Old Aurora Colony Museum: Log Cabin (photo diary)

by Ojibwa for Museums

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Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 at 11:15:19am PST

Between 1856 and 1883, nearly 600 people, almost all German and Swiss emigrants, established and lived in the Aurora Colony, a Christian communal society. The nineteenth century had seen many efforts at Utopian living, part of the Second Great Awakening that reflected a massive Romantic religious movement sweeping across England, Scotland, and Germany. Christian communal living in the Aurora Colony was carried out by individuals who were members of specific family groups, and this was notably unlike other Christian colonies.

Five buildings are part of the Old Aurora Colony Museum in Aurora, Oregon.

George and his wife Catherine Miley Steinbach lived in this cabin with their five young children from 1876 to 1883. Catherine’s father also came to live with the family, at which time the family built an addition with a separate entrance for him. The children slept in the loft. Many of the articles found in this home are authentic to the Steinbach and Miley families.

This is one of three log buildings surviving from the Aurora Colony. It is constructed of peeled and hand-hewn cedar timbers and chinked with mud, straw and manure.