Laura Ingalls Wilder is famous for her books about pioneer life. Her stories were the basis for the TV series, "Little House on the Prairie". Laura was born in a log cabin home, in 1867, near the town of Pepin, in Western Wisconsin. Today, the area is rolling hills, fields of maturing corn and grazing cattle. Nearby flows the Mississippi river, wedged between two mountainous ridges, a few miles apart.
A replica of Laura's birth cabin is found outside Pepin. The log walls are tightly fitted together. There is no chinking. The top of each pine log is "cupped" along it's length with the bottom of the next log rounded to fit. I wonder how this type of construction was possible in the days of hand tools?
The cabin has three rooms. You can see the ends of the logs that make up the dividing wall protruding through the outside wall. Above this wall was an attic space. I suppose this was used for sleeping and storage. A fireplace and stone chimney were used for warmth and cooking.