It’s like Civilian Conservation Corps, but instead of earning a wage, participants are compensated with free food, camping and knowledge of historic restoration.

The U.S. Forest Service is partnering with the nonprofit HistoriCorps to do much-needed maintenance on the historic buildings at Crescent Moon Ranch this fall. HistoriCorps matches volunteers of all skill levels with experts in historic preservation to perform maintenance on old buildings, mostly on public lands, across the country.

Crescent Moon Ranch hugs Oak Creek near Red Rock Crossing and boasts striking views of Cathedral Rock. Volunteers on the project will camp out in their own tents, trucks or campervans [no RVs or trailers permitted] at the ranch while they work on the project in one-week-long sessions in September and October.

There are still openings available for the Sept. 19 to 24, and Sept. 26 to Oct. 1 sessions, which surprised archaeologist and Kaibab National Forest Staff Officer Jeremy Haines, who helped organize the collaboration with HistoriCorps. The two October sessions are full.

Haines suspects COVID-19 is still impacting the volunteer pool.

He said he learned about HistoriCorps when he participated in a project in his free time in 2014. He was impressed with the group’s marriage of expertise with volunteers and said he learned a lot about the philosophy of historic preservation work, which is different than ordinary building. There were other perks, too.

“There’s campfires in the evening, … the food is usually really good,” Haines said. “You walk away with a new group of friends.”

He’s since worked on several other projects.

The Crescent Moon Ranch project is HistoriCorps’ first in the Red Rock Ranger District.

The site is popular mostly for picnicking and swimming in Oak Creek, but it also houses several notable buildings that tell the story of what Haines calls “pre-vortex” Sedona — the agricultural period before World War II when Sedona’s major industry was supplying Jerome and other bustling Arizona towns with fresh produce.

The oldest building on the ranch, a barn, dates to the 1890s, and “it’s just in desperate need of repair,” Haines said. Other buildings that volunteers will work on include a blacksmith shop, well house and a water powered electrical generator.

For Haines, the Crescent Moon Ranch project is important because the work will help protect buildings that “connect people to our history, to our stories, to our community,” he said.

Learn more about the project at historicorps.org/crescent-moon-az-2021.