If you wanted to know what RVs looked like 100 years ago, here’s your chance. (Just kidding. We don’t think all RVs were built inside Douglas fir logs!)
This Douglas fir log motorhome was built in 1920 near Seattle, Washington. It was built out of a single Douglas fir log on a 1920s 3-ton Dodge Brothers chassis. Douglas firs can grow up to 250 feet, and are the second-tallest conifer (pine, evergreen) after the majestic Redwood trees.
Would you like to own this RV? You know you’d get a good night’s sleep in that cozy bed – you’d sleep like a log!
These photos were taken in 1922. Do you know anything about this RV? If so, tell us in the comments. We’d love to learn more about it!
##RVT941
To Randy R…I was in Napoleon at that time but at 4 yrs old don’t remember much at all!
You folks are great! Love the puns. Guess the log had some problems with leaks. In the second picture its covered with a tarp. Folks back then were so ingenious. Wonder if I could build one like that today out of a Redwood?
Saw one at henry county fair napoleon oh in the late 1950’s. they had a demo setup and were taking orders. I was under 10 at the time.
I love things like this, they’re amazing and show how intelligent people were literally hundreds of years ago. When you see something that was built back then and think of the man hours it took to build it with the limited tools they had you realize we are the results of these ingenious people. We are not the smartest people of the world. There was many before us.
They didn’t go to Camping World to get the accessories!
This amazing RV is on permanent display in one of the Redwood Museums in Northern California, sorry I’m not sure which one. There are 2 or 3 throughout the area. Seeing it in person is quite an experience, you can almost imaging staying in it …. remarkable! I’m sure it is ” Googleable” …. stay well and take care of others from a distance!
mizholly
I thought I might have a picture of it taken in 2011 when we were traveling up the CA coast through the Red Woods. Can’t find it in a quick search. If I do locate it I will come back and post it.
found them https://photos.app.goo.gl/q8RMVAcC2BQX2dab9
Those are cool pictures! Thanks, Paul. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
If not this one, there was one like it at the Florida State Fair a couple of years, probably in the 70’s or early 80’s.
I remember seeing one at the Sportsman Show in Harrisburg, PA back in the 70’s. I was also wondering if this was the same one.
Saw this one or one like it at the Tampa RV show in the early 2000s
We saw it there also.
I remember as a kid seeing a hollow log cabin making the rounds at local fairgrounds in the fifties. I remember seeing something like this log home at the Grand Forks fairgrounds in North Dakota .
If you think I’d like this you’re barking up the wrong tree. It’s knot that it goes against my grain, it’s just that I think I would get board…..(see what I did there? )
😆 Good job, Alpenliter! 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
Then you need to branch out and leaf this article and root around for another.
😆 Thanks, Jeff. Have a great day. 🙂 –Diane
Looks like one we saw in a museum in California’s Redwood Forest.
There’d be too much bark-ing going on…
😆 Good one, WEB. I told Emily I could park that up at my mountain property and wouldn’t have to worry about vandals because it would be camouflaged and blend right in. There are many, many stumps that size and larger from when the old-growth trees were logged off about 100 years ago. 🙁 –Diane at RVtravel.com