Abandoned since 1940, the wilderness cabin of a colorful foothills recluse is the focus of a renewed ruckus among history buffs and U.S. Forest Service officials.

Long before passage of the federal Wilderness Act in 1964, iconoclast Monte Wolfe built a stout log home at a point some 12 trackless miles toward the Mokelumne River from remote Hermit Valley in Alpine County. He roamed and took occasional work in four Sierra Nevada counties until his death in 1940. Foothills residents whose families knew Wolfe formed a loose congregation in his name and dedicated themselves to preserving the cabin, entering into pacts with the Forest Service on the subject as late as 1997, according to Doug Barber, Amador district ranger.

Now, the group finds itself both confronting strictures of the Wilderness Act and deploring an apparently hasty application of the law by the Forest Service in October.

The federal Wilderness Act states that structures in designated wild territory shall not be maintained and shall be allowed to deteriorate. Members of a government work party in October removed the cabin door and took out what was evidently a replacement chimney flue, according to Barber.

Foothills residents with continuing interest in the Wolfe cabin have objected strenuously and have called on the Forest Service to replace the door soon to keep out winter snows that could damage the cabin's interior.

"Under Wilderness rules, no one is allowed to maintain or improve a cabin like this, even if it's an official historical resource," said Eric Jung, a former Alpine County supervisor. "On the other hand, that doesn't make it right to hasten its destruction."

Barber said he believes the interest group has gone beyond terms of a 1997 agreement with the government, which said the group should keep the cabin free of any non-historical elements. Public-private pacts have existed and been modified around the cabin ever since Wolfe's death in 1940, he said.

Barber said the door and flue will be replaced, at least temporarily, because a review found the Forest Service should have taken public comment before it decided to remove them.

"By the end of the week, we'll have the place closed up again," Barber said.

Jung said that the cabin has been used overnight by visitors, but that no one has lived in the structure. He and others believe an exception should be crafted to the Wilderness Act to allow for preservation of the cabin, he said.

Barber said the time could be ripe to explore how some compromise could be hatched.

"We need to settle this back down," Barber said. "If they're going to have an interest, then they'll help us manage the cabin appropriately. We won't any longer be ships passing in the night."

Jung said, "I hope they will allow us to re-caulk the windows. We want to see an exception made to the rules of the wilderness."