After 10 years of study, the origins of the Molalla Log House still remain a mystery, although clues continue to shape an understanding of its possible past. This small log building still remains the primary resource for study. The builders left no written documentation; their only clue was the highly crafted log house, found in the western foothills of the Cascade Mountains south of Molalla.
An early theory gave plausibility that the building could have Russian American maritime fur trade origins, but after more research, it is now thought that its existence was rooted in the early overland fur trade in the Oregon Territory in the late 18th century.
The current theory is that the Molalla Log House is an artifact of the Canadian fur-trading era in the Willamette Valley, perhaps with association to the Northwest Company or XY Company. The fortified-like house was built from native Douglas fir, without any nails. It is possible that French Canadian, Iroquois and Metis hunters and trappers searching for new fur resource areas west of the Rocky Mountains in the late 1790s may have built the Molalla Log House.
There was intense competition and expansion at this time in the fur trade. The Molalla Log House may have built with a vision to the future as a small Willamette Valley outpost, linking the Canadian fur trade to Pacific maritime trade. This never came to fruition. It wasn’t until the first decade of the 19th century when the Pacific Fur Company and subsequently with the Northwest Company and later the Hudson Bay Company connected the Oregon Territory to the maritime fur trade. During this time, the Molalla Log House may have been used as a wintering house for freemen hunters of French Canadian, Iroquois and Metis ancestry, until white colonial settlement displaced them to the French Prairie or elsewhere in the 1840s.
A very similar building, c 1837, has recently been rehabilitated in the area of Walla Walla and is believed to be the last surviving Métis-built Frenchtown-era log building in that area. The “Prince’s Cabin” is of similar size, design and craft as the Molalla Log House and the culture of their builders are quite possibly linked.
There are other comparative examples as well. Drawings depicting the village log houses of freemen and their Metis families outside of Fort Vancouver in the 1840s resemble the scale and structure of the Molalla Log House and its later additions from the early 19th century. Iroquois reservation log houses and Metis log houses from the 19th century in New York and Canada were of similar craft. Their similarities include size, design and method of construction: 1 ½ story houses with gable roofs, symmetrical window-door-window patterning, square hewn horizontal logs with no intermittent posts fit tightly together without the need for filler and attached securely with expertly crafted half-dovetail notching. This building design pattern created efficient and lasting fortified houses.
The mysteries of the Molalla Log house may never be fully understood. The current theory giving possible explanation to the existence of this very old log building has arisen through a process of controlled speculation. A multi-disciplinary study of evidence, both physical and documentary, has converged to grant plausible reasoning.
The building may not represent one culture or ethnicity, but illustrates a building form that evolved through a transition period where native peoples in Canada learned from those they closely associated with from European descent and made it their own. The builders merely built they way they knew how with soft wood similar to those species in the boreal forests from where they came. The craft was beautiful and disciplined and highly efficient for shelter and fortification in the wilderness. And it lasted two centuries on the Oregon landscape.
Research delving more deeply into ethnography and the cultural migrations of fur hunters and traders of mixed ancestry who crossed westward over the Rocky Mountains during the last decades of the 18th century could yield greater knowledge. Archeology linking the original site with the culture of the builders and later occupants could possibly yield information, if pursued. An in depth comparative study of the design and folk craft of this log building, relevant to mission, military and fur trade architecture in eastern United States, Canada and the Oregon Territory in the 18th and 19th century may also yield relevant information about the origins of the Molalla Log House.
Pam Hayden, project steward for the last 10 years and Gregg Olson, private contractor with Historic Building Repair, have been spearheading the effort to research, rehabilitate and relocate the log house. The building was originally dismantled for preservation in 2007. With primary funding from the Kinsman Foundation, the logs were rehabilitated and the building was reassembled in 2015. Since then, the logs of the house have been in storage, awaiting a site suitable to reassemble it for long-term placement, stewardship and educational interpretation.
This year the Forests Forever, Inc. Board of Directors voted to take ownership of the Molalla Log house and re-locate it to the Hopkins Demonstration Forest in Clackamas County. The historic landscape and context of this geography is similar to the Molalla area, in the foothills of the Cascades, adjacent to a year round creek, in a forested setting and between two major ancient Indian trails leading to early Native American trading centers; one leading to the Willamette Falls and the other around Mt. Hood to the Dalles.
“We are excited to provide a home for this important piece of the region’s history,” said Forests Forever, Inc.’s Executive Director Ken Everett. “Our Board sees excellent possibilities for our forestry education programs at Hopkins Demonstration Forest. Showcasing one of the oldest or original all-wood buildings in this part of the country will be a special connection when talking about how we manage our forests today and the history and importance of wood in our culture.”
We hope to have the Molalla Log House reconstructed at Hopkins by 2020. Hayden is in the process of writing grants for engineering work for building permits to allow public access into the building and will be working to raise the needed funds for the final moving and rebuilding of the log house. “I’m thrilled that the Molalla Log House will be sited at Hopkins where school children, fans of forestry, architecture and history buffs and visitors of all kinds can appreciate it for its fine wood craft, and its possible historical and cultural origins.”
