Until the year 1900. there was only a scanty start toward settlement. The forest remained tranquil. Yet, the next decade would see the start - if only the start - of the great immigration and also the onslaught of logging operations.

At the beginning, almost every home was a log cabin. Shakes were split for the roofs. But as the saws in mills began to spin a construction of frame and boards became common. These structures still were rustic. As compared to the log cabin, many were ugly. A great many settlers built their first houses not artfully, but only in haste.

Irrespective of the walls, the roofs were beautiful. The frontier shakes were not the short, thick slabs seen today struck by a clumsy machine, and so irregular in shape that many have to he shaped later with a saw. Instead the shake of the homesteader was a uniform beautiful sheet carefully shaved by hand from a cedar block, and frequently tapered by the artful use of the splitting froe as the sheet was separated from the block. It was bent to attain the desired thickness or taper. If bent across the froe blade and toward the block, the split in the separating fiber bit more deeply into the wood, and the shake was thickened downward. On the contrary, if the shake seemed to be running thick, it was bent outward, away from the block. Excessive thickness was thus corrected.

The standard length was 28 inches. The shakes were laid in a double tier, 24 inches to the weather.

Since the initial problems were to provide shelter, and then earn a living, the hasty work in first construction was not a worry. Bigger, better houses could be built later. Always we honor the log cabin, which was first, most primitive, and most beautiful. It stands symbolically for the rugged character of the pioneer.