Central Illinois man builds his cabin the way the pioneers did

MOWEAQUA, Ill. -- Doug Wallace was a teenager when he first dreamed of building a log cabin the old-fashioned way.

He was captivated by the accounts of pioneers moving across the prairie in covered wagons in the 1850s who built log cabins for their families. But 12 years would pass before his dream became a reality.

Wallace, 27, recently put the finishing touches on a 12-by-12-foot log cabin with a loft crafted from trees he felled with an ax and hauled to the family farm. His project took six years, mainly because he insisted on using the same tools and techniques as the pioneers.

Using a double-bladed ax, a couple of broad axes, a plane and a handsaw, Wallace started the project that consumed much of his spare time for several years.

"At one point, I even tried to teach my horse to pull the logs out of the woods, but he never took to that," Wallace said, smiling. "So it was up to me to get the logs to where I could load them in my truck."

His father, Larry Wallace, praises his son's independent spirit.

"I have a sawmill here on the farm that would have saved him a lot of trouble," he said, "but he wanted to do it on his own."

The younger Wallace began his prairie house by partially burying posts he had fashioned from trees to form the foundation. Then, using various axes, he shaped the first four logs into 6-inch thick timbers used to form the base course of the cabin's walls. He then built the floor joists, pegging each board in place.

He continued his work of cutting, shaping and fitting the logs in place as time permitted. Each log had to have the bark and some of the wood removed to complete the face sides, and Wallace accomplished the task by using his double-bladed ax to notch each log at 1-foot intervals. Then, using a broad ax while standing over the log, he hacked the unwanted wood away -- the way a sculptor chisels away unnecessary stone.

After the final dressing of the log faces, Wallace then notched the ends of each log in a half dovetail pattern so they would fit together as they went up.

"To make sure the logs fit together properly, the angle of each notch and dovetail was determined by the shape of the log below it," Wallace said.

Once the basic house was up, Wallace hit the books again to find the best recipe for the chinking to seal the joints between the logs. He said he tried several concoctions until he finally settled on a mixture of clay, sand and hydrated lime.

"It was the best one I came up with at the time, but it needs a lot of maintenance," he said.

The roof is covered with hewn oak shingles three layers deep. Wallace created guttering for his prairie house by hollowing out a young tree.

With the house finally finished, Wallace, who was homeschooled by his mother, Nan, looked over his creation and pronounced it a good beginning, but he confided that he already was dreaming of building a bigger one.

"Building this house allowed me to learn a lot about this type of construction and to work out mistakes," he said.

"Next time, for instance, I'll make more of an effort to dress the logs to a more uniform thickness and I'll use what they call a 'scribe fit' chinkless procedure that will need only moss or felt to keep out the wind."

Wallace is working now and saving his money so he can buy a farm with a good stand of timber and some tillable ground to farm. He also dreams of raising cattle, horses and sheep.

"This is all in the future, of course, but once I build a spinning wheel and a loom, I'll be able to use the wool to make yarn," he said. "And, with a little luck, maybe I'll be able to raise a horse that will be willing to drag logs out of the woods."