Big Bay Cabin

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:  It is not known who built the Big Bay cabin, but its construction date is known to be 1900. The following is taken from the book Summer and Fall in Western Alaska 1903, by Colonel Claude Cane. "This country had been very little visited and hunted, but Maxim had been in there two years before with two men, a white and a half-breed belonging to Kenai, and had spent some months hunting and trapping with fair success. A pull of eight hours brought us to the foot of the trail up which Maxim had gone two years before, and here we found a good substantial shack or log-hut, built by the two men who had employed him. This hut came in very handy to cache our sheep heads and stores in"

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION: The Big Bay cabin is a one-story log cabin consisting of a single rectangular room.  The cabin is located within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge on the shore of Tustumena Lake.  The Big Bay cabin condition is classified as standing "fair" with very little alteration since construction.

The Big Bay cabin is built of spruce logs cut in the area by ax and crosscut saw.  The cabin is approximately 75 feet from the lakeshore.  The foundation of the cabin consists of sill logs placed directly on the ground without a prepared foundation.  The outside dimensions of the single room cabin are 15 feet, 9 inches wide by 15 feet, 10 inches long.  The round spruce logs have been peeled of all bark.  The logs are 8 inches at the butt end and 6 ½ inches at the tip.  The cabin is chinked with native moss and split chinking.  The logs are interlocked with a round "V" notch.  Square nails are used in the notches.  The facade and north elevations have 10 courses of logs and the east and west elevations have 9 courses of logs, all set horizontally.