Lincoln Logs

Build your own log cabin! Stack the notched wooden logs together to make cabins, forts, ranches and whatever else you want to build.

Simple and fun! Lincoln Logs are small wooden logs with notches near the ends so they can be fitted together. Stack them up, overlap the corners, add the green planks to form a roof and you've got your own log cabin. Or a fort. Or a ranch house - or whatever else you want to build.

Lincoln Logs have been around for more than 100 years! They were invented by John Lloyd Wright, the son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Surprisingly, the idea for Lincoln Logs did not come from American log cabins. Wright was inspired after watching the construction of his father's earthquake-resistant Imperial Hotel in Japan, which used an interlocking structure designed to remain stable during an earthquake.

Lincoln Logs really took off in popularity in the 1950s, when cowboys, pioneers and the American frontier were everywhere. TV shows such as Davy Crockett helped make log cabins and frontier life pretty exciting to kids, and Lincoln Logs advertising tied right into that craze.

Unlike many toys from the 1950s, you can still buy Lincoln Logs today, and they are still made of real wood. There are small cabin sets, farms, ranches, tree houses and much larger sets with hundreds of pieces. You can follow the instructions and build what's pictured on the box, or forget the instructions and build whatever you want.

No batteries, no screen, just a box full of little wooden logs. But with Lincoln Logs, that's enough.