New House at the Museum  (June 2015)

Lela Emmons

Contributing writer

Rusty Cobb had a new building put up at the museum. It is not a very big one but it certainly is tall. At the top of a 30 foot pine pole sits a new bright red birdhouse. The old pictures of the Hays house show a tall birdhouse located behind it and Rusty has always wanted to put a new one up. She said that the birdhouse wasn’t up since she has lived on the ranch but has seen it in old photographs.

 Rusty bought the birdhouse at the FFA auction last year. Tom Cobb and his grandson Tyson Cobb made the metal bracket to mount it to the pole. When Rusty ran into Jeff Corson and Ron Eliasen up in the forest and asked if they could get a pole for her on Jeff’s land. They delivered the pole soon after. The pole didn’t look very long on the ground but standing straight up, it looks tall enough to give a bird vertigo.

To put the pole up, Tom Cobb used a large tractor with a big loader on the front. He didn’t know how they got the first birdhouse up but he said he was pretty sure it wasn’t with a $100,000 piece of equipment. To erect the tall pole; Tom, Jack, and Tyson Cobb and set a large cedar post in the ground at least four feet deep and then bolted the pine pole to that. Additionally they strapped the pole to the side of the house. Rusty said that she didn’t think anyone needed to worry about it falling down in her lifetime. “It will be someone else’s problem by the time it needs to be replaced” she said.

So far this year there are about 20 birds nesting in various places around the museum and the lucky ones who find this new luxury apartment will likely not believe their eyes. They will also appreciate that Rusty had the door positioned to the East, away from the prevailing wind. And when those baby birds fledge they better be able to fly!