Previous Kootenai Canvas: 1870s cabin

Gerry House of Hayden Lake wrote the winning essay that correctly identified the last photo, which was a picture of an old cabin located just off Lancaster Road near English Point Road.

The photo that appeared in the Sept. 30 Kootenai Canvas features my grandfather’s homestead cabin that he built shortly after his 1874 arrival in the Hayden Lake area. The cabin is north of Lancaster Road and about 150 yards north of the English Point Recreation Area parking lot.

Grandfather “Bill” Steele began clearing the heavily timbered land under the provisions of the 1862 Homestead Act. He obtained ownership of the 160-acre tract in November of 1898. This was about the same time that he started courting and eventually married my grandmother, Bessie Lockyer. The Lockyer family had emigrated from England in the 1880s and were neighbors immediately to the south on the shore of Hayden Lake. The area became known as English Point. His cabin was built near a pond approximately 1/4 mile west of its present location. However, the homesite was in a “frost pocket,” which made it very difficult to grow food nearby. In the early 1900s, my grandparents moved the cabin. At the time the home was moved, my grandmother was pregnant with her second child. She also had to watch her toddler son while the cabin was dragged on rollers by a team of oxen to where it sits today. Eight children were born in the cabin and an addition that was removed more than 30 years ago. All of the children, except for an infant who died in the early 1900s, went to the nearby school that was built by my grandfather and other area homesteaders before the turn of the century.

The property has been in continuous ownership by Steele family members. The present owners are working with the Hayden Historical Preservation Commission to protect and preserve the cabin for future generations.