On a day so beautiful it sucked the air right out of you, a group of Boy Scouts, parents and Vail residents played gleefully in the dirt and the mud.
This was the kind of fun only kids can get away with, but the event had the deeper purpose of preserving Vail's Old Post Office.
The event was organized by Zach Henesy, 15, who is helping restore the old adobe building and using the project to earn his Eagle Scout rank. Zach, a student at Empire High School, is a member of the Boy Scouts' Rita Ranch Troop 772.
In fact, the project is a many-layered collaboration that included instruction in adobe-making from David Yubeta, historic preservation specialist, and Ray Madril, preservation mason, both with the National Park Service in Tumacacori.
The Aug. 22 adobe workshop and all the elbow grease Zach brought with him fit neatly with the Vail Preservation Society's goal of stabilizing and restoring the last standing building in the original town site.
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"I wanted to do a project to benefit the community," Zach said. "If we do this, this can be the gathering point for Vail."
So on a cool, overcast August morning refreshed by the previous night's monsoon rain, about 25 people, including 10 Scouts, got their hands dirty for a couple of good causes.
Zach built wooden forms for the adobe bricks and made sure all the people and all the supplies they needed would be there.
Yubeta brought his park service truck along with a cement mixer and his adobe-making knowledge.
On hand was J.J. Lamb, director of the Vail Preservation Society, helping Zach with the organizational duties and driving a tractor.
Then the fun started.
With shovelfuls of clay and additions of sand and water, the mud began turning in the mixer. Yubeta told the Scouts a basic adobe mixture has to be about 20 to 25 percent clay; the rest is sand.
After adding water, a good field test for the mixture is to roll a 1/4-inch-thick worm of mud between your palms. If it doesn't break, it's good, he said, (Note: If there's too much clay in the mixture, the brick will crack. If there's too much sand, it will be too weak.)
Yubeta says teaching youngsters methods of traditional adobe-making is an important part of his work. By teaching the younger generation, the method won't die.
Preservation is just as important.
"If you lose this, you've just lost a piece of fabric you can never replace," Yubeta said of the Old Post Office. "This is a non-renewable resource."
The Old Post Office is a priority for the preservation society. Lamb estimates it will take at least $200,000 and a couple of years to restore the building.
She has researched the building's history thoroughly and is working on a historical designation through the state. Lamb also hopes to land some grant money to fund the project.
She can tell you that it was deeded by Southern Pacific Railroad to the U.S. Postal Service in 1901. It served as a post office from 1903 to 1974.
But she still doesn't know exactly when it was built. The earliest references to the building she can find are in the late 1800s.
"My gut feeling is that it was built about 1890," she said.
The old structure owned by Patty and Chauncey Kelly represents the roots of the community as well as its future as a gathering place. And though it isn't much and it's in need of major repairs, Lamb hopes it will help keep the Vail community together.
"It's humble but significant," Lamb said. "We love it."
