Godager, Adolf and Christine, Homesite

Out on a gently rolling prairie in Bosque County, Texas, the Godager homesite preserves the ruins of a Norwegian settler's log cabin, said to date from 1872. The one-room house faces south and has walls of irregular logs hewn on the inner and outer faces, joined with V-notched corners. Wide gaps between the logs were filled with stone chinking that was once plastered. Its most distinctive feature is the cantilevered eaves at both ends, made possible by projecting plate logs. A stone lean-to was later added at the rear, a typical Norwegian way of enlarging one-room log cabins, and it still keeps its plaster covering. A stone-lined underground cistern lies a few feet north. Although the roof is gone, the walls remain relatively intact. The cabin resembles the Norwegian Laftehus, and the site is believed to have been abandoned in the 19th century and left largely undisturbed. Archeological work here could add to knowledge of the earliest Norwegian settlement in the area.