Swedish settlers in New Sweden (present-day Wilmington, Delaware) used log structures. In the present-day United States, settlers first constructed log cabins in 1638. It became a popular form of construction for pioneers' settling in the far north and the more mountainous parts of America and Canada, where winter conditions were often extreme. Early settlers used such methods of log building in North America. The Wood Museum in Trondheim, Norway, displays fourteen different traditional profiles, but a basic form of log construction was used all over North Europe and Asia. Over the decades, increasingly complex joints were developed to ensure more weather tight joints between the logs, but the profiles were still largely based on the round log. The insulating properties of the solid wood were a great advantage over a timber frame construction covered with animal skins, felt, boards or shingles. As the original coniferous forest extended over the coldest parts of the world, there was a prime need to keep these houses warm. They developed interlocking corners by notching the logs at the ends, resulting in strong structures that were easier to make weather-tight by inserting moss or other soft material into the joints.
By the time Europeans began to settle in North America, they had a long tradition of using logs for houses, barns, and other outbuildings in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Northern Russia and Ukraine īy stacking tree trunks one on top of another and overlapping the logs at the corners, people made the "log cabin". Although their origin is uncertain, the first log structures were probably built in Northern Europe in the Bronze Age (about 3500 BC). Historically log construction has its roots in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Schorn log cabin in New Sweden Park, Swedesboro, New JerseyĪ timber-cutter's mountain log cabin at the Museum of Folk Architecture, Pyrohiv, Ukraine. 2 Traditional log buildings in North America.