Faust Log Cabin

Charming log cabin perched on a stunning overlook.

NPS credit

Quick Facts

Amenities

2 listed

Picnic Table, Scenic View/Photo Spot

Mary Faust was a botany college student when she first fell in love with the views of the Glen Lakes and the Manitou Passage from the bluff with the log slide. Logs were skidded down this slide during the winter and taken to D.H. Day's lumbermill.
Later, she and her husband, George, purchased the property from Glen Haven entrepreneur D.H. Day before hiring Chicago architect Frank Sohm, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, to design their vacation home.

For the next 50 years, Mary spent up to nine months every year at the cabin and was joined by her family in the summers. The family loved the lake and liked being away from city responsibilities. They left Chicago for the summer just after the children were out of school at the beginning of June and did not go back until the second week of September. Each summer the family enjoyed an annual dune climb: they motored by boat to the end of Little Glen at the base of the dunes, got lunch from a friendly woman at the base of the dunes, walked up the less-steep forested pathway, and walked across to Lake Michigan. After lunch, the big sport was to roll the large boulders, left from the ice age, down the steep face and enjoy watching the little specks splash into the water. Then they would climb down and back up the the steep bank to Lake Michigan before heading home.

An ardent gardener and naturalist, Mary landscaped and kept the cabin grounds and a large garden across the road. She loved working in her garden. She and her daughter Margot grew tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. She would pickle the cucumbers and freeze the beans.

After Mary's death in 1977, the Faust family used the cabin as a greatly treasured seasonal home. Their desire to see it protected and open to the public eventually led to their selling it to the National Park Service.