Rick Just
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Author
  • Speaker
  • Contact
  • Subscriptions
  • Heroes & Villains

Moving the Nels Just Shop

8/21/2021

Comments

 
The Just-Reid family is celebrating the Sesquicentennial Plus One of Nels and Emma Just settling in the Blackfoot River Valley near Blackfoot. We had planned to celebrate last year, but that got put on hold along with so much else when COVID hit.
 
In honor of Sesquicentennial Plus One, I’m devoting the Speaking of Idaho blog to my family’s history during August.


How could something as useful as a ranch shop be so in the way?
 
We don’t know exactly when Nels Just built his shop, but it was likely in the 1870s. He used it as a blacksmith shop and a place to work on projects out of the weather. His father, Peder Anderson Just, lived in the shop for a little while near the end of his life.
 
Nels cut the logs using his own sawmill that moved from place to place on a timber allotment in the Blackfoot Mountains a few miles from his homestead. He erected the shop in a low-lying flat spot below his residence, which stood on a low hill. That residence was a cabin, at first, then Nels replaced with a frame house, and finally with a brick home in 1887.
 
The “low-lying” part about the location was often a headache. Water pooled up around both sides of the shop after rainstorms and the road running on either side of it was often a muddy mess.
 
Nels’ shop fell out of use over the years as his descendants built more modern structures that better met the needs of ranching and farming operations as tractors and trucks replaced horses and wagons.
 
In 2003 family members who were operating the ranches in the valley at the time decided to move the shop out of the way of their operations. Using a hydraulic lift on a tractor and plenty of hands to help, they moved the old shop log by log and reassembled it about 75 yards away where it could serve as a shelter for small machines such as ATVs.
 
The second life of the Nels Just shop lasted 18 years. In 2021, a new generation of farmers and ranchers decided the shop was in the way, again. After considerable debate the board members of the Presto Preservation Association, our family nonprofit, decided to move the shop a hundred yards up the hill and onto a concrete foundation.
 
On August 14, about a dozen descendants of Nels and Emma Just hand-carried the logs to the new foundation and reassembled the shop there, where it will remain for the foreseeable future. It is now located on PPA property, dedicated to the preservation of family history, where it will be used as a storage site for tents, table, chairs, and other necessities for Just-Reid family reunions.

Picture
This 1969 photo shows the Nels Just shop, lower right, in its original location. 
Picture
The south end of the shop before it was moved in 2003.
Picture
That's Justin Oleson guiding a log during the reassembly of the shop in 2003. 
Picture
Justin Oleson 18 years later, in 2021, making some minor adjustments at the new permanent home of the Nels Just Shop.
Picture
Rich Reid guides one in.
Picture
The bulk of the work is done!
Speaking of Idaho history posts are copyright © 2020 by Rick Just. Sharing is encouraged. If you don’t find a button that lets you do that, find the post on Speaking of Idaho. If you’re missing my daily posts, select the RSS button, or select See it First under the Facebook Following tab.
Comments
    Picture
    The first book in the Speaking of Idaho series is out. Ask for it at your local Idaho bookstore, find it on Amazon, or, if you want a signed copy, click the button.
    Picture
    The second book in the Speaking of Idaho series is out. Ask for it at your local Idaho bookstore, find it on Amazon, or, if you want a signed copy, click the button.
    Picture
    Rick's book about Fearless Farris is available on Amazon! Click the picture above to be taken to Amazon. If you'd like an autographed copy, click the button below.

    Author, Speaker

    Rick Just has been writing about Idaho history since 1989 when he wrote and recorded scripts for the Idaho Centennial Commission’s daily radio program, Idaho Snapshots. One of his Idaho books explores the history of Idaho's state parks: Images of America, Idaho State Parks. Rick also writes a regular column for Boise Weekly.

    Rick does public presentations on Idaho's state park history and the history of the Morrisite war for the Idaho Humanities Council's Speakers Bureau.idahohumanities.org/programs/inquiring-idaho/
    ​


    Check out Rick's history of Idaho State Parks.

    The audio link below is to Rick's Story Story Night set called "Someplace Not Firth"

    Archives

    July 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018

    RSS Feed

Speaking of Idaho history posts are copyright © 2025 by Rick Just. Sharing is encouraged. If you’re missing my daily posts, select the RSS button, or select See it First under the Facebook Following tab.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. That means if you follow a link (generally to a book) from my page to an Amazon page, I get a tiny percentage of any purchase you may make.