Preacher's Cabin

This cabin was built in 1884 by Hans Olaf Hanson when he settled on a farm in the Appleport area, east of Sister Bay. It is typical of the spartan housing of early settlers. After many moves, it was restored by local master builder Don Erickson on his Scandia Road property in Sister Bay. Following the restoration, Erickson called it the “Preacher’s Cabin” because he was fond of the North Carolina lifestyle, where buildings like these were used to house traveling preachers.

The first log cabins in America were built by immigrants from Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway. An early settler might have built a simple log cabin for himself or his family to have someplace to live, and then, as trees were cleared, and farming became possible, he may have added to the cabin or built a bigger home. The cabin could be built by one man, using only a saw and an axe. The bark was stripped and the logs were notched, and no nails were needed to fit the pieces together. The space between the logs was filled with mud and straw, called chinking.  The chinking in this cabin was replaced with cement. Although there are glass windows in this cabin, glass was not typically available to the pioneers, so the original cabin would likely have had greased paper or some other covering over the windows. In a cabin meant for wintertime use, there may have been a stone fireplace.

Preacher's Cabin: https://sisterbayhistory.org/museum/preachers-cabin/