Trees, stones ... those are the materials log cabins and log houses are made of!  Could you build a house out of trees and stones?

Start your journey here to know more about Southlake's log house.  It sits on the edge of a campground that pioneers reached after a hard day's trip from the California Crossing of the Trinity River, near what's now Dallas.  They called it Blossom Prairie. Sure, the Eastern Cross Timbers was a tangle of vines and trees, but there were meadows, too. This was one of them, and apparently Texas's famous wildflowers were bountiful there.  Plenty of wood, game and spring water made it a comfortable place to camp.  And nearby was Bunker Hill, said to be the highest point in the area, for keeping an eye out for Indians (the hill was cut down some when Bicentennial Park was built).  The next day, the wagons would again line up single file and head west, for a while traveling somewhat along what would later become Highway 114.

Once you can imagine the history of the site of the log house, think about how a house (or, a cruder form, the cabin) was built.  Can you imagine starting your own house by cutting down trees?  Read below to find out how house-building was done then, and how it was done recently right here in Southlake (to rebuild the log house).   Then take a trip out to the log house to look around.  Watch for events this fall at the house!    

To read the blog from the start of the log house project, read from the bottom of the page up.  

FAQs about the log house

Q: What year was the log house originally built?

A: Our house is a combination of three log structures that stood in what's-now Southlake. Because the dismantled houses were stored underneath tarps for up to 10 years, some of the logs had deteriorated. Bill Marquis, a log restoration expert who rebuilt the house, believes the structures were built in the 1850s, and the log house he has restored is representative of that time. The house he has crafted is mostly made of logs from a house that had stood on South White's Chapel. For many years, the house had been used as a barn. That log house was donated to us by Mr. and Mrs. Lemoyne Wright.

Q: Why is the log house sitting on stones?

A: Placing a house on the ground, without a foundation, had many disadvantages. Air couldn't circulate well around the house; the logs could rot; wet weather could cause moisture to seep in; and bugs and snakes could get in. Southlake's log house sets on red sandstone gathered in Southlake at Royal and Annie Smith Park and at a farm near Davis and 1709. "Hewn," or squared off, stone you can see under the front porch came from an 1850s log house that stood until the mid-1990s near what is now DSW Shoes, in the Central Market shopping area. (It's said it was lived in until the 1940s.)

Q: It looks like cement was used to build the fireplace. Did they have cement back then?

A: In early Texas, a variety of chimney types were made. Some were stick-and-mud, such as one you can visit at the Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Center (http://www.ias.unt.edu/llela/main.htm). Others were rock mortarted with mud. Ours is red sandstone mortared with what pioneers would have called lime mortar, which is processed limestone ("lime"), sand and water, the ingredients of cement.

Craftsmen and entrepreneurs were among the settlers who began streaming into the North Texas area beginning in the early 1840s. Lime kilns to process limestone were established in both Denton and Tarrant counties. Hickory trees, once plentiful in Denton County, were cut to make charcoal, which was used to fire kilns for lime and pottery.

Q: Will the house have glass windows?

A: Glass, as you can imagine, was difficult to transport over the many bumpy miles that pioneers had to travel to reach Texas. Glass was a luxury at a time when pioneers needed so many other things. In keeping with the 1850s time period, our log house will not have glass, just shutters that open wide to let breezes in.

By the way, glass made in the 1850s was hardened with potato starch, which caused bubbles to form. It wasn't very clear. Today, a factory in the Northeast makes this glass once a year for inclusion in historical projects.

Q: What trees were used?

A: The wall logs, cut and hewn in the 1850s, are post oak, as are the rafters and shingles, which were fashioned as part of the restoration. Bur oak is used for the flooring, and bois d'arc is used for the posts in both the front and back porches. The shutters and doors are pecan.

Q: How did the shingles get so thin?

A: Pioneers had several ways to make shingles. One involves using a froe and mallet to split shingles out of a upright log. Shingles were also cut with a pit saw that was laid over a hole in the ground. That gave the men using it the leverage they needed to make even cuts.

Q: Where did everyone sleep?

A: Our furnished log house will have a "fancy made" bed for the parents (machine-made legs and posts); possibly a one-legged Texas bed (pegged onto the wall in three places, it only needs one leg for support); and a cradle.  Many log houses and cabins have sleeping lofts for children, but ours does not. Children often slept on pallets that were spread by the fire at night.

Q: Why didn't termites eat all the log cabins over the years?

A: Bill tells us he's never seen a log cabin or house that has been damaged by termites. He says that's because pioneers knew to cut the logs during the "dark of the moon," a few days before the new moon. Many pioneers, and even some people today, believe in doing things according to the phases of the moon in order to get the best results.  

(Two other possible reasons: One, since a cabin rested on stones, the wood did not make contact with the ground and termites. Two, the wood used in the 1800s to build cabins was old-growth, virgin timber that was harder, denser and more stable than wood from younger trees. Old-growth timber also tended to have fewer knots and structural defects. That kind of wood, says people today, dried "hard as steel.")

-- Answers by restorer Bill Marquis and Anita Robeson

NOTE: For reasons noted here, our log structure actually is a log house and not a cabin. Log cabins were built quickly and often for temporary occupancy; many ended up as corn cribs or barns when the family was settled and had the time to construct a nicer dwelling, a log house. (For that matter, many log houses also ended up as barns when the family could afford a sawed-lumber house. )

A good example of a cabin is the 1841 claims office for the Peters Colony, located in the Farmers Branch Historical Park (interestingly, Bill Marquis built it from scratch). It has walls that are round logs with bark; a dirt floor; a more simple kind of notching called saddle notching; and no windows, just several gun ports.

In our log structure, the logs are hewn (meaning a tool called a hand adze [or, possibly, a falling or felling ax and a broad ax] was used to make each side flat; the adze [or ax] is what made the "chopping" marks you see on the logs); the floor is wood; the notching is half-dovetail, which is a higher quality of craftsmanship; and it has windows (although not with glass, as glass was hard to obtain).

For more detail on log architecture in early Texas, visit the Texas Handbook Online www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/LL/cbl1.html

What's happening: Summer 2010

What's happening: February 2010

What's happening: May 2008

As soon as the locks are added, our log house will be pretty much done! Then the city will clean up the site and add landscaping, pathways and interpretive signs.

Over the past few weeks, restorer Bill Marquis has hand-crafted a mantle of bois d'arc supported by two "forked sticks," and a working fireplace (the "neck" and "throat" have to be the proper size, or the fireplace will "choke," not draw) using red sandstone found in Southlake. Straw has been chopped with an ax and mixed with red clay found near the Colleyville/Southlake border; the mixture has been daubed into the spaces between the logs. And Bill has finished the rock steps leading to the front porch.

He has finished the two doors and the shutters for the five windows. They are made of pecan wood, with hinges made of oak pegged together. Because the back windows are larger than the front, they each have two shutters that open in the middle. The front windows have one shutter. Bill has also added two "forked sticks" next to the back door for our pioneers to hang harness on.

CISD fourth-graders are in the process of visiting the house (See "What Good Is History?, button on right). Tours include log house history and pioneer tales. Connie Cooley, our first VP, has given teachersl information about the house and the era, plus as an additional resource for teachers and students, has videotaped Bill talking about the house. Until the house is finished and inspected by the city, the children will only be allowed to walk around it.

The house will not be furnished until the SHS can raise the money to buy authentic Texas 1850s furnishings. (Read below about how you can contribute.)

What's happening: April 2008

Bill has done something really special for our log house: For the back porch, he has used four bois d'arc telegraph poles made about 1853 that had run alongside the Butterfield Stage route in Wise County.

During April, Bill has framed the doors and windows, finished the porches, added oak shingles to the roofs of the porches and the living space, and chinked the house by setting rocks on top of the logs (which helps to fill in the spaces between the logs). Take a look at the nails he used to attach the door and window frames -- they're called rose-head nails and are period-correct.

If you see Bill working, he welcomes you to stop and say hello!

Scroll down to "What's happening: March 2008" to learn more about the house's construction.

Help us furnish the log house

When the log house is restored and you step inside for a tour, you will enter a time when families owned only what they could pack into a wagon for the journey to Texas, or what they could make once they arrived.

With money raised by the SHS, our log house pioneers will have a one-legged Texas bed, coverlets, a cradle, a table, ladder-back chairs with rawhide-strip seats, wooden plates and spoons, a Bible, tools, traps, a spinning wheel and yarn winder, a hatchel and more.

A child's rocker from 1850s Texas has been generously donated by Bonnie Chalkley, who has a booth at the Lonestar Antiques Mall and whose daughter and her family live in Southlake.

To donate money or a mid-1800s item, call SHS president Anita Robeson at 817-896-4280. Donations can be made "in honor of" or "in memory of" a person or family. The SHS is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and Lou Ann Heath is our treasurer.

"Log Cabin Fun"

"Log Cabin Fun," our program March 8 in Bicentennial Park, drew more than 40 people of all ages to hear restorer Bill Marquis and fiddle-and-guitar duo Tejas (pictured).

Southlake Historical Society president Anita Robeson reminded the crowd that this log house, with logs that were cut and hewn before Abraham Lincoln was president, is being restored at Bunker Hill, said to be the tallest hill in the area and a place where pioneers would keep an eye out for Indians (although Indians weren't much of a problem in this area). Nearby (the flat area below the hill, where Tom Thumb and other shops are now, extending south) was Blossom Prairie, a place where wagon trains camped while on their way west, starting in the 1850s. Blossom Prairie had many springs for water and, due to its location in the Cross Timbers, abundant firewood. The campground was one day's journey west by wagon from the California Crossing of the Trinity River, near Dallas.

Everyone got a chance to see the log house "skeleton" up close, and Bill answered questions about the pioneer tools he brought to show, including a shaving horse, a broad axe, a pole axe, an adze, a froe, a maul and a mallet (he's using these or similar tools on the restoration). Bill also brought an invaluable household tool called a hatchel (which had the year 1785 decorating its side, indicating it probably was a wedding gift). A hatchel looks like a block of wood with nails sticking up out of it and was used to prepare flax for spinning. In early pioneer days in this part of North Texas, clothing was mostly made of either animal skins or flax (linen).

Tejas entertained the crowd with lively and sassy, and sentimental and sweet tunes from the log cabin era. Carol Nuckols is the fiddler, and I.D. Houston plays the guitar.

Watch for the grand opening celebration, probably in September, when the heat of the summer has passed. By then, we hope, the house will be furnished and ready for tours.

What's happening: March 2008

City workers helped prepare the site, which is near the water tower and visible from White's Chapel Road.

By the time of our March 8 program, Bill was able to disassemble the walls he had prepared at his farm and reconstruct the house's "skeleton" at Bicentennial Park. Visit the park and take a look. Especially sturdy beams called sills run along the front and back (see where Bill repaired the back sill with handmade wooden pegs). Perpendicular to the sills, along the sides, are first wall logs, lap-jointed into the sills. Stacked on top of the sills and first wall logs are hewn logs joined at the corners by notching. In all, the cabin is a traditional nine logs high. Openings were left for two doors, five windows and a fireplace. (The one next to the fireplace is to pass firewood through.)

Rock pillars are at the house's four corners, alongside each door and the fireplace, and along the south wall (which has no windows or doors). To make these foundation pillars, Bill stacked rocks that had formed the foundation of the log house that stood near what's now the DSW store at Carroll and FM 1709 from the time of the Civil War until 1997, when the SHS disassembled it. You can see where the man who built the house used tools to squared off the rocks. (Rocks from Royal and Annie Smith Park and from an area near Davis and FM 1709 will be used for the fireplace.)

A floor of bur oak boards has just been laid. Underneath the boards are beams, called sleepers; they were laid about four feet apart and lap-jointed into the sill logs (the beams that run along the front and back of the house). Bill didn't have enough old sleepers so made several replacements.

The support poles for the back porch are bois d'arc telegraph poles made about 1853. The telegraph line had run alongside the Butterfield Stage route in Wise County.

As of April 1, a few of the five windows and two doors had been framed, and Bill and his helpers had put up the "plates" (logs) that support the joists, rafters and handmade oak shingles. If he uses nails, they will be ones made during the 19th century. Or, he will use handmade wooden pegs.

After finishing the roof, porches and floor, Bill will build the fireplace, window shutters and the bois d'arc mantle. The fireplace will be an actual working fireplace, complete with a hearth of stones and a rod to hang pots on. Most pioneer cooking, however, was done by raking hot coals over the hearth and baking cornbread, etc., over the coals (and under, too, as a cook often covered a lidded pan with coals).

I (Anita) was wrong about Bill's "signature" -- Bill only puts that in on stick-and-mud chimneys (it's a hook for hanging deer, etc.) that's put into the chimney. Bill told me that EVERYTHING about a log cabin he restores is his signature -- and that's a good way to look at it!

What's happening: February 2008

Southlake Historical Society president Anita Robeson and first vice president Connie Cooley visited restorer Bill Marquis at his home in Stony, Texas, to see how he was coming along with Southlake's log house.

Using logs from three log structures (two of which were later used as barns) that once stood in Southlake, Bill Marquis has fitted together a "skeleton" that's ready to be moved to Bicentennial Park.

The logs: The walls are nine logs high and are joined at the corners primarily with half-dovetail notching and also a few square notches (also called quarter notching). The log house that stood where DSW is now (at FM 1709 and Carroll) had quarter-notching; the Petarak log house (later a barn) located across 1709 in Town Square and the log house from near 1709 and White's Chapel had half-dovetail notching, the most popular kind of notching, especially in North Texas. The logs are post oak, and each is about 4-1/2 inches thick. The logs Bill chose will fit together into a structure that is 16-by-16 feet (a revision in what he originally thought the size would be).

The doors and porches: The house has front and back doors. The front porch will extend out eight feet, and the back porch (sometimes called a shed) will be a deep overhang with steps that can be moved so pioneers could pull up a wagon for loading and unloading. Families often "washed up" on the back porch, and performed many of the endless tasks that were needed for survival, such as skinning animals, drying the skins, preparing food, etc.

The windows: There are five windows: one on each side of the two doors, and a smaller one next to the fireplace ("to pass firewood through").

The site: The site has been leveled and prepared by the city.

What's next? Bill will bring the reconstructed logs to the site and begin reassembling them, then add the floor, a roof, a stone fireplace, front and back porches, door and window frames and a beautiful bois d'arc fireplace mantle.

What's happening: December 2007

By summer, Southlake should have its long-awaited authentic log house. The city has retained Bill Marquis of Denton County, a highly skilled and respected restorer, and work has begun. Bill has restored more than 300 log houses and cabins.

• A log cabin/house is a symbol of frontier America and the hard work, courage, self-reliance, and individualism it took to move west. We still embrace these values today.
• Southlake's rapid growth has left us with few reminders of its rich heritage. The little log house, visibly placed as an enduring symbol of our heritage, will open the door to the past for many residents and visitors to our city.
• Southlake students will see a tangible piece of history -- something to which they can relate when they study Texas history.
• It's not just a log house. It's an invitation to all ages to read about and explore westward expansion, pioneer life, U.S. history, genealogy, economics and more. Let it inspire you!

In these pictures, city workers are moving logs from three 19th-century structures that were donated to the SHS. The logs will be taken to Bill's farm, where he will puzzle together a house approximately 15-by-15.

Bill will take into account each log's condition, length and corner notching, and if logs such as the two sills (beams) are missing or in poor condition, Bill will substitute post oak logs he has cut and hewn himself.

The bottom right picture shows foundation rocks that were part of the log house that stood at Carroll and FM 1709 until the 1990s (and was said to have been lived in until the 1940s).

Once Bill has built the walls nine logs high, he will mark each log and disassemble the structure. He will take the logs to Bicentennial Park, then rebuild it on a rock pillar foundation, adding doors, windows, a roof, a floor, a porch and a fireplace. To help pay for the construction of the fireplace, the SHS is contributing the $5,000 the Southlake Women's Club generously donated in the late 1990s for the restoration.

Keep up with Bill's progress right here.