Wayzata's 19th Century 'Trappers Cabin Will be Relocated and Restored

A historic log cabin, thought to have been built in the 1880s, will be moved at 4 a.m. Thursday, July 25, from its original site at 324 Bushaway Road (Hwy. 101) temporarily to the Wayzata Public Works. 

Plans are in progress to restore the cabin and, pending final Wayzata City Council approval, relocate it permanently to Shaver Park near the historic train depot. Irene Stemmer, Chair of the Wayzata Heritage Preservation Board (HPB), has been advocating to save the 12x15 foot cabin for over seven years.

“This is the oldest house that remains standing in Wayzata, and that makes it historically significant,’” said Stemmer—who has been on a mission to uncover the cabin’s history, and more recently, raise the money needed to restore and relocate it.

Stemmer and the HPB believe the cabin to be over 115 years old, based on old photographs, records and oral history. The original builder of the cabin is unknown.

“Not knowing the exact age of the cabin does not preclude its historic importance,” said Stemmer. 

Stemmer has found allies for the cause in John Mehrkens, Vice President of Development for Presbyterian Homes & Services (PHS) and lead developer of The Promenade of Wayzata, and Tom Dykoff, Senior Supervisor of Adolphson & Peterson Construction (A&P), general contractor for The Promenade. PHS, with the cooperation of A&P and some of its contractors has pledged to provide and fund, in part, the materials and labor to move and restore the cabin. 

Restoration is expected to take 60 to 90 days and cost upwards of $20,000. 

Carl Vogt, Extension Specialist at the University Of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources, has verified that the cabin is constructed of Tamarack logs dating 130 to 160 years. Tamarack trees, once abundant in the marshes around Lake Minnetonka, were cleared and used for building and railroads.

Horace Norton, who purchased 160 acres in 1855 through the Act of Preemption from the U.S. government, was the first owner of the land where the cabin now stands. The cabin appears in photos of three houses built on the property including the first house on the land, which was owned by Thomas F. Andrews in 1889.

The next house, built around 1919 for Andrew’s daughter, Dolly Anderson Field, burned and was replaced in 1935. Descendants of the Andrews and Fields families are familiar with the cabin. They told Stemmer that it was always there by the house of their grandmother, Dolly Field, and that for as long as they could remember it was known as the “Trapper’s Cabin.”

Field’s house was razed in 2012 to make room for a new housing development on the property, presently owned by Stonecrest Investments, LLC