Fort Yargo is a one and one-half story log structure with opposite front and back doors for airflow in warmer months, a shake roof, and a stone chimney, though its first chimney may have been sticks or logs daubed with mud. It resembles many log cabins built across the southern highlands, especially Appalachia. Architectural historian and folklorist Dr. Henry Glassie argued that American log cabin construction followed Scandinavian and German traditions, while abundant logs and the scarcity of saw mills in rural areas also encouraged their use. In Georgia, log cabins more often followed the German tradition and often resembled the Medieval English Single Bay house familiar to many Scots-Irish settlers. Hewn logs, squared rather than left round, were the most common shape for period log homes in the southeastern United States, and six types of corner notching were used on such logs. The half dovetail, also called chamfer and notch, was especially effective at keeping out water and tightened as a building settled, helping cabins endure, and it was the most common notching style in Georgia. Settlers commonly roofed cabins with hand-cut cedar or pine shakes or shingles fastened with nails, which may have been the only nails used because they were handmade and expensive. Some cabins had wood floors, while others had dirt floors, and the presence of a saw mill and the builder’s woodworking skills shaped many details. Glass windows were rare on the frontier because they were costly and difficult to transport. Spaces between hewn logs were filled with chinking and daub: solid materials such as straw, wood, twigs, or chips were pressed between logs, then covered with clay and lime mortar. In earlier times, settlers sometimes removed portions of chinking in summer for ventilation and repaired it before cold weather. The chinking on this cabin is mud and straw and requires yearly maintenance because it cracks and falls out.