When Henry Cryder, Nathaniel Tabler, and Zachariah Walley arrived at Aux Sable Creek on October 23, 1833, they built a half-faced camp from local logs on the east side of the creek near a good spring of water. The original camp measured about 12 feet square, and Michael Cryder, who was 13 at the time, later recalled that after the group arrived from Delaware County, Ohio, they had nothing to shelter them but the wagons, so they first split rails, built a three-sided pen, and covered it with clapboards. The pioneer group traveled in three wagons and included Henry Cryder, age 53, his wife Mary Ann, age 49, and their children Michael, Harriet, and Susan; Nathaniel Tabler, age 24, his wife Mary Ann Cryder, age 21, and their sons Joseph and David; and Zachariah Walley, age 26, his wife Catherine Ann Cryder, age 19, and their daughter Emily. Twelve people spent their first winter in the wilderness in a three-sided hut no bigger than a single-car garage.