A whole log cabin dating to the Civil War or immediate antebellum period was discovered inside an existing house that was being demolished in Prescott, Arkansas. The 18 x 20-foot cabin was kept whole and encapsulated with new siding between 1953 and 1955 when it was moved entire to its current location on Greenlawn Street.

Property records indicate the log cabin originally built on Miller Hill on land belonging to one John Vaughn. The records would suggest it dates to 1850s or 1860s and the timbers are roughly hand-hewn, which dates them to before the arrival of the railroad and the mill-sawn timber it brought to the area in the 1870s. Miller Hill was next to the 30-square-mile plain that as of April 12th, 1864, would become known as the Prairie D’Ane battlefield, now part of the Camden Expedition Sites National Historic Landmark. This log cabin could well have been mute witness to the Union victory at Prairie D’Ane. An archaeologist has been enlisted to authenticate the building and date it as precisely as possible.

Demolition is obviously no longer on the cards. The Nevada County Depot & Museum has acquired the log cabin thanks to a donation from local residents Dr. Michael and Bo Young. The museum plans to dismantle the cabin piece by piece, number each timber, conserve and stabilize them and store them until the structure can be reconstructed on the Prairie D’Ane Battlefield. A new visitors center will be built at the site in the next couple of years. The log cabin will be reassembled inside the new building to keep it safe from the elements and open to visitors.