Plank house

A plank house is a type of house constructed by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest, typically using cedar planks.

The oldest plank house village found is located in Kitselas Canyon at the Paul Mason Site in western British Columbia, CA. This village is estimated to be 3000 years old. There has been a fire pit associated with a single house situated on the Maurer Site (on the Fraser River) that has been dated to approximately 4000 BCE.

Due to the nature of this building material, the anthropological documentation for these people is not widespread. The manner of wood harvest and continued use of that harvest was purposeful and sustainable. Native people of the Pacific Northwest maintained a distinct respect for cedar and the value it had held for many generations.

Cedar logs comprise the primary support system of the plank houses of the Pacific Northwest Indians, and are clad with thick cedar planks harvested from living trees. Cedar trees have a straight grain with very few knots and have good weather resistance. The straight grain enables the separation of planks of wood from the tree. Craftspeople would insert a wedge to separate a section of wood through the height of the tree and removed it with an adze at both ends. This harvest method was sustainable and enabled the people to use the wood and to have a supply of planks to rebuild in another location. The patience of the people is evident in the practice of leaving the wedge in place to continue the pressure that would enable another wedge placement further up, creating longer planks.

Canadian anthropologist Wilson Duff quotes Simon Fraser, who (upon observation of the Coast Salish homes on the banks of the now named Fraser River) wrote in his 1800 journal; "as an excellent house 46 × 32 and constructed like American frame houses; the planks are three to 4 inches thick, each plank overlapping the adjoining one a couple of inches; the post, which are very strong and crudely carved, received across beams; the walls are 11 feet high and covered with a slanting roof. On the opposite side of the river there is a considerable village with houses similar to the one on the side." Kenneth Ames, contributor to Life in the Big House; Household Labor and Dwelling Size on the Northwest Coast, calculates the volume of wood in this house to exceed half a million board feet (1,200 m³). A multi-family house found in Nanaimo, on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, is documented as being made of split cedar planks that were "held in place by withes (cedar rope) that come from the long lower branches of Cedar trees that grow in open spaces." (Fraser)

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