Only the intrepid hiker will encounter this 1840s log house built in the Midland Tradition and set high in the hills of the Lost River State Park. The structure predates the founding of West Virginia. Although not a New Deal structure, the settler house, today generally known as the Bill Tussing Cabin, was referred to as a Pioneer Cabin in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) drawings for 3,712-acre state park. One of two historic log house structures dismantled and rebuilt by the CCC, the Tussing Cabin lacks the storied ancestry of the Lee Cabin located near the CCC-built cabins and pool house.
As part of its reconstruction, the CCC added a stone chimney to the Tussing Cabin. The one-and-one-half-story, single-pen, square-log house, with roof and side gables clad in wood shakes, is situated on a stone foundation in a clearing with a slight rise behind it. The log house is not far from a large shelter the CCC added to the meadowland area. The logs of the cabin are notched with half and full dovetails and chinking fills the gaps. The front door on the south side is set slightly to the left of center and there is a single opening to the rear. The interior comprises two rooms and a loft but is not open to the public.
References
Gioulis, Michael. New Deal Historic Resource Survey. Charleston: West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Charleston, 2008.
Sweeten, Lena L., “New Deal Resources in West Virginia State Parks and State Forests,” West Virginia. National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, 2010. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
West Virginia State Park History Committee. Where People and Nature Meet: A History of the West Virginia State Parks. Charleston, WV: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1988.