that matter, online, by fax or in person.

Go to the Alaska State Parks Web site at www.

dnr.alaska.gov/parks/ or stop at the Department of Natural Resources Public Information Center at the corner of Airport Way and University Avenue to check on cabin availability.

Cabins rent for different prices, depending on location and day of the week you are renting, but generally prices range from $20 to $50.

Roadside cabins cost more than backcountry cabins. The Quartz Lake public-use cabin rents for $20 on weekdays and $25 on weekends and holidays. Reservations can be made up to seven months in advance for Alaska residents.

For more information about renting a state parks cabin, go to www.dnr.alaska.gov/ parks/ or call the DNR Public Information Center in Fairbanks at 451-2705.