Depression-era log cabins handmade by the legendary Steiner family in Mount Hood are so prized that some original owners have passed them on to the next generation as they would other heirlooms.
The durable homes, made almost entirely of hand-cut wood, shaped for function and flare, and nestled among rhododendrons and ferns, were designed and built by Henry Steiner with help by his wife, Mollie, and 11 of their children.
The frugal Steiners had little money and no electricity, but plenty of resourcefulness. Douglas fir logs, manually cut with a crosscut saw, were hoisted into place with cranks and pulley systems. Stones, found on the land or in rivers, surround the fireplaces, and bent-wood handrails outline stairs to the bedrooms.
As sturdy as the storybook structures were constructed, over the decades, snow has pounded the pitched roofs, moisture has destroyed unprotected log siding and cosmetic changes, like vinyl counters and veneer paneling, have left some of the 100 documented Steiner cabins almost unrecognizable.
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Others, boarded up and marketed for sale as teardowns, have been rescued by people who appreciate the beauty of the craftsmanship, warmth of the old-growth wood and the Old World techniques Henry Steiner, who emigrated from Bavaria, used to shape natural materials to make everything fit together.
Like anything handmade, however, proper restoration requires time, talent and hand tools.
”I couldn’t just go to Home Depot and order two dozen handmade Steiner half logs to replace sections of walls that had completely rotted away,” said Ian McCluskey, who has spent two years restoring a 1930 Steiner cabin, from the foundation to the stone chimney. “So I did it exactly as Henry would.”
McCluskey started by peeling bark off of logs and branches using a vintage draw knife to “give it a slightly scalloped look and texture,” he explained.
When it was time to finish the unpainted wood, McCluskey mixed several oil stains to match the aged, amber hue of the cabin’s logs. He also hunted for spar varnish and shellac that would have been available to Steiner.
“Each cabin he built shares his common style, but each piece of each cabin is one of a kind,” said McCluskey.
Henry Steiner, a self-taught designer and builder, worked in Government Camp, Welches, Brightwood and Rhododendron from 1927 to 1952. He died in 1953.
In addition, Steiner and sons John and Fred contributed to the construction of the 1936 Timberline Lodge, two churches and eight U.S. Forest Service summer homes in the area.
McCluskey, also a self-taught carpenter on a budget, let Steiner’s vision of the 92-year-old cabin guide the renovation. The young woodworker’s goal: To make his contribution invisible.
“The measure of my success in restoration, I decided, was in how little of my work could be noticed,” he said.
After almost a century of private use, McCluskey’s cabin near the Salmon River is listed on Airbnb (airbnb.com/h/steinercabin) as a vacation rental and it is one of four dwellings open during the 2022 Steiner Cabins Tour on Aug. 13.
Tickets ($40) to the tour go on sale at 8 a.m. Friday, July 1, at mthoodmuseum.org. In past years, the 300 tickets have sold out in a few hours.
Another stop on the tour is the 1937 St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, also built by the Steiners.
The summer tour is a fundraiser for the nonprofit Mt. Hood Cultural Center & Museum in Government Camp.
Lloyd Musser, museum curator and longtime tour organizer, appreciates owners and volunteers who are helping to preserve historic cabins.
“Ian is typical of recent buyers who are restoring Steiner cabins with integrity,” said Musser.
Interest in the cabins and values have soared, Musser said, making “teardowns a thing of the past. The problem now is finding craftsmen to work with log structures.”
Ian McCluskey repairs a window in his a 1930 Steiner cabin.Courtesy of Ian McCluskey
Hands-on and hard work have always been the Steiner way. Tasks were divided among family members. Henry sketched out the floor plan on butcher paper, with rooms shaded by towering old trees and windows oriented to make the most of the view.
The older children cleared the land, cut trees into logs and split cedar into shingles.
Mollie and the younger children collected naturally bending trees for arched doors, rocking chair bases and table legs.
The family also used trees they found in the forest to make cupboards, bookcases and furniture.
The flat side of split logs of Douglas fir and western redcedar were made into bench seats and stair steps. For decoration, rods of wood form a wagon wheel or are arranged like sunbursts that reach gable peaks under which is an arch-shaped door.
Sinks, tubs, windows and hinges were the few store-bought items.
Henry Steiner’s grandson and John’s son, Dick Steiner, said in 2016 that while the driving force for some of the features was a lack of money, the family had an ability to make the most of materials that other builders threw away.
“It is great to see such an admiration for the work that they did,” he said.
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The pitched-roof log cabins were built during the Arts and Crafts movement in the Oregon Rustic style that continues to influence design today.
McCluskey, who has appreciated cabins since childhood, said Steiner homes are part of a larger architectural movement in the rustic regionalism of Adirondack Camp of the early 20th Century, the National Parks in the 1920s and Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s.
His 1930 vacation rental is one of a cluster of classic cabins, built between 1922 and 1942, that represent Mount Hood’s early recreation era.
McCluskey is the third owner. Two families each owned the cabin for more than 40 years.
In 2019, McCluskey discovered the cabin, dark and hidden by tall brush. Despite its cedar shingles camouflaged in green algae and moss, he could see signature Steiner features inside.
The log walls were unpainted, smooth and shiny with shellac, and the crisscross, scissor beams in the living room made the small cabin suddenly feel more like an old “grand lodge,” he said.
The longtime owners agreed to sell to McCluskey, who promised to return it to its original condition as he had done during a years-long restoration of a nearby 1922 cabin. Called Cedarwood, McCluskey bought it from the grandson of the original builder, who was not a Steiner, and now offers it as a short-term rental.
“I showed the owners the other cabin’s rough-sawn cedar walls, milled locally from storm-downed trees, and the river-rock hearth I hand built, just as Steiner and his sons had done in their cabins,” said McCluskey. “And, most importantly, I told them how I had made every decision along the way to honor the original intent of the builder and preserve the special rustic spirit.”
In March 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was forcing travel and unessential businesses to shut down, McCluskey started his painstaking restoration project.
“The cabin became my quarantine and my refuge,” said McCluskey, whose ancestors arrived on the Oregon Trail. Several generations of his family built pioneer log cabins, using axes and augers, chisels and planes.
“They walked Barlow Road, a stone’s throw from where the Steiner cabin now sits,” he said.
Friends, some with construction experience, and a professional mason, plumber and electrician helped McCluskey on the most technical parts of the restoration.
He posted about his progress on the “little log cabin with a gable roof and porch of crooked logs” on Instagram at steiner.cabin. He wrote about the home’s charm, its secret door and other “whimsical touches of the old cabin-maker’s personality.”
In the spring of 2022, he had refinished damaged wood, reproduced missing pieces and restored the storied cabin’s “magic.”
“I am very honored to be able to offer this home to folks who want to experience this endearing place, unplug from modern life and create their own wonderful memories,” said McCluskey.
— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman
Read more on Steiner cabins
• Mount Hood Steiner Cabin Tour tickets go on sale July 1 (and will sell out fast)
