Scrapbook

Luton's Teton Cabins

We have done most of the construction of the cabins from start to finish. This is a collection of pictures that we thought you might enjoy looking at.

Click on the pictures for an enlargement.

Brad & Joanne Luton

Brad is a fourth generation native of the area. His family has been in the dude ranch & outfitting business. His great grandparents came from Oklahoma. They were on the Cherokee Indian roles there.

Joanne is a third generation native of the area. Her family has been in the ranching & cattle business. Her grandparents came from Switzerland & homesteaded on nearby Spread creek.

The Ranch

The cabins have been constructed on part of Joanne’s family's original ranch.

Branding in the spring

Brad & Joanne doing field work

Before construction began.

We started our foundations the spring of 1992. We have done the construction from start to finish. My brother Danny & a cousin Larry Luton helped in logging & most of the building process.

We got the entire family involved at times.
The only thing harder than working with concrete must be peeling logs!

Logging

We used our draft horses to pull the logs out.

During the summer of 1992 we went to the timber and got house logs. The logs that were used in the construction of the cabins were fire killed. A forest fire burned the trees in 1988. They are lodge pole pine.

Brad straightening logs out on the log deck. We would skid the logs down to the road with the draft horses and then use a tractor to deck them up. We then had a log truck haul them home.

Danny Luton

Danny, Brad & Bernie

Hand Peeling

This is the single most difficult job of building a log cabin!

Once the logs were home we cut them to length and hand peeled every one. We also did a lot of log work in the winter. We are peeling these logs however the temperature was below zero which made them almost impossible to peel. We first covered them with tarps and put a heater under the tarps to thaw the logs.

Log Work

Once the logs are peeled we start stacking them on the building. We use a saddle cope on the corners. Each log must be individually adjusted by the amount of cope you cut out of the log.

Jock Hamilton, Clint Hultquist & Brad and Bernie.

The first two cabins.
Notice all of the logs in the foreground that need to be peeled.

Coping the plate log which lays over the loft logs.

Notice all of the copes that have to be fit on this plate log. Once the log is finished being coped we roll it over into place. The copes fit over rather than up so that they do not collect water.

Brad is marking a log for a cope

Rocky Rock & Brad are stacking logs on a gable end.

Larry & Brad working on the log truss for the lodge.

Rocky putting up the perlin logs on the lodge.

The log truss on the lodge.
We are now ready for plywood sheeting.

Many people are interested how the chinking in-between the logs is put in. First Joanne fits a triangle shaped piece of foam in-between the logs. This leaves a smooth flat surface which we then apply a synthetic glue mixture that has a sand base. Once we have applied the chinking with an air caulking gun we trowel it smooth. On the outside we have wood chinking which is made from cutting a pole in quarters. Then it is scribed to fit between the logs and cut with a ban saw.

The cabins are beautiful and complemented by our spectacular scenery.

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