Homesteaders settling in the territories of the American West traditionally built log cabins; durable, rainproof, and inexpensive. Today, eco-friendly and rustically charming, log cabins with their distinctive handcrafted appearance seem to be making a comeback, with luxurious features such as whirlpools, skylight windows and heated patios.
Swedish colonists built the first log cabins in North America at the beginning of the 18th century. The design of the log cabins was influenced by typical North European farm-houses until the introduction of the Homestead Act. According to which, new colonists had to build their homes of a specific size with at least one window. These old log cabins had just one room, a spacious porch, and an elevated area for sleeping.
Building the frontier style log cabin was quite easy and required only a few days. First of all, the builder settled a solid foundation to keep logs above the damp soil. Most often, rock or stone were used for the log cabin foundation. Then the builder would square off each log and make round cuts on the top and bottom of each end. Then he assembled the logs so that round cuts would fit together. The logs were...