News Photo by Darby Hinkley Besser Museum Log Cabin Day will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, with tours of historic buildings, demonstrations, and more. Pictured here, from left, are the tiny Lousada Homestead Cabin built in 1868, and the John McKay Log Home, built in 1898.

ALPENA — It’s time for the annual Besser Museum Log Cabin Day from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at 491 Johnson St., Alpena.

This fun event for the whole family will feature tours of the historic buildings on the museum grounds, including the 1868 Lousada Homestead Cabin and the 1898 John McKay Log Home. Other historic buildings include the 1912 Spratt United Methodist Church, 1895 Green School, and the 1872 Maltz Exchange Bank.

In addition to the historic buildings, visitors can tour the 1928 Katherine V Fish Tug and the Chinook Research Vessel.

Live demonstrations will be given by Native Ways Traditional Arts, blacksmiths working with metals, and leatherworking by Chippewa Valley Leatherworks.

There will also be a strawberry sundae social, face painting, $1 planetarium shows, and more.

Admission is $5 per adult, $3 per senior or child, and free for museum members. For more information, call 989-356-2202 or visit bessermuseum.org.

About the cabins

The tiny Lousada Homestead Cabin is nestled between the Maltz Exchange Bank and the John McKay Log Home on the Besser Museum grounds. This cabin has been mistaken for a shed that belongs to the McKay Cabin, but it is actually its own homestead.

“Frances Lousada filed a Homestead Patent on 80 acres of land in February of 1868. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed the U.S. Government to grant land to individuals who paid a filing fee, ranging from $10 and up,” the Besser Museum Historical Village Self-Guided Tour brochure notes. “In order to earn a title to the land, the individual had to live on the land for five years. This form of land ownership became the most common way for people to acquire land in the unsettled areas of the United States.”

The property was transferred in 1874 to Horace deLousada, Francis deLousada, and Mariane deLousada, then in 1879, the property was sold to Thomas Collins and William Johnson from Massachusetts. When Collins died in 1896, he was listed as a resident of Alpena and bequeathed the property as part of his estate to his heirs. It then passed through 10 more owners before Eugene Hoppe donated it to the museum in November 1969.

The John McKay Log Home was built in 1898. McKay came to Alpena County from Ontario, Canada at age 25, working as a lumberjack, and claimed a large tract of land along the Thunder Bay River, where he built the 828-square-foot home with two stories. It was located on Smith Road in Wilson Township.

McKay married thrice, but his first wife, Barbara Kramer died in 1884, and only one of their children, Herman Isaiah, survived into adulthood. He and his second wife, Anna Mesorley Wyman, had Robert Victor and Mary Ann, both of whom survived into adulthood, but Anna died in 1891. His third wife was Emily Ann Lester, with whom he had four children, Zada Gay, Elza, Earl, and Zane. Emily and John McKay raised their four children, and his previous three children in the cabin, which required four additions to the cabin for space.

“When the cabin was moved to Besser Museum in 1971, the outer additions were removed to preserve the original home,” the tour brochure states. “The building was donated by the Gilberts, and the move was financed by McKay’s daughter, Zada Gay Dann. The stove, furniture, dishes, and other items on display are not original to the cabin, but they do represent the time period.”