The Goodletson Cabin

The Goodletson Cabin Museum is located next to the Pioneer Schoolhouse just north of the intersection of County Q and Moravia Street.

The Goodletson Cabin was built approximately in 1855 on Eagle Island (now Horseshoe Island) by Norwegian immigrant Thomas Goodletson and his family. It was skidded across the ice in the 1860s to the foot of the bay near where the Ephraim Condominiums are now located. Thomas and his wife Kjesten had nine children.

Many early meetings of the Bethany Lutheran Church were held in the cabin before the church was built in the 1880s. The Bethany Ladies Aid was founded in the cabin, and Mrs. Goodletson was the first treasurer. The Goodletson family lived in the cabin until the late 1800s.

For a time the cabin was used by the Hotel Ephraim as a honeymoon suite. In 1974, Ted Hoeppner donated the Goodletson Cabin to the EHF and the original cabin was moved to its current site on Moravia Street.