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Logs from Fremont house head West

A former Town of Wolf River log home will become a cabin on a historical site.

The house’s logs left Wisconsin the week of Feb. 19, destined for a site on Deer Lake, northwest of Jamestown in North Dakota, where it will be reconstructed as a one-story cabin.

The house was located on County Road HH in Fremont. Built there around 1870, it was constructed out of cedar logs that were harvested out of the Metz Swamp.

The log house had been located on property owned by Jerry and Kathe Wohlt and was the former home of long-time residents Hugo and Arlene Struck.

In May of 2011, the Wohlts were in need of more housing for their dairy cattle and decided to tear down a lean-to shed and small, old-style hay barn and to then put up a bigger free style shed.

A friend told them about Abe Miller, an Amish builder who tears down old buildings.

They contacted him, and he was very interested in purchasing the hay barn. It was torn down, and the pieces were numbered. The hay barn was going to be reconstructed as a hunting cabin in Northern Wisconsin.

When Miller was there, the Wohlts also showed him the vacant log house and barn, located across the road from their dairy farm. The house had been vacant for years, and its foundation had deteriorated.

The couple had no idea that the original part of the house was constructed by logs, but Miller knew right away because of the shape of the building.

Miller contacted Barnwood of Minnesota, which is owned by Jim Hildebrandt, of Glencoe, Minn.

Hildebrandt drove to Fremont to look at the log home and immediately wanted it.

He said the original part of the house was made from cedar logs, which are very rare.

Cedar logs wider than 12 inches are considered trophy logs, and most of the logs in the house were 16 inches-plus.

The siding was removed from the house, and each log was numbered, like a puzzle. The house will be reconstructed just as it was.

Miller and his crew took down the house log by log and loaded it on trailers for the trip to Minnesota.

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