Log Cabin Architecture

A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure, built by laying horizontal logs one atop another. The technique has an ancient history in Europe: the Roman architect Vitruvius described dwellings built of horizontally layered logs in the Pontus region of what is now Turkey, and historians believe the earliest log structures in Northern Europe date to the Bronze Age, around 3500 BC. Its primary development came in Nordic and Eastern European regions, where straight coniferous timber made log construction especially practical, and in North America the log cabin became closely associated with first generation home building by settlers on the frontier.