The log cabin, along with coonskin cap and Kentucky rifle, conjures up images
of rugged pioneer days. Simple one-room dwellings of logs, notched together at
the corners, were introduced to America around 1638 by Swedish settlers in
Line Delaware. Subsequently, Germán and Scotch Irish immigrants, as well as
(5) Russian explorers along the western coast and in Alaska, introduced their own
forms of log construction. During the great westward expansión that began in
the late 1700s, the log cabin was practically ubiquitous in timber-rich frontier
áreas; it could be built with only the aid of an axe, and required no costly nails.
Intended to serve merely as way stations in the wilderness, cabins rarely became
(10) permanent homes. When families desired better housing with more amenities,
they either abandoned their cabins (often to be occupied by new transients),
incorporated them into larger dwellings, converted them into storage facilities,
or in the South, used them as slave quarters.
The myth of the log cabin as the sacrosanct birthplace of leaders, renowned for
(15) their honesty, humility, and other virtues, was inaugurated during the
presidential campaign of 1840, when William Henry Harrison was touted
throughout the country as a hard-cider-swigging bumpkin who lived in a log
cabin. His landslide victory over Martin Van Burén set a precedent for future
presidential aspirants, but only a few such as "Honest Abe" Lincoln had bona
(20) fide claims to humble origins.
In the present day, the log cabin appears on such memorabilia as coins and
postage stamps, and it is also the brand ñame of a popular syrup. The cabin is
perpetuated architecturally in resorts, camps, inns, and restaurants along
byways and highways.