The log home has a long history. The oldest recorded log home is said to date from the year 30 BC, and is made of logs piled up to form a pyramid. Log homes also have a long history in Scandinavia, where in the Middle Ages something close to a log home was already being built. One theory states that the Vikings’ shipbuilding techniques were transferred to buildings. In Europe, particularly the Alps, and on the Balkan peninsula, log homes arose in various cultures.
North America is famous for being the place where log homes became widespread and developed. The earliest recorded North American log home was built by Swedes who settled in Pennsylvania in 1638. Subsequently, log home building techniques were improved by German settlers. As the West was settled, log homes were erected all over the place as symbols of the frontier spirit.
Along with the refugees produced by the War of Independence, the log home spread to Canada, and there the abundance of building materials and severe cold made them spread quickly to become scattered all over wooded areas.
However, along with the industrialization of society in the 19th century, logs were, to a large extent, replaced by building materials which could be mass produced by sawmills, and towns took on a different appearance. However, log homes remained strongly associated with the North American identity, and now they are undergoing a kind of revival in the form of country residences and mountain cabins.
