Mile 143.4 — Division 8 — Elev. 3300 ft.
This Shelter replaced Battell Lodge (2nd)
This log structure was built in 1938 by the LT Patrol, for the New York Section, at the cost of $194. It provided bunk space for up to 8.
This shelter was once in a dense stand of large trees, but these were mostly blown down by the hurricane of 1950. It was in use from 1938 to 1966.
SIxty years after it was built, Chet Buchanan recalled these tidbits about building the Battell Shelter with his father Roy:
When we built Battell Shelter (an open front Adirondack type built of logs), the privy was built out of logs – the only log privy on the trail, I believe. We made a sign identifying the shelter as Battell Shelter and, when it came to naming the privy, since it was enclosed instead of open front, the sign said, “Battell Lodge.” (Camps and lodges had four walls as opposed to shelters which had only three. Some years later, a windstorm blew down several trees around Battell, one of them falling on the privy so it was leaning at a 35 or 40 degree angle. We played Lincoln Logs, disassembled it, and reassembled it straight again.
For some reason that escapes me, perhaps for no reason, I gravitated to building the privies at a number of camps. One that I recall was named Whiteface Observatory. Another was named the “Defecatorium.” At one camp, we found a tag that had apparently fallen out of a package of new underwear that somebody had opened. It said “roomy balloon seat (sounds like a tall story) so we tacked it to the privy seat. At another place. we were all electrical engineers — we painted an ammeter on the seat with the needle on full discharge.
This shelter was replaced by Battell Shelter (2nd)
Long Trail Guide Book — 17th Edition, 1963
Buchanan, Chet. Reminiscences about Roy Buchanan and the LT, 1998
