As a young boy in the 1950s, I enjoyed building cabins with my Lincoln Logs. Various size wooden logs, corners and roof boards all created intrigue. It was at the same time that our family began going to "the cabin" on Lake George, 30 miles north of Two Harbors, Minn., just inside the Superior National Forest.
Our real cabin had vertical logs, while my Lincoln Log cabins' logs were horizontal — the classic cabin look. I never reconciled that as a young boy, but a few years ago at age 60 I learned the history of our cabin.
Dennis Dwan, a distant relative, settled in Two Harbors in 1893 along with other siblings. He bought the lot and had the cabin built in 1924 with the same builder who was constructing other cabins on the lake, all in Finnish style with vertical logs.
My parents passed the cabin down to my three brothers and me. Our families have had years of special memories — swimming, fires at the beach, playing cards on a rainy day, walking in the woods, fishing, canoeing down the nearby Cloquet River, and more. My five grandkids are the fifth generation now building their own memories at the cabin.
I wanted to preserve our history and memories for the younger generations, so I gathered photos, researched the history, and asked family members to write stories. Two years later our 175-page cabin book of treasured memories was printed and distributed to 18 family members to deepen appreciation of the inheritance our little vertical log cabin has been for more than 95 years.
Jeff Baker, New Hope
