By Sunny McClellan Morton
If you have driven across the western United States, you have probably caught glimpses of abandoned old log cabins. They often stand alone on the horizon, solitary tributes to the determined dreams and harsh lives of their builders. Now some of these old homes are being brought back to life.
David Hardle, a builder with a passion for history, has collected about twenty frontier cabins. Gradually he is reassembling them in Nauvoo, Illinois, as vacation rentals. As he rebuilds the old homes, he also pieces together the histories of the homes and the families who built them.
David Hardle recalls finding the Van Fleet cabin in Wyoming:
"This cabin sat on a bluff facing south towards the majestic
Uinta Mountains. Several years ago it collapsed when struck
by lightning. As I was standing inside the remains of this pioneer
home I could hear the trickle of three artesian springs running
down the bluff into the creek below. It was easy to feel the
history and imagine the courageous pioneers who dared to venture
and settle under these conditions."
The Van Fleet homestead, restored from its previous run-down
state (see photo above). The Danielson cabin was built in Wyoming
by Latter-day Saint immigrants.
"Old Wood makes Better Cabins"
When David bought land just outside the Nauvoo business district nine years ago, he planned to build several vacation-rental log cabins. But after building his own home and the first guest cabin with modern materials, he started taking notice of old log cabins. And his plans changed.
Old wood makes better cabins, David discovered. "Old-growth lumber grew more slowly, so the growth rings in it are a lot tighter. It's a lot stronger and tougher wood. Also, the wood is all dried out, and I don't have to worry about shrinkage, like with new cabins."
He shakes his head. "Most
of my old cabins have at least 20 rings per inch [meaning it
took 20 years to grow an inch], on up to 35 years per inch —
really slow-growth. I bought a piece of lumber a month ago and
it had two rings per inch. It was no good. It even shrank in
length, and trees aren't supposed to do that!"
Finding Old Cabins
David returned west to search for cabins, mostly in Wyoming and Utah. "When I saw one, I'd just find the owner and make an offer," he said. Many owners were pleased that the old family homes would be fixed up and used. The easiest find? "I bought one at a yard sale in South Jordan [Utah] for $400."
But old log homes weren't always so easy to acquire. Twice he arrived on-site just after the cabins had been destroyed, one by burning and the other by bulldozer. "I just missed one — a real nice cabin — that had dovetailed joints and everything. It was still smoldering when I got there."
Others he rescued just in time: at both the Van Fleet and Bluemel sites, he was told to buy quickly, before the bulldozers came through. "After I got [the cabins] they sold the properties and bulldozed the [other cabins], log barns and outbuildings" nearby.
Reconstructing the Past
Moving the old homes to David's Nauvoo land was easier than it sounds. "Actually, owners used to move their cabins a lot," David explains. "Log cabins were like the first mobile homes." He has even seen a blurry old photo of eight teams of horses moving a log house — a home he has tentatively identified as one of his.
David himself has disassembled and loaded an entire cabin into his trailer in six hours. In the process, he has found original markings on the logs that made reassembly easier. David now uses a technique similar to the original: he numbers the logs from the ground up and identifies each end as "SE corner" or the like.
Nauvoo Log Cabins now owns about twenty mid- to late-19th century log homes. Three of these (in addition to the new-construction cabin) have been completed. Two more are under reconstruction, a fascinating process itself for vacation renters to see.
Now Being Rebuilt…
One of the homes being rebuilt is David's pride and joy. He works on it daily from sunup to sundown, just as its first builder must have done. This 1859 home from Wanship, Utah was the first Summit County courthouse. But it has a Nauvoo connection.
"This house was built by Stephen Nixon and his sixteen year-old daughter Margaret. Stephen lived in Nauvoo and knew Joseph Smith, and Margaret was born here."
Under construction: a 1859 home from Wanship,
Utah. Note the stone fireplace, made from quarried rock used
in the original Nauvoo Temple.
Maintaining the original integrity of each home while making it comfortable for modern guests has been a fun challenge for David. For example, he added parts of other old cabins to the top and back of the Wanship house to make it larger. "The upper floor was a sleeping loft with a very low ceiling. I added four rounds of logs" to create a full second storey, he explained.
In the Wanship home he is building a stone fireplace with Nauvoo-quarried limestone from the original Zion's Mercantile site. "They dumped sixty loads of dirt here and I sorted all the rock out," he says. He turns over a piece of stone for the fireplace that shows the original quarry marks, made more than 160 years ago.
If These Walls Could Speak…
Often these homes have their own stories to tell. "It's really fun to explore around these cabins," says David enthusiastically. "Everywhere you go you can see old horseshoes, wagon wheels, pieces of wagons, and pieces of old saddles."
The Jamison
bunkhouse, transplanted from a ranch along the Bear River in
Wyoming.
Several artifacts were found at the Jamison cabin, which was originally a bunkhouse on a Wyoming ranch. David picked up bridles, bits, and even an old broad axe that still bears the Jamison brand. Now the axe hangs on the front porch wall. More old ranching artifacts dangle from the bathroom walls, including an old stirrup that is now a toilet paper holder.
But the most important stories are those of the families in each home. Thick files of family histories, photographs and other memorabilia line his shelves. He shares with guests his favorite finds — a picture of twelve children who were all born in one of his cabins, or the story of a woman who lived in the Danielson cabin who once had to shoot a coiled-up rattlesnake on the bed next to her sleeping baby.
Reconstructing these cabins is David's way of paying tribute to the courageous lives of their builders. He hopes others will share his passion. Many old log homes are "still out there," he admits. "I come across them all the time. I encourage people to go out and save them, and find the history of [those] who built them."
Meanwhile, he continues rebuilding cabins with loving, meticulous attention to historical detail. For as he works with each hand-hewn log, David sees not just the old marks of the axe, but an enduring monument to those who wielded those axes the first time these homes were raised.
Learn more about Nauvoo Log Cabins at www.nauvoologcabins.com.
