The log house and cabin are icons of our culture, but they are disappearing rapidly from the landscapes of the American South. They symbolize simple origins and frontier independence as well as sustainable living. The log building comes in many forms: the house, cabin, barn, smoke house, and school house. Our ancestors often came to this land with little more than they could carry on their backs or pack animals. With simple broad-axe and muscle power, they crafted homes from the wilderness. Few architectural structures are as beautiful and serene as the log building.

While they once dominated the rural landscape of Georgia, about 50 years ago people became ashamed to live in log buildings so they either destroyed them, converted them to out buildings, or covered them with boards to disguise their log features. Fortunately, this helped preserve many log homes. As people left rural communities and cities grew, the log cabin was abandoned as a central part of our lives. Development, suburbanization, and shopping complexes overran rural pockets where log buildings were once so common. Fortunately, in a few areas of our state and the South log buildings have survived. However, they too are threatened today.

The Georgia Log Cabin project is dedicated to the preservation of log buildings and their histories in the State of Georgia and neighboring area of the Southeastern United States. Pleaes join us in our efforts to keep historic log buildings a part of our memories as well as our future.