"Log Cabin Cafe Now Open for Business Serving Home Cooked Foods" - Hanna

 

During the darkest days of the Great Depression, Hannah Gerina Oie,  child of Norwegian immigrants, had vision, hope and fortitude. She designed and built this incredible log cabin. Today it is still a favorite happy place to the multitudes.

 

Not much is known about Hannah's role at the Cafe. She must have supervised the building crew diligently, as every detail of this special building is still near perfect, 85 years later.

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Hannah G was born in the winter of 1881 (Feb 18, 1881) in Minnesota. Her mother (Sigrid Tufto) had become a U.S. citizen in 1880 and her father (Halver Helgesen) in 1875.  By 1910, Hannah had made her way to eastern Montana where she was married and had two daughters, Ruth and Evelyn around 1916. By April of 1935, Hannah G was divorced, and living in Glendive, Dawson, Montana before building the Cafe in 1937 at the age of 56. Her highest grade was the 8th grade.

 

Hanna left the Log Cabin Cafe and appeared to have taken some time off and living off her proceeds from the cafe, she only worked 12 weeks in 1939 and this could have been the summer months serving park visitors. By the time the 1940 census was taken Hannah G had moved to Forsyth, Rosebud, Montana to live with her unmarried daughter Ruth.

 

Hannah G lived out her days in southeastern Montana after building and selling the Log Cabin to Alvilda Caulk about 1939 or 1940. She lived to be 102 passing away on July 3, 1983.

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Hannah managed to transform an isolated alpine patch of willow into one of the most magical places in the world, cherished in memory by multitudes.