Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties

Here is the original 19th century manual that helped pioneering Americans homestead a continent—with detailed instructions on how to build birch bark or tar paper shacks, a sawed-lumber shanty, a sod house, log cabins and much more.

Whether you are a student of history, a screenwriter looking for authentic details or a modern homesteader looking for authentic advice on how to build the way our grandparents did, then D.C. Beard’s manual is just what you’re looking for. It includes information on:

• How to use an axe
• How to split logs
• How to flatten a log
• How to build a Navajo Hogan
• How to cut and notch logs
• How to build a notched ladder
• How to make cabin doors and door-latches.
• The American log cabin
• A Fisherman’s cabin
• And much, much more.

Go back to basics with this classic of American ingenuity!