incajoe
Sr. Member
I ventured into the woods today on a mission. I had been doing some research on a potential site of a very early log cabin. Early being 1730ish! There is some local lore about this cabin and it's occupant (trying not to give away too much info here) and I figured I would take a shot at finding it. I had a general idea of where the cabin was located and it is in a very tough to access area. The only way to get there was to approach it from the opposite side of the mountain and hike down into the notch between two peaks to the area in question. It was a steep climb up the mountain but it was do-able. Of course I wasn't carrying any equipment either! I left the detector at home since this was merely a search mission. After descending into the notch I noticed a small pool of water ahead of me which was a natural spring. I knew this would have been a likely area for a cabin since a water source would have been required. As I approached the spring I was able to see some rocks placed in a small wall where the water actually came out of the mountain side. This was a good clue. Someone had definitely used this spring to get water and these rocks had been placed there a very long time ago. I started to survey the area knowing that the cabin would likely be close by. There were a few flat spots around and I began to check each one for any signs of a cabin. Then as I reached one of the larger flat areas I saw something. There were the remains of a couple very old logs that were piled on top of each other at a 90 degree angle and as I got closer still I could see that they were notched and set into place! YES, this was the corner of a very old log cabin! Almost nothing was left but I could see a very faint outline of the footprint of the old cabin in the form of a slight mound where the logs had deteriorated. It looked to be about 10' X 12' (approx). There was no sign of any iron in the structure such as nails or pins. There was no evidence of roofing material (asphalt singles, tar paper). At this point I'm thinking I have found this long lost cabin of local lore but I would like to know what your opinions are. The question that keeps popping into my mind is: Could these logs really have survived 250+ years? Can they really be that old? I'd like to think so. I will certainly be visiting the area again soon armed with my metal detector. Hopefully I will find definitive evidence that tells me the age of the site. I'll keep you posted.......
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That would make it all worth it to me. Congrats, HH Charlie
