What is a Wood Cabin?

A wood cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of wood house or more commonly know as a log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of “wood cabin” and “log house.” Historically most “Wood cabins” were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less architecturally sophisticated. A “wood cabin” was usually constructed with round rather than hewn, or hand-worked, logs, and often it was the first generation home building erected quickly for frontier shelter.

Historically wood cabins or log cabin construction has its roots in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Although their origin is uncertain, the first log structures were probably built in Northern Europe in the Bronze Age (about 3500 BC). By the time Europeans began to settle in North America, they had a long tradition of using logs for houses, barns, and other outbuildings in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Northern Russia and Ukraine.

Log construction has been especially popular in Scandinavia, where straight tall tree trunks (pine and spruce) are readily available. With suitable tools, a log cabin can be erected from scratch in days by a family. As no chemical reaction is involved, such as hardening of mortar, a log cabin can be erected in any weather or season. Many older towns in Northern Scandinavia have been built exclusively out of log houses, which have been decorated by board paneling and wood cuttings. Today construction of modern log cabins as leisure homes is a fully developed industry.

Wood Cabins or Log homes reached their peak of complexity and elaboration with the Adirondack-style cabins of the mid-19th century. This style was the inspiration for many United States Park Service lodges built at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Log cabin building never died out or fell out of favor. It was surpassed by the needs of a growing urban United States. During the 1930s and the Great Depression, the Roosevelt Administration directed the Civilian Conservation Corps to build log lodges throughout the west for use by the Forest Service and the National Park Service. Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon was such a log structure, and it was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1930, the world’s largest log cabin was constructed at a private resort in Montebello, Quebec, Canada. Often described as a “log château”, it serves as the Château Montebello hotel.

The modern version of a log cabin is the log home, which is a house built usually from handcrafted logs. The logs are visible on the exterior and sometimes interior of the house.

Log and timber styles

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