“Lake Hendricks State Park”

This lake was named for Thomas A. Hendricks (1819-1885), Commissioner of the General Land Office, 1855-59, at which time the state boundary was surveyed and the lake named. Hendricks was a Member of Congress, 1851-55; U.S. Senator, 1863-69; Governor of Indiana, 1873-77; and Vice President in 1885.

The log cabin was moved here as a fitting memorial to the sturdy pioneers who settled in this part of Brookings County in the 1870s and 1880s. The park itself was opened in 1951.

The log cabin has had three locations. It was built of well-hewn oak logs taken from the shore of Oak Lake. Nils Bogen built it in 1874 in the Center of NE ¼ of 18-112-47, ¼ mile west of Oak Lake. In 1884 the log house was taken apart, the logs numbered, and moved 2½ miles S to the SW ¼ of 30-112-47 and rebuilt.

In 1884 Even Anderson bought it and his family lived in it until about 1893. Thereafter a renter, Theodor Sand, and his family lived in it from about 1895 to 1903. Esten Johnson, bought the farm and moved his frame house to it, attaching it to the log house about 1906. The farm was sold to Marvin Vizecky, from whom the log house was bought in the spring of 1960. The logs were again numbered, moved to this location, and the cabin rebuilt in the fall of 1960.

Brookings County, Lake Hendricks State Park at Rec Area or Use Area (2006)