The log cabin, along with coonskin cap and Kentucky rifle, conjures up images rugged pioneer days. Simple one-room dwellings of logs, notched together at the corners, were introduced to America around 1638 by Swedish settlers in Delaware. Subsequently, German and Scotch Irish immigrants, as well as Russian explorers along the western coast and in Alaska, introduced their own forms of log construction. During the great westward expansion that began in the late 1700s, the log cabin was practically ubiquitous in timber-rich frontier areas; it could be built with only the aid of an axe, and required no costly nails. Intended to serve merely as way stations in the wilderness, cabins rarely became (10) permanent homes. When families desired better housing with more amenities they either abandoned their cabins (often to be occupied by new transients) incorporated them into larger dwellings, converted them into storage facilities, or in the South, used them as slave quarters.