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Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/21743
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<p>I'm exploring primitive shelter building in northern cool temperate climates. I mean primitive as a compliment: the prime, first, original, indigenous, low-tech/base-tech. Things like the Haudenosaunee or Viking <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhouse" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Longhouse</a> seem to be the most 'standard' approach to cold climate primitive shelter building: half-cylindrical structures with steep roofs and gable venting.</p>

<p>One (tall!) example:
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/HPC33.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/HPC33.jpg" alt="Viking longhouse via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bajuwarenhof_Kirchheim_Langhaus_Querseite_2012-08-05.jpg"></a></p>

<p>I'd like to build a small-scale (~12'x10'x10') version of this type of structure using locally available materials that are common to the Adirondack foothills. <strong>What types of woods have been used in northern climates historically? What trees did Haudenosaunee people build their longhouses with?</strong></p>

<p>In this region there's an abundance of red spruce, balsam fir, sugar maple, red maple, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagus_grandifolia#Disease" rel="nofollow noreferrer">diseased</a> (thus small diameter) American beech; some eastern hemlock, red pine, and white pine; and small patches of northern white cedar. I'm not sure any of these are suitable for "long-term" shelter builds (relative for primitive shelters, not a short-term debris hut). </p>