The Story of the Square Cordwood Sauna in Minnesota by Charles Yeager Cordwood Instructor
In October of 2023, I was helping clear the Banadad Ski Trail, near the Gunflint Trail in Northern Minnesota, to ready it for cross-country skiers. One of the volunteers, who was also helping, was Martha Williams. After moving downed trees from across the trail, while taking a break, we found out we had some things in common: timber frame and cordwood construction. When Martha found out I facilitated cordwood construction workshops, she asked if I would be willing to co-facilitate a workshop in the Grand Marais, Minnesota area the following summer.
I told her that I often get requests but at that point, I didn’t have any workshops on my calendar for 2024. Plans for a workshop to build a cordwood tiny home fell through in May of 2024. I was about ready to cancel the 2024 Workshop, when Martha was able to talk M Baxley into building a cordwood sauna on their property just north of Grand Marias, Minnesota. The three of us met at the Cook County CO-OP in Grand Marias the day before I was leaving to guide a trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA).
The blue painter’s tape is meant to prevent the limey mortar mix from staining the posts and beams.
Another picture of the cordwood crew with goats!
Many details still needed to be worked out, but Martha, a timber frame instructor at the North House Folk School, was sure the framework could be built by the middle of August. Martha, like Charlie, had taken a cordwood construction workshop at the North House Folk School many years earlier. She was hopeful that someday, cordwood construction would be put back into the North House Folk School’s workshops. I left on my canoe trip with the hopes and dreams of another workshop only a few months away. As the summer wore on, Martha sent me updates on the progress of the framework.
By the second weekend of August, somehow she and M had pulled it together and they were nearly ready for a couple of workshops. I arrived a few days early to make sure everything was ready for the participants. Martha had acquired seasoned, square, and rectangular cutoff pieces from previous timber frame construction workshops. Most of them had to be cut into eight-inch pieces, as the walls of the sauna would be eight inches thick. I had never built a cordwood building with squared-off pieces of wood. We mixed mortar, made bottle logs, installed keys, laid up cordwood, and made new friends as we experienced the fun of cordwood construction. As of late fall 2024, the sauna was not yet complete but would remain a work in progress for 2025.
A mason’s line and level are instrumental in keeping the wall square, level, and plumb.
The back side of the sauna had “starter rocks.”
Charles Yeager pauses for a moment of good-natured reflection.
The goats were helpful in stripping (eating) the bark and giving meaningful snuggles!
Squares, rectangles, and bottle logs make for a unique and artistic building.
Charles leading the class in “How to Make Bottle Logs.”
On the right, note the keyway and the nails which are used to “grab” the mortar matrix. 
Above is a sauna Charles built while teaching a workshop during the summer of 2022 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Here is the link to see more photos of the construction https://cordwoodconstruction.org/cordwood-construction-timber-frame-sauna-finnished
Should you wish to learn how to build a cordwood cottage, cabin, or home, please visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org While you are there, click on the pictures, read the brief articles, check out the latest workshops and newsletter and if you are interested click on the Online Bookstore to see all the cordwood literature available in print and ebook format.
If you have questions that aren’t answered on the website you can email me at richardflatau@gmail.com
Readers have requested a brief bio, so here goes:
Richard & Becky Flatau built their mortgage-free cordwood home in 1979 in Merrill, Wisconsin. Since then, they have written books, conducted workshops, facilitated 2005, 2011 & 2015 Cordwood Conferences, and provided consultation for cordwood builders. Cordwood Construction: Best Practices DVD (2018), Cordwood Construction Best Practices 2020 (print & ebook) and Cordwood Conference Papers 2015 are the newest publications available from their online Cordwood bookstore. www.cordwoodconstruction.org
The Cordwood Workshop DVD is like taking a workshop in your living room.
For more information on Cordwood Construction, click on the picture or visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org
