A2 THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2022
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SAVING STORYBOOK
STRUCTURES
Restoring
one-of-a-kind Steiner
log cabins on Mount Hood
takes time, talent and
hand tools
BY JANET EASTMAN • The Oregonian
D
epression-era log cab-
ins handmade by the
legendary Steiner
family in Mount Hood are
so prized that some original
owners have passed them on
to the next generation as they
would other heirlooms.
The durable homes, made
almost entirely of hand-cut
wood, shaped for function
and flare, and nestled among
rhododendrons and ferns,
were designed and built by
Henry Steiner with help by his
wife, Mollie, and 11 of their
children.
The frugal Steiners had lit-
tle money and no electricity,
but plenty of resourcefulness.
Douglas fir logs, manually
cut with a crosscut saw, were
hoisted into place with cranks
and pulley systems. Stones,
found on the land or in rivers,
surround the fireplaces, and
bent-wood handrails outline
stairs to the bedrooms.
As sturdy as the storybook
structures were constructed,
over the decades, snow has
pounded the pitched roofs,
moisture has destroyed unpro-
tected log siding and cosmetic
changes, like vinyl counters
and veneer paneling, have left
some of the 100 documented
Steiner cabins almost un-
recognizable.
Others, boarded up and
marketed for sale as tear-
downs, have been rescued by
people who appreciate the
beauty of the craftsmanship,
warmth of the old-growth
wood and the Old World tech-
niques Henry Steiner, who
emigrated from Bavaria, used
to shape natural materials to
make everything fit together.
‘I did it exactly as Henry
would’
Like anything handmade,
however, proper restoration
requires time, talent and hand
tools.
“I couldn’t just go to Home
Depot and order two dozen
handmade Steiner half logs to
replace sections of walls that
had completely rotted away,”
said Ian McCluskey, who has
spent two years restoring a
1930 Steiner cabin, from the
foundation to the stone chim-
ney. “So I did it exactly as
Henry would.”
McCluskey started by
peeling bark off of logs and
branches using a vintage draw
knife to “give it a slightly scal-
loped look and texture,” he ex-
plained.
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
Fireplaces are surrounded by basalt rock.
“Each cabin he built shares
his common style, but each
piece of each cabin is one of a
kind,” said McCluskey.
Henry Steiner, a self-taught
designer and builder, worked
in Government Camp,
Welches, Brightwood and
Rhododendron from 1927 to
1952. He died in 1953.
In addition, Steiner and sons
John and Fred contributed to
the construction of the 1936
Timberline Lodge, two churches
and eight U.S. Forest Service
summer homes in the area.
McCluskey, also a self-
taught carpenter on a bud-
get, let Steiner’s vision of the
92-year-old cabin guide the
renovation. The young wood-
worker’s goal: To make his
contribution invisible.
“The measure of my suc-
cess in restoration, I decided,
was in how little of my work
could be noticed,” he said.
After almost a century of
private use, McCluskey’s cabin
near the Salmon River is listed
on Airbnb ( airbnb.com/h/
steinercabin) as a vacation
rental and it was one of four
dwellings open during the
2022 Steiner Cabins Tour on
Aug. 13.
Lloyd Musser, museum cu-
rator and longtime tour orga-
nizer, appreciates owners and
volunteers who are helping to
preserve historic cabins.
“Ian is typical of recent buy-
ers who are restoring Steiner
cabins with integrity,” said
Musser.
Interest in the cabins and
values have soared, Musser
said, making “teardowns a
thing of the past. The problem
now is finding craftsmen to
work with log structures.”
Restoring a treasure
Hands-on and hard work
have always been the Steiner
way. Tasks were divided
among family members.
Henry Steiner’s grandson and
John’s son, Dick Steiner, said
in 2016 that while the driving
force for some of the features
was a lack of money, the fam-
ily had an ability to make the
most of materials that other
builders threw away.
“It is great to see such an
admiration for the work that
they did,” he said.
The pitched-roof log cabins
were built during the Arts and
Crafts movement in the Ore-
gon Rustic style that continues
to influence design today.
McCluskey, who has appre-
ciated cabins since childhood,
said Steiner homes are part of
a larger architectural move-
ment in the rustic regionalism
of Adirondack Camp of the
early 20th Century, the Na-
tional Parks in the 1920s and
Civilian Conservation Corps
of the 1930s.
In 2019, McCluskey discov-
ered the cabin, dark and hid-
den by tall brush. Despite its
cedar shingles camouflaged
in green algae and moss, he
could see signature Steiner
features inside.
The longtime owners
agreed to sell to McCluskey,
who promised to return it to
its original condition as he
had done during a years-long
restoration of a nearby 1922
cabin. Called Cedarwood,
McCluskey bought it from
the grandson of the original
builder, who was not a Steiner,
and now offers it as a short-
term rental.
“I showed the owners the
other cabin’s rough-sawn ce-
dar walls, milled locally from
storm-downed trees, and the
river-rock hearth I hand built,
just as Steiner and his sons
had done in their cabins,” said
McCluskey. “And, most im-
portantly, I told them how
I had made every decision
along the way to honor the
original intent of the builder
❝
and preserve the special rustic
spirit.”
In March 2020, just as the
coronavirus pandemic was
forcing travel and unessential
businesses to shut down, Mc-
Cluskey started his painstak-
ing restoration project.
“The cabin became my
quarantine and my refuge,”
said McCluskey, whose ances-
tors arrived .
Friends, some with con-
struction experience, and a
professional mason, plumber
and electrician helped Mc-
Cluskey on the most technical
parts of the restoration.
He posted about his prog-
ress on the “little log cabin
with a gable roof and porch of
crooked logs” on Instagram at
steiner.cabin. He wrote about
the home’s charm, its secret
door and other “whimsical
touches of the old cabin-mak-
er’s personality.”
In the spring of 2022, he
had refinished damaged
wood, reproduced missing
pieces and restored the storied
cabin’s “magic.”
“I am very honored to be
able to offer this home to folks
who want to experience this
endearing place, unplug from
modern life and create their
own wonderful memories,”
said McCluskey.
I have been working with The
Bulletin for over 3 months
and they continue to impress
me with their hard work,
innovative ads, and amazing
reels.
I look forward to continuing
work with The Bulletin and
Makenna Cervelli in
particular.
In my opinion every
company that’s wanting
to grow and take their
marketing to the next level
should use their amazing
services.
Makenna Cervelli
C: 425-622-3186
P: 541-633-2184
mCervelli@bendbulletin.com
❞
— Sean McDonell
Owner, C4K Coffee Roasters
www.coffee4kids.org