Pearson Metropark preserves one of the last remaining pieces of the Great Black Swamp, which once covered much of the region. The Johlin Cabin is a log home built in the swamp in 1867. Originally located about 1.5 miles from here on Corduroy Road between Coy and Lallendorf roads, the 20-by-26-foot house remained in the Johlin family until Frederick Carl Johlin, Sr., donated it to Metroparks in 2006. It was moved to its present site to demonstrate what life was like in the notorious swamp. Log homes were built as permanent structures with hewed logs, a shingle roof, brick chimney, glass windows, and a cellar. The Johlin home has all of these characteristics and also reflects the family's German homeland in features such as horizontal clapboarding on the framed gables, a central chimney for a stove, an off-center front door, room partitions, and a shingled roof.