Southern Indiana Living - Sept / Oct 2022

Business Spotlight
Building Generations
Local family-owned cabin business keeps growing
When Linda and Randy
Gilmore built their first
cabin in 1986, they never
dreamed that their 14
acres would expand into a 200-acre
spread with more than 120 cabins
tucked into its scenic woodland. And
they had no idea that 36 years later it
would evolve into a thriving business
run by their son, Dale, and his wife,
Billie.
The enterprise began almost by
accident, Randy said.
It all started when a friend, the
late Lovell Wilkes, urged Randy to
look at Wilkes’ cabin.
“He had asked me a couple of
times,” Randy said. “And finally, he
insisted, ‘Get your wife and come
look.’” They looked. An idea was
born, and soon their first cabin was
started at the rural Wickliffe site, near
Patoka Lake.
That was the beginning of Patoka
Lake Cabin Sales and Gilmore
Log Homes, which became a fourgeneration
endeavor. “Our son, Josh,
has been with us since he was little
and is a big part of all we do,” Billie
said. When needed, their daughters,
daughter-in-law, son-in-law and even
20 • Sept/Oct 2022 • Southern Indiana Living
young grandchildren pitch in, she
said. “So, you can see it is truly a family
business. Skills have been passed
down.”
Randy and Linda built that first
cabin while working full-time jobs.
“We worked weekends and until 10
some nights to get it built,” Linda
said.
It almost ended there.
“It took a year for that first cabin
to sell,” Randy said. “I vowed if that
ever sold, I would never build another
one.”
However, he didn’t stay true
to those words. The cabin sold on a
Saturday morning, and by that afternoon
the next cabin was underway.
The Gilmores have continued
to add acreage, clearing, developing,
surveying and dividing the land into
acre and half-acre lots. They have
built 120 cabins, mostly on Gilmore
property, with 15 or so built in Brown,
Spencer, Dubois, Perry, Pike and Orange
counties.
Much has changed since the
first few cabins went up, Linda said.
Instead of the up-to-date equipment
used now, she recalls using a cake
decorating bag to chink in between
Story by Sara Combs
Photos submitted by Gilmore Log Homes
the logs. “I used a pencil and graph
paper to design those first cabins,”
she said.
“Now,” said Billie, “we use computer-aided
design programs to help
in the planning.”
Every person has different wants
and needs, she said. “They tell me
what their budget is, what size they
want and how many people they
want to accommodate.
“Some want to entertain family
and friends; some like to keep it more
intimate. With the lake nearby, some
want to take advantage of that for
swimming, fishing and water sports.
Some are just looking for a quiet place
to relax. We do our best to guide them
to build the dream home getaway
they want.”
One thing that hasn’t changed
is the personal service the Gilmores
provide. “When clients who have
spent time here return home and start
to wonder if they have turned off
the water or the stove, all they have
to do is call and we have checked it
for them and take care of whatever is
needed.”
“There were five cabins early on
and we became friends with a lot of