Trappers Cabin - uneven ground, slight step

The Trappers Cabin in the Wichita's Beginnings District at Old Cowtown Museum represents a dimension of the hunting and trading economiy that was the foundation of early Wichita. In addition to hunting fur bearing animals, others used traps instead of guns. The Trapper’s Cabin is interpreted as a structure that was used by a trapper as a residence and a base of operations. While a less lucrative occupation, it continued to profit from the prairie as did the buffalo hunters, traders and freighters.

This hand-hewn, cottonwood log cabin originally stood near the Chisholm Trail several miles south of present-day Clearwater, Kansas. It was built around 1865 on the south bank of the Ninnescah River by an unknown individual.

When the Osage Trust Lands were opened for settlement, a man named Kincaid filed a claim on the land occupied by the cabin and lived there with his family. He sold the property in 1878 to Adrian Sautter, an immigrant from Switzerland. He built a new frame house connecting the cabin which was then used as a summer kitchen. By 1934 the cabin had been completely incorporated into a larger house which accounts for its preserved state. The structure was donated to Old Cowtown Museum by Sautter's son, Louis A. Sautter, in 1969