Log Cabin Day: Jun 25

The last Sunday in June each year is Log Cabin Day.  It was created to help preserve log cabins.  The first Log Cabin Day was on June 25 1986. This year will be the 32nd anniversary of the celebration.   The Log Cabin Society was founded by Virginia Handy and the Bad Axe Historical Society  in Michigan.

Log Cabins are the heritage of many descendants of American and Canadian pioneers and fur trappers, it is also the heritage of many in Europe.


I have a soft spot in my heart for log cabins.

I have always wanted to live in a log cabin.  Years ago I stayed in one and had a lot of fun.  Then , we put an offer on one that some guy had started building and never finished.  If I remember correctly, it was just the walls.  No roof or windows. He turned down our offer.  He probably did us a favor by not accepting the offer.

Next we bought ten acres and planned on the log cabin, had the blueprints drawn up and found the company to build it for us.  Then our house did not sell and when it did we didn't want to wait for the cabin to be built so we opted for a manufactured home.


Here is the story of Dick  Proenneke he went alone into the wilderness and built a log cabin with hand tools, many that he made himself.

His Cabin:





A wofati would count as a log cabin:





How to celebrate?   Pull out the old Lincoln Logs and build one or just make one out of sticks.  Maybe a museum near you is holding a celebration or maybe rent a log cabin.


Please share pictures of your log cabins, log homes or any historical log cabins .  Or maybe just tell us about your cabin!

My wife's Uncle builds log cabins and averages about 200 new cabins per year, so the love of log cabins is alive and well for sure!

We built one as kids that were made of saplings, and it had bunkbeds and so we would stay in it overnight just for the fun of it. It was a lot of fun and held good memories.

Myself, I went with a timberframe for my home in my adult life, but love reading about the old days when the loggers of old went into the woods in the fall and built their log camps for use as bunkhouses which they stayed in over the winter as they cut wood. Today some of these old cabins can still be found way out in the woods, no longer used as the logging companies now use portable camps. One I went into had a calendar tacked to the wall...1953 was the year it showed.

But to get really back in time, we love to go to "Maine Living History Days" in Bradley, Maine every fall. My family has been on this farm since 1746, and at that living museum, they have a log cabin, low and squat, a rock fireplace, full of smoke and no windows, and yet that is what my family once lived in. It was interesting to see where we came from. It is good for teh heart too, for when things get tough in the winter, with snow blowing and mind-numbing cold, I think how much better we have it now, then when my forefather's did. It is a real reality check.

This looks like a really fun place to visit if anyone lives in or near Texas.

Log Cabin Village  Fort Woth, Tx

Here are some fun Museums with Log Cabins:

Madison Children's Museum






Pioneer Log Cabin Museum





Arlington Heights Historical Museum





The Sidney Museum and Arts Association

 
Here is a poem that I found on an old card:

How fitting! I just got back from my log cabin out in the Sierras. I don't know a lot about it. I know it was the second cabin built on this land, and was built in 1922 (hand hewn from trees on the property). She's got hot & cold water, wired with propane lanterns and a propane refrigerator, and used to have a beautiful old wedgewood — but sadly the old owners took that particular piece with them. She handles snow like a champ. I've stayed when there was 15 feet of snow on the ground, higher than the roof line. I'm hoping to give her some more TLC this summer — the deck needs some rebuilding, and the old rope-based chinking has given way to the mice. Some day I'd even like to figure out how to open the windows in the winter (the snow usually piles up past them).

Kyle, your cabin is beautiful!

Thanks for sharing!

My cabin in Ottawa National Forest, see attached: age is approximately 95years

Kyle & Danny - love the cabins.  They look so cozy.

And what a fun topic/post!

I think log cabins rock! I've always been fond of log cabins, and finally I am building one, well not all by myself, I have a lot of help and hired a log cabin crew to stack the logs and essentially do everything in the picture. They assembled the cabin in 10 days. Now my goal is to have it finished and be moving in October.

The one thing I love about log cabins is the many ways they can be built. Not only can a person use different style of logs (round, D, square, etc), they can have different types of corners or connections. But another thing that can be changed that few people realize, is that the orientation of the logs can be changed too.

A type of log home few know about is the Maine Style Log Home which was designed by logging companies when they used to make logging camps deep in the Maine North Woods. They needed a log cabin for the loggers, but did not want to use their good logs to build them, so they built them using short, small logs. I bring this up because a lot of Permie people might not have lots of long, ideal logs to build a log home, but by using short logs, they can use the wood they do have!

The biggest difference is that the corners allow for settling by using verticle coner boards. By eleiminating the laid up corners, it is far easier to build since corners are what makes log cabin building so difficult. The trade off of course is the tradional log home look with those corners.

James Freyr wrote:I think log cabins rock! I've always been fond of log cabins, and finally I am building one, well not all by myself, I have a lot of help and hired a log cabin crew to stack the logs and essentially do everything in the picture. They assembled the cabin in 10 days. Now my goal is to have it finished and be moving in October.

Such a cute cabin! You'll have to keep us updated with pictures as you get it all finished up!

I saw this on Strange Inheritance last night ... I just have to share.

A house made out of one redwood log:

I always wanted to build a dogtrot style log cabin. Very flexible design. They were fairly common in pioneering TX. Kids on one side, adults on the other. Stacked purposes:)

James Freyr wrote: Now my goal is to have it finished and be moving in October.

Heh! Man was I ambitious. I look back on my statement and chuckle. Today is December 9th, and I'm still trying to get my cabin finished. My wife and I hope to be moving in come the end of January, a full quarter of a year later than we thought.