"We're drawn to the unusual." Said Terry Fisher. "Things nobody else wants to do," chimed in partner Carolyn Dodds. "It keeps things from getting old and boring," Fisher explained. This taste for the unusual may partly explain how Fisher and Dodds got involved in moving a 148-year-old log cabin.
The cabin, built by one James Smith, near Argyle, Wis., in 1846 had been "remodeled" and improved over the years, but finally reached the point where the owners decided to demolish it.
"The (former) owners didn't even know it was a log cabin until they tried to push it over," Fisher said. "It had two layers of siding outside, and studded and plastered walls inside."
Fisher heard about the structure at the same time that Chuck and Mary Alice Bernard, owners of the Log Cabin Guest House on Chetlain Lane, mentioned to him that they were looking for a fifth log cabin for their guest house complex.

Disassemble and rebuild
The next step was obvious. "We took the roof off, set the crane inside, and took it down like a Lincoln Log cabin," Fisher recalled.
The crane Fisher referred to is technically a stiff-leg derrick, which Fisher had built by Ron Winter of Winter's Garage and Welding. Stiff-leg derricks were standard equipment for 19th century construction, consisting essentially of a single vertical mast with a swinging boom attached near the base, with pulleys and cables over the top of the mast and the end of the boom.
Fishcr commented that he had to restring the pulleys to provide leverage to lift some of the oak logs, which he estimated weighed as much as 1,500 pounds.
Disassembly was the easy part. "It took us about two weeks to take it down and haul it the 60 miles or so to get it here," he said. "I stopped for gas on one trip home with a load of the logs, and a farmer at the gas station looked at the load and asked if I was interested in old barn beams. I said 'yes', and we eventually used some of his beams inside the cabin."
"I was worried about not being able to put it back together," he continued. "We marked and numbered each log and made drawings, photos, and videotapes."
He explained that, among other complications, log cabin builders put up the structure first and then cut in openings for doors and windows after the side walls were complete. This makes it essential that the almost-but-not-quite-identical short logs on either side of the windows be reset in exactly the same order and orientation as originally.
"We'd label the logs 'five, west side, front, A or B' depending on which side of the window they were," Dodds explained.

Just like old
As much as possible of the original structure was saved and reused.
"The walls are now just exactly the way they were when the cabin was built," Fisher said proudly. "We even saved the 150-year old 'chinking' between the logs-it was mostly small pieces of oak, possibly from the slabs that were left when they squared off the walls. The wood chinking is wedged in place between the logs so the wall is practically solid. The weight of the roof bears directly down through the wood of the walls on the foundation-the mortar you see between the logs is more of a seal. It doesn't carry weight."
Fisher said the reassembly of the log walls and replacement of the roof, which was too far rotted to save, took about two months.
Other new components include the bottom log on each of three walls, and the window sash. The three new logs have been carefully adze-marked to match the original hand-squared logs.
Replacement sash were custom-made by Dale Schroer. The bathroom sink was salvaged from the attic of a Galena mansion.
However, some of the inside doors are "retreads" that were in the house when Fisher and Dodds dismantled it.
Fisher said the house originally had only floor joists supporting the second floor. He added what he described as "semi post-and-beam supports" made from the old barn beams to provide extra support for the increased floor loads that modern conveniences like bathtubs create.

More out there?
Dodds and Fisher said that, unlike some experimental "first tries," their experience with rebuilding a log cabin has left them wanting to do more.
"This was our first one," fisher said. "It was a good one to learn on."
"We'd like to do another," Dodds agreed. "There's a lot more old log cabins out there than you'd think."
If one of those old log cabins out there is lucky enough, maybe it will be discovered by Dodds and Fisher's Diamond Construction Co.
And maybe someone will have a handsome new old house like the latest addition to the Bernard's collection of log cabin guest houses.

The oldest record we have
Galena Gazette, May 1, 1996

Couple logs many hours restoring cabins
Telegraph Herald, May 02, 2001

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