This two-story cabin is a classic example of American frontier log construction. Sixty-three year old Elizabeth "Auntie" Stone and her second husband Lewis arrived in this area in 1864. The Army granted them permission to build a private residence on the Fort Collins military reservation; this cabin remains as the only surviving structure of 22 buildings from the original military fort. The cabin doubled as the Officers Mess until the fort closed in 1867. In later years it functioned as the town's first school, hotel, boarding house, and private residence.
After the death of Lewis, Auntie Stone's widowed niece, Elizabeth Keays moved into the cabin with her. In an 1866, diary entry, Keays noted "my private room has an ingrain carpet, nice bed, window, with a nice sunset view , with hills and the pretty Cache-a-la-Poudre."
With the aid of Henry Clay Peterson, Auntie Stone established the area's first gristmill and brickyard. A cherished and respected businesswoman, she worked for the suffrage movement as well as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Auntie Stone contributed greatly to the moral and economic quality of the community until her death at age 94 in 1895.
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