Lincoln's Logs - Progressing with the Cabin

By Jerri Schlenker

Over the course of summer a project has been going on at Carter Caves State Park – building a facsimile of Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace cabin in celebration of his bi-centennial birthday. The project began as the brainstorm of Olive Hill Historical Society. We took the idea to other organizations for support. The Carter County Homemakers pledged their support with a donation of $500 towards the project. This was in February.

The project started in July after preliminary steps were taken such as securing a site and then negotiating for logs. We wanted a woodsy sitting to best exemplify the natural scenery that Lincoln’s first boyhood home would have occupied. Carter Caves State Park seemed ideal for this. We wrote to Frankfort for permission to erect the cabin on the grounds of Carter Caves. Within only a couple of days Gerry Vandermeer, Director of Parks, gave us the go ahead. He loved the idea. Having the partnership with Carter Caves in this endeavor would take care of a variety of problems such as insurance and security to name only a couple.

Brian and Katie Burton

The next step was in acquiring logs. We made a plea through several news sources and our website: www.olivehillhistoricalsociety.org for the donation of logs. We did receive two donations this way; however, since we were relying on volunteer labor mainly on Saturdays this way of getting logs got rather discouraging. So, we went to a couple of lumber mills. Globe Hardwood in Olive Hill agreed to a reduced price for logs and would deliver them to the site as part of the cost. In order to pay Globe Hardwood we requested donations for logs and called it “buy a log.” We got several donations and were able to buy the needed logs for the main part, excluding any historical markers and recognition, which will go up later.

“Volunteers on the Site”

Our first workday in June turned out a good number of volunteers. The main work was in notching the logs, and this went quite well. Then as often is the case a number of problems arose to prevent the steady progress of construction. I doubt if this would have been the case in the early 1800’s when Lincoln’s parents were putting up a cabin since getting a roof over your head was of prime importance. However, in our own modern times, as many of you who have done your own construction projects know how slow these things can drag out.

There was a delay in getting all the logs. This brought construction to a halt. The busyness of summer also deterred the project. The remainder of the logs was delivered in late July during the time of Pioneer Life Week, the same spot the cabin is going up – so for a few weeks they were on the grounds of Carter Caves, but not close enough to the actual site. Many of our volunteers, of course, had other summer things planned, which is understandable, bringing yet more delays; but we trudged along slowly but surely with a determination to succeed with this undertaking.

Bob McGlone and Chris Schlenker

The next phase of construction began in late August. A weekend break was taken to make a trip to Hodgenville to see the cabin first hand. This brought new inspiration. We are now ready for the roof, chimney and chinking. Thus far no nails have been used. We were told that our spacing of the logs was more authentic than the historical cabin on display. The display cabin traveled across the country and had been dismantled and reassembled so much that the logs became too fragile for notching. Thus, they only sit on top of one another making for a very wide space between the logs and making the cabin rather tall for one story.

Cabin to Date

This coming weekend we will begin the roof and chimney construction and invite anyone who wants to participate.

We are in need of chinking experts and invite younger ages to participate in this part.