- By Dan Veaner
- News
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The 1791 North Log Cabin came another step closer to being restored yesterday (Thursday) when new hemlock logs were milled to replace original logs that have rotted. Six 24' lengths and six 18' lengths were squared by Dierk Terlouw, whose Ithaca business, The Sawmill, specializes in milling wood. He brought a 'Wood Mizer' to the site, a kind of portable sawmill that is what amounts to a large adjustable band saw on a track."We're going to try to use the original logs as much as possible," says contractor Al Roy, of Lindal Cedar Homes. "We can take a 24 and make it an 18 depending on where the rot is in the log. If there is a rotted 18 we can make an 8 from it we'll be able to use as much of the existing wood as possible."
When the cabin was disassembled by the Lansing Highway Department in Auburn two and a half years ago, each log was tagged to make reassembly easier. But over the two and a half years it was stored on the Highway Department grounds many of the tags have been damaged, or just faded to the point where they are unreadable.
A few months ago Roy and Lansing Community Council President Ed LaVigne sorted the logs into four piles of logs that represent the original four walls. But Roy says a lot of that was guess work.
"It's going to be a puzzle," he says. "We've got some pretty good photos. We're going to pick apart the items we can identify, then go through the rest and try to put the puzzle together."
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| Al Roy (left) and Wayne Eldridge push a 24' hemlock log into place. Dierk Terlouw (right) directs the front loader to place a log onto the saw bed.. | |
The replacement logs came from Matt Sawyer in Locke. He donated slab wood for the ends of the gables, and he is still milling some of the door bucks and rough cut material that will be needed. The new logs are the same hemlock as the original logs, that reportedly came from trees near Colon Road in Lansing. Roy says the 'Wood Mizer' gets the logs to the squared off profile and dimensions needed, then the bark has to be skinned and hand hewn. They were squared down to 6 3/8 inches, to match the originals.
Roy says the roof will be slab wood over periling, with cedar shake shingles on top. The shingles will be hand split to make them more authentic. He also plans to put the loft beams back in, and to put planking on it to recreate the upstairs loft.
A new log is milled. The original logs can be seen
on the ground behind it.
LaVigne says that while most of the money has been raised for the restoration, there is still more to be raised. Information about how to contribute and a gallery of construction pictures are posted on www.NorthLogCabin.com .
Roy and volunteer Wayne Eldridge were on hand to help turn the logs, as well as Highway Department employees who used a front loader to lift the 24' logs onto the saw. Next week Roy says the walls will begin to go up.
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