Another Log Cabin

Old photo, circa 1920s – 1930s.

Price:  $4.00     Size:  2 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/2″

Might as well use the blank bar space for the watermark, kinda cool! So, here’s another cabin. We need the Barnwood Builders on this one, but from our inexpert eye, it looks like most of the chinking is gone or very hard to see (rather than a new cabin not yet chinked). Seems pretty tall, and then also there are no windows, so maybe it wasn’t finished yet? No, but then some of the logs have rotted or are bug-chewed so, that doesn’t make sense. Maybe this was the view from the back and all the windows were in the front. And that supposed door there is kinda weird-looking, it almost looks like (click to enlarge) it’s been Photoshopped on – where is the door frame? Still, it’s a cabin with rather a majestic look to it. A beauty with some stories to tell.

Log Cabin Home, 1934

Photo, white border. October 2, 1934.

Price:  $7.00       Size:  3 and 1/2 x 1 and 7/8″

A child in overalls, standing outside their log cabin home, location unknown. This is a beautiful photo, for content and composition:  There’s the path, right from our viewpoint, leading up to the doorway; the home nestling in the woods and off-center of the image; evidence of the wood-burning stove currently in use; and other details to notice, such as the wash basin hanging next to the door, and the somewhat concave appearance of the cabin’s side. And it’s almost like you could hit “play” and see video – the child walking towards us, smiling face appearing out of the shadow, or maybe turning to go into the house, the stovepipe smoke blowing easterly….

On the back is written,  “At least they have a roof. A well-to-do Indian half-breed.”  Well, maybe the individual that wrote the comment had just come from seeing some other cabins not as well put together. Also it was 1934, so better terminology was not yet common, evidently.

But for me, it looks like a small slice of heaven (as I sit typing this with the heavy traffic rolling by).

Walter Wetzel, Red Lodge, Montana, 1922

Old photo. August 8, 1922, Red Lodge, Carbon County, Montana.

Price:  $15.00       Size:  4 and 1/8 x 2 and 3/8″

Here’s a beautiful photo of a man in jeans and cowboy hat, standing, holding the reins of two horses. On the back we have the i.d. showing,  “Aug 8/22. Walter Wetzel. Red Lodge, Montana.”  To our right, in the photo, is a rudimentary-looking log cabin (no windows) and in the background, snow covered mountains of the (assuming) Beartooth Mountain Range. In searching records for a Walter Wetzel that might fit this photo we find a Walter W. Wetzel (1902 – 1953) a well-known forester, who married Elva Ellis. A newspaper clipping from 1927 that announced the couple’s marriage license, stated Elva was a resident of Red Lodge. But how old is the man in the photo? My first impression was of someone about age fifty, albeit a very fit age fifty. But he could certainly be much younger. It’s hard to tell because of the lighting and the distance the photo was taken from.

Old Matt’s Cabin

Old Matts Cabin pc1Old Matts Cabin pc2

Divided back, unused postcard, circa 1960s – 1970s. Publisher:  Panorama Publishers, Inc., 811 Cherry, Springfield, Mo. Series or number 52,142F.

Price:  $3.00

“Old Matt’s Cabin In The Shepherd Of The Hills Country. On Highway 79 west of Branson, Mo., Old Matt and Aunt Molly, two real-life characters in Harold Bell Wright’s famous book, ‘The Shepherd of the Hills’ lived here.”

The characters of Old Matt and Aunt Molly were based on real people. They were John K. Ross and his wife Anna, who Harold Bell Wright summered with for eight seasons. Wright had contracted tuberculosis and on doctor’s advise had gone to the Ozarks to improve his health. See Branson.com for details, including the history of the cabin in the postcard photo.

Back in an earlier post that I put up entitled Posing Pioneer Woman, I was referencing Wright’s book. I came across this postcard of Old Matt’s Cabin later on. I think the woman’s pose seems almost theatrical and it somehow reminded me of the book, the cabin, the area’s fame, etc., as we used to vacation for awhile in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in the Ozarks, and had visited Branson at some point probably in 1970 or ’71.

Source:  Our History. n.d. http://www.branson.com/branson/shepherd/history.htm (accessed October 06, 2014.)