By COLIN BENNETT
NAUVOO, Ill. — David and Lori Hardle moved to Nauvoo after falling in love with the slower life, farms and lack of traffic. Like other Utah transplants, they needed a unique way to support their family in a small, tourist-driven economy.
Eight years later, Nauvoo Log Cabins has become one of the most unique lodging options in Nauvoo, reaching back to the city’s pioneer heritage.
“We decided we wanted to make a log cabin motel, something similar to what the pioneers used to live in,” David Hardle said. “People can kind of have a pioneer experience in a log cabin but with all the modern amenities.”
The Hardles purchased old log cabins, numbered the logs, disassembled the cabins, cleaned up and moved the logs and then rebuilt the cabins in Nauvoo.
“It’s really exciting because usually you’re out in the middle of nowhere and there are lots of old pioneer log cabins or ruins around the cabins,” David Hardle said. “You feel the history. To me, it’s kind of almost like being on sacred ground. You’re around these cabins in the middle of nowhere, sometimes there will be two or three outbuildings, a log cabin and a little homestead, nothing there but a little ghost town.”
Shalee Wilcken, the Hardles’ daughter, has helped take down three of the old cabins. She thought it was neat to find artifacts and trash that the pioneer owners had left behind.
“I really enjoyed it,” Wilcken said. “What makes them neat is the history, all that people put into them and to build them.”
Wilcken said that, with help from a large group of family and friends, it would only take a few hours to take a cabin apart.
“All of these cabins, except for two of them, are like 130 years old,” Lori Hardle said. “The people that were here that did the trek built these cabins and we just brought their history back.”
The cabins come from Wyoming, Illinois and Utah. Each cabin can take around a year for David to reassemble while adding modern conveniences, but the experience of living in Nauvoo makes the work worthwhile for the Hardles.
“I love it,” Lori Hardle said. “We’re just kind of in a little bubble here and it’s a nice place to be. The spirit is really neat here.”
Eight log cabins are almost always booked from May to October. The ninth cabin is nearly completed. The history of the cabins and their original builders is available at nauvoologcabins.com.
