January 18, 2002 Log building-yesterday and today

The first home for original settlers in northern Ontario was usually the log shanty, which was often just high enough to walk around in and often had only an earth floor at first. The shanty roof was usually made from cedar logs scooped out and overlapped. If lucky, the owner had a bit of glass for a window. 
 

First home of a typical settler in Chisholm Township.

Many of the men worked in the bush before the turn of the century as squared timber men and developed some excellent skills with an axe. 

It wasn’t long before the shanty homes had a second storey put on them, or were replaced with a new squared timber log home. Once the sawmill era arrived, many of these buildings were covered by board and batten for warmth and appearance. The Free Land Grant Act of 1868 had as one if its requirements that the settler build a house fit for habitation at least 16 feet by 20 feet before they could acquire a patent or ownership for the land. Barns continued to be made from logs until barn framers became available and lumber became cheaper. 

In the bush camps a similar evolution took place. The original camboose was built of logs with a cedar roof and a hole in the centre for the smoke to escape from the open fire on the floor of the building. The men lived and ate in that one building. 

Eventually, several log buildings became the pattern and usually included an office, a cookhouse, bunkhouse, warehouse, stable, blacksmith shop, etc. 

Again, as sawn lumber, tarpaper and asphalt roofing became available the appearance of the camps began to change. Log buildings are still an important part of the psyche of many people today because of the nostalgia and the sense of solidity and craftsmanship of these buildings. 

The high quality, long-term, scribed log homes of Scandinavia and elsewhere were built to last. 

Each log was scribed and cut to fit perfectly on the log below so no filler was needed. Most Northern Ontario homebuilders did not have the time or skills to build that way. 

The space between their logs was often moss or mud plastered over a stick jammed in the crack. 

As log homes became obsolete, there was a renaissance in log building in certain areas, particularly for cottages, tourist attractions, and high-quality homes in the 1920s and 30s. 

Chateau Montebello on the north side of the Ottawa River at Montebello, Quebec, on what was the original Louis Joseph Papineau estate, one of the original French Seignioreys, is a remarkable example. In 1930 the exclusive, private, Seigniorey Club was built and was the largest log structure in the world. It was made by 3,500 men using 10,000 western red pine logs shipped in from British Columbia and moved in to the property on a CPR spur line. 

Log building renaissance 

While researching the Fassett Lumber Company at Fassett Quebec five miles east of Montebello I visited it again, and was equally impressed. 

When I bought acreage in Chisholm Township in 1972, two of my teenage sons and I took on the task of building a two-storey scribed log cottage. We cut, debarked, and fitted enough logs to build a 25 by 25 two-storey cottage, which remains in use today. 

There was such a demand for the skill that I was talked into teaching several log building courses for Cambrian College in Sudbury, including one on Manitoulin Island with young native students. 
 

Log building course with young native students at M'Chigeeng, formerly West Bay, on Manitoulin Island in 1980.

Allan B. Mackie, who was the log-building guru in those days, ran courses across Canada and the United States and wrote books on the subject. 

His books and house plans are still in print and, although in his 80s, he recently published the book, The Owner-Built Log Home, published by Firefly Books. On one occasion in the early ’70s, I was visiting the Huntsville Pioneer Village and noticed a log-building course nearby at the local high school. I went to check and saw that Allan B. Mackie was the teacher. 

My first name is Allan, so I introduced myself as Allan D. Mackey and he responded by saying, “Hi I’m Allan B. Mackie,” and invited me to visit for as long as I wished. 

Log building today 

The joints are usually filled with a special synthetic compound that adjusts to the shrinking building. 

I decided to write this column when I read about a log house, The Jewel of the North,” built on the shore of Moberly Lake in British Columbia and called the “biggest log building in North America.” 

A recent issue of the National Post announced a new handcrafted home for a man in the Untied States to be built in Williams Lake, British Columbia. 

It will be 9,360 square metres, about the size of a football filed, and will take six years to build and 60 trucks to ship to the building site. If you are thinking of getting one, the cost is $28 million. 

On a smaller scale, I have been watching a fine log home being built in Chisholm Township by Norm and Shelley Ellis, next to their Bob’s Kinfolk store. 
 

This roof crew puts the finishing touches on the roof on a new log home in Chisholm township.

With my interest in the abandoned CNR railway through Chisholm, I was fascinated to learn that the house is constructed from telephone poles purchased from the CNR from along the old rail bed. 

Some of the logs have the CNR name burned into the surface of the log, and Norm and Shelley have included several in the home as a remembrance of the old rail line that passed nearby.