Boekelodge Log Cabin Cultural Landscape District: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Edwards L. 2021. Boekelodge Log Cabin Cultural Landscape District: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Midwest Regional Office
This Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI) report presents documentation and evaluation of the Boekelodge Log Cabin Cultural Landscape District in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan. The Boekelodge Log Cabin Cultural Landscape District was built as a homestead cabin in 1932. The homesteader (Joseph Cooper and family) hunted, trapped, fished, and tended a garden to survive on the sandy Platte Plains from 1929 to 1935. The Boekeloo family acquired the cabin in 1945, after it had been abandoned for ten years. The family repaired and modernized the cabin and maintained it as a primitive vacation spot for family and friends. The family's stated goal was to maintain the "wilderness" character of the landscape. The site is historically significant at the state level as one of the few remaining examples of "wilderness" retreats and cabins in the state of Michigan. It is also significant as an example of historic construction, workmanship, and material of a rustic cabin in an undeveloped landscape. The period of significance begins in 1929 with the ownership of Joseph Cooper and ends in 2005, when the Reservation of Use and Occupancy agreement between the Boekeloo family and the NPS expired. The CLI unit includes the historic cabin, privy, bridge, pond, and other associated cultural landscape features.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Edwards, Leah
- Date of Issue
- 2021-02
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- MWR , SLBE
- Keywords
- architecture, Boekeloo Cabin, Boekeloo Retreat, bridge, cooper cabin, Cooper homestead, historic cabin, homestead, Michigan, pond, privy, recreation, rustic, vernacular landscape, wilderness