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The ultimate log house, built in
1898. From logs sawn square at a nearby mill, a tight-fitting crib was built with hardly
any spaces left to chink. The corners are worked to near perfection. Most of the interior
log faces, ceiling joists and boards were dressed with a hand plane. How many endless
strokes brought them up to this smoothness? The wall toward the prevailing wind was
weather boarded to keep out wind and rain, and to preserve the chinking. A brick chimney,
rare for the Smokies, was made of brick molded and fired on the property. A transition
house, this one is a beautiful blend of log work and sawmill technology.
By contrast, the older cabin was built almost
entirely with a felling axe under emergency circumstances. Rough-hewn logs with jagged
ends, and the rubble stone chimney show the most hasty kind of construction.
This pair of dwellings represents about the
roughest and finest of log construction in the Smokies. |
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