12 • NOVEMBER 2019
COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
WELL PRESERVED
Erick and Johanna Lindgren Cabin
89990 Hawkins Road, Warrenton, Oregon
W
ARRENTON — David
Rogers, a master log
builder from Rhodo-
dendron, Oregon, recently held a
workshop on log construction at
the Erik and Johanna Lindgren
cabin. He examined the Cullaby
Lake structure with students from
Clatsop Community College’s
Historic Preservation program.
Like other experts before him,
Rogers was impressed by the
quality of construction and the
the Finnish culture.
JOHN
GOODENBERGER
FOR THE
COAST RIVER
BUSINESS JOURNAL
materials used therein. The cabin
is a unique example within the
county and has deep roots within
Historic significance
The 68-year-old Erik Lind-
gren and his neighbor, William
Merila, constructed the cabin in
1928. It was set near the edge of
a meadow on Soapstone Creek,
in the hills of the Nehalem Valley.
The cabin was built among a clus-
ter of buildings including a sauna,
meat smoker and barn.
It was constructed from red
The Lindgren cabin is located in Cullaby Lake Park.
cedar, hand-split into planks, then
hewn with scalloped-shaped axes.
The logs were joined with full
dovetail joints and stacked one
on top of another. No nails were
needed for the walls, gravity held
them in place. Further, the planks
were so carefully crafted, there
were no gaps between them.
The men felled huge, old-
growth timber. One of the cabin’s
hewn planks is five inches thick
and forty-seven inches wide.