After an 18-month hiatus, the Pere Marquette Park Preservation Project (PM3P), formerly known as the Cabin Restoration Project, is back to restoring historically significant structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930’s in Pere Marquette State Park’s Upper Group Camps in Grafton, Illinois.

The all-volunteer group, with the assistance of Three Rivers Project staff and the cooperation of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), has been rehabbing cabins that have fallen into disrepair in Camp Ouatoga since October of 2012, resulting in a fully renovated Unit #2 and several other larger structures, putting them back into service for the public to enjoy. We will be back in Camp October 15-17 this year to make needed repairs on Unit Lodge #3.

Over the years, Restoration Weekends, which occur twice a year in May and October, have welcomed Sierra Club volunteers along with local groups including AmeriCorps YouthBuild, SIUE Wildlife Biology Club, Lewis and Clark Community College's Restoration Ecology Program, and the Boy Scouts. These groups come together at the Camp to restore cabins that have been closed due to safety issues. In most cases, a new roof is the first step in saving these unique buildings. 

Volunteers are invited to pitch in for a few hours, a day, or all weekend. People with carpentry and roofing skills are always needed, but folks who can help with meal prep and cleanup, scraping and painting, and hillside prairie restoration maintenance. All volunteer efforts are enormously helpful in making the weekend successful.

Please register to volunteer by October 1, 2021. 

Please contact Virginia Woulfe-Beile with any questions at virginia.woulfe-beile@sierraclub.org or 618-977-2319. 

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