Moving a piece of history

We have always had a deep sense of appreciation for history. We wake up every day in the farmhouse that was built by Chris’s great-grandparents. We enjoyed every minute of visiting cathedrals and old homes in England, some of them going back to the 1100s.
It’s in that spirit that we’ve embarked on a historical journey of sorts. A pioneer cabin – actually two cabins that were joined together – will join our farm sometime next year.
This summer we spent time working with the Preservation Alliance of La Crosse to carefully mark and label the logs, tear down the cabin and move the logs. It’s been a lot of work.
The La Crosse Tribune published a story about the process. In the story Chris was quoted as saying that we intend to use the cabin as a sugar shack. A wife of a cousin said those words drew some snide comments from co-workers who thought we were expanding our B&B business into some sort of cabin of ill-repute!
Sugar shack is the term that is also used for the building where maple sap is boiled down, which is what we intend to use the cabin for. We may also have some historically appropriate furnishings.
We hope to put together a family history of the cabin. After the story was published, we had many people come forth who grew up in the cabin or had connections to it.

The cabin was located about 40 miles from us in Monroe County. As of late August, with the help of our friend Carl Wallace at Village Lumber in West Salem, the logs are safely stored in our shed. Our goal is to prepare a site for the cabin next year and start the reconstruction process.
We’ll provide updates on that project next year!