Lincoln Logs - Classic Toy Series Traditional Cache

This cache is part of a series on classic toys that originated no later than the 1970's. Most will have originated earlier, much earlier. I wanted to bring a little history behind these toys in the cache page and a little fun in the cache.

Lincoln Logs were invented sometime around 1916–1917 when John Lloyd Wright was working in Japan with his father, architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Faced with the challenge of building a structure that could withstand the powerful earthquakes that regularly shook Japan, Frank Lloyd Wright sketched an ingenious design that relied on a system of interlocking timber beams that would allow the hotel to sway but not collapse in case of a tremor. (The Imperial Hotel would indeed be one of the few buildings that remained standing after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake that devastated Tokyo.)

Using the blueprint for the Imperial Hotel as a model, he created a toy construction set that consisted of notched pieces of wood that children could stack to build log cabins, forts and other rustic buildings. In 1918, John Lloyd Wright began to market his creation through his own firm, the Red Square Toy Company, and two years later he received a patent for his “toy-cabin construction.” He bestowed upon his creation an alliterative name that also evoked an American icon—Lincoln Logs.

The toy came with instructions to build not only Abraham Lincoln’s Kentucky boyhood home, but a famous log structure from the pages of American literature, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The toy’s packaging featured a simple drawing of a log cabin, a small portrait of Lincoln and the slogan “Interesting playthings typifying the spirit of America.” Capitalizing on both a nostalgia for the frontier at a time when the United States was becoming increasingly urbanized and a wave of patriotism in the wake of World War I, Lincoln Logs became an instant success.

In spite of withstanding earthquakes and intense bombing during World War II, the Imperial Hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright finally fell to the wrecking ball in 1968. The toy it inspired, however, continues to thrive 100 years after its creation.

The cache location has been approved by Brian Russart of the Milwaukee County Department of Parks. Permit # 523

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