Elcaine Longmire Cabin

Elcaine Longmire Cabin is a one-story, one-room log cabin, just 13 by 16 feet, along the Trail of the Shadows at the north end of Longmire Meadow. Elcaine Longmire built it in 1888, and it’s a brief history stop worth adding if you’re already walking the meadow trail. If historic buildings aren’t your thing, keep moving; the cabin is small and the broader walk has more to see. The trail starts across the road from the National Park Inn, and Longmire is 6.5 miles east of the Nisqually Entrance.

Elcaine was James Longmire’s eldest son; the cabin became a summer retreat for Elcaine’s son Len. It’s a surviving piece of the family’s early settlement, before the later park businesses grew up around the meadow. The eastern part of today’s Trail of the Shadows follows a route the Longmires built to reach the Longmire Springs Hotel; the loop was later extended around the meadow.

The cabin has been rebuilt in place. The Civilian Conservation Corps replaced its log walls in kind in 1934, then the park replaced the roof and added a concrete foundation in 1970. None of the original materials remain, though the cabin still stands in its historic location.

The cabin sits among trees at the meadow’s north end, so take a moment to pick out its log front through the branches. An interpretive panel nearby includes a circa-1904 photograph of it in this same setting. For a photo, include some of the evergreens around the front; they show how tucked into the woods this little building is.

Longmire’s main parking lot behind the museum, inn, and gift shop has about 80 standard spaces and one van-accessible space. The area’s public flush restroom is near the museum and historic gas station; the National Park Inn has a restaurant and a water refill station. Those are useful nearby stops, not facilities inside the cabin.