Table Of ContentCABIN
LIVING
ii CABIN LIVING
CABIN
LIVING
DI S C O V E R I N G T H E S I M P L E
A M E R I C A N G E T A W A Y
The Editors of Cabin Living Magazine
Guilford, Connecticut
An imprint of Globe Pequot
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publish-
er, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Title: Cabin living : discovering the simple American getaway / the editors of Cabin Living.
Description: Guilford, Connecticut : Lyons Press, 2017. | Description based on print version record
and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifers: LCCN 2017016649 (print) | LCCN 2017018442 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493030446 (e-book) |
ISBN 9781493030439 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Vacation homes—United States. | Log cabins—United States.
Classifcation: LCC NA7574 (ebook) | LCC NA7574 .C323 2017 (print) | DDC
728.7/30973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017016649
Te paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard
for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-
1992.
Printed in the United States of America
T O T H E L O Y A L , L O N G T I M E S U B S C R I B E R S T O
C A B I N L I F E / C A B I N L I V I N G M A G A Z I N E :
Thank you for letting us into your special world. It has been our honor and
pleasure to serve you over the past seventeen years. Here’s to many more!
C O N T E N T S
Introduction by Mark R. Johnson 1
Acknowledgments 3
The Dream Cabin 4
Heaven Has a Dock, Manitowish Chain O’ Lakes, Wisconsin 7
A Cabin Built for Relaxation, Three Rivers, Michigan 15
Hillside Heaven, Near Black Mountain, North Carolina 23
Blending Vintage and New, Lake Fairlee, Vermont 31
The Waiting Game, Lake Five, Montana 39
A Boyhood Dream Comes True, Whitefsh, Montana 47
The Outdoorsy Cabin 54
Barnwood Beauty, Leech Lake, Minnesota 57
Summer Camp Revisited, Norris Lake, Tennessee 65
Floating Cabin, Norris Lake, Tennessee 73
An Outdoorsy Little River Cabin, Haw River, North Carolina 81
A Cabin Designed for Prime Views, Lake Fairlee, Vermont 89
The Cozy Cabin 96
From Something Old to Something New, Goodrich Lake, Minnesota 99
The Afordable Cabin, Ely, Minnesota 107
Cozy Meets Rustic, Douglas Lake, Tennessee 115
What More Do You Need? Northwest Montana 123
Cozy Mountain Cabin, Kalispell, Montana 131
Think Small, Port Orchard, Washington 139
The Remodeled Cabin 146
A Comfy Northwoods Getaway, Woman Lake, Minnesota 149
Surfside Cottage, Nantucket, Massachusetts 157
Welcome Back, Gunnison River, Colorado 165
DIY Cabin Remodel, Bigfork, Montana 173
Cabin in the Hills, Los Padres National Forest, Southern California 181
A Rustic Cabin Gets a Dramatic Update, Santa Rosa, California 189
The Legacy Cabin 196
Dream Realized: Retiring on the Lake, Waupaca, Wisconsin 199
Renovating a Northwoods Family Treasure, O’Brien Lake, Minnesota 207
Twenty-Five Years in the Making, Kimball Lake, Minnesota 215
A Creekside Cabin for the Ages, Western North Carolina 223
Rebuilding a Pioneer Cabin, Gulf of Maine 231
A Little Cabin Soars with Incredible Views, Swan Lake, Montana 239
Family Afair, Donner Lake, California 247
Credits 254
vii
viii CABIN LIVING
I N T R O D U C T I O N
“I’D RATHER BE AT THE CABIN.” Tat simple statement—which we frst
printed on bumper stickers sixteen years ago in the early days of Cabin Life/Cabin
Living magazine—says it all. To this day, the bumper sticker has been wildly successful.
Of course it has, because it perfectly sums up the passion America has for the cabin
retreat lifestyle. For those times when you can’t be at the cabin, you can get your “get-
away-from-it-all” fx with this book. If you don’t own a cabin yet, but you’re dreaming
of buying or building someday, this book’s stories are an inspiring, resounding state-
ment that achieving the dream is possible!
For many today, getting away from it all by escaping to a cabin is part of the great
American dream. Cabin living is, indeed, foundational to the American way of life in
terms of history, architecture and family culture. Starting in the eighteenth century,
when Scandinavian and Scotch-Irish settlers built homes in America, a simple log
cabin was often the structure of choice. Te story on page 231, “Rebuilding a Pioneer
Cabin,” actually centers on such a cabin. A strong case can be made that the cabin is
America’s vernacular architecture. And the simple log cabin is the stuf of American
legend and lore, the most iconic story being that of President Abraham Lincoln, who
was born in a log cabin on his father’s Kentucky farm. When you imagine a young Abe
Lincoln, your mind picture is probably of him next to a wood pile, axe in hand, in
front of the family cabin.
At some point in American history, the notion of a “cabin” evolved into something
other than a rustic home, as the idea of a getaway retreat was born. Wealthy city dwell-
ers wanted a place in the country they could escape to, leaving the summer heat of the
city behind. Some of the most notable and architecturally signifcant retreats were the
early-nineteenth-century Great Camps in the Adirondacks, owned by families with
names like Vanderbilt and Rockefeller.
Eventually, the dream of a getaway retreat became accessible to the masses. Even
my grandfather Art, the son of Danish immigrants who grew up during the Great
Depression and achieved only an eighth-grade education, was able to buy a small lake
cottage in northern Minnesota in the late 1950s. As the getaway dream fourished for
families across America, people called their places by diferent names, and this is still
