subject: All About The Early Settler's Cabin [print this page] In the 1800's in the Eastern Charlotte area of Vermont, the first settler's cabins were constructed. During their journey across the frontier, loggers, American settlers and trappers used these structures as temporary homes to stay in. Beech and pine timbers that were hand hewn is what the first of these cabins were made of. In some areas of the country there are cabins that have been dated all the way to the late 1700's!
A true settler's cabin was only designed to last about three traveling winters. A pioneer's family was able to fit into these cabins during winter while they were on their journey across the plains. These shelters looked like the pioneer just picked out some sticks and wood and threw it together to make a shelter for the night. To the outdoor enthusiast today these structures would be more for the overnight stay rather than a couple months stay. Ancestors have passed on some documentation and descriptions of these cabins since there are no photos of these cabins from before the early 1900's.
The design of the early settler's cabin was French Canadian and a few of some late 1800 cabins are still standing today in certain areas. Iowa, Vermont, and New York are just a couple of the places you can visit and tour actual cabins that were built by people on the Wild West movement. When you think about the people and events that occurred around the settler's cabin, it is amazing how much history they store.
While these cabins were commonly found in the Midwest and on the East Coast, the true history of the settler's cabin is unclear. Countries, provinces and states from all over are trying to lay claim to the structure but it is hard to determine the origins since there were no real documents kept about these traveling structures. Most likely a version of this cabin was even used when the cave men and American Indians ruled the land. The main difference in the two houses is that the settler's cabin was specifically intended to be for short uses.
If you want to experience the closest thing to the pioneer days you can check out the Settler's cabin park in Pennsylvania. The cabins on the property are dated back to the 1750's which was documented by an archeologist from the Carnegie Museum of National History. This is one of the few places you can see how the cabins look and were set up. The history that the settler's cabin has is extremely rich here as well.
You can take advantage of the Burning Settler's Cabin tour as well if you really want to see how to how the housing life was in older times. In this demonstration you will take a train ride to a time where Indians were for you or against you, and the burning cabin shows some Indians were against you. Even though it is safe and controlled the cabin appears to be engulfed in flames. You can walk around inside and outside of the burning cabin as well to see how the pioneers lived their lives, all after the flames have been extinguished of course.
It is so hard to tell what tools and techniques were used to build the settler's cabin because the records were so poorly kept during the early years. We can only help recreate the structures and their known history with the information that has been passed on through many generations. If you do a thorough search on the internet, you can see photographs and pictures of what these cabins looked like when they were being used.
