The Bersaw Home was the private residence of Mrs. Valier Bersaw in Cuttingsville, Vermont, that served as a stopping point for Long Trail hikers during the late 1930s. Located on the upper road in the Cold River Valley, a short distance above the trail crossing, it offered hikers food, lodging, telephone access, and mail service. The home appeared by name in only one edition of the Long Trail Guide Book — the 1937 Edition 11 — and was not a Green Mountain Club facility. It should not be confused with Roskenny Farm (GMC ID 000302), a separate private lodging located miles to the south near East Clarendon station; both appeared as distinct stops within the same trail division, operated by different women.
Setting
The Bersaw Home lay in the Cold River Valley between Clarendon Shelter and the Killington approaches — a stretch of trail that involved substantial river and road walking before climbing toward higher ground. The 1937 guidebook narrative describes the trail’s approach:
On reaching the valley the Trail comes into a road, follows it to the left as far as the corner with a school house on the left, and there takes the right hand road to the first house, once known as "Brookside," but now abandoned. Directly at the end of the house the Trail turns north from the road, following a winding path through meadow and pasture to a branch of Cold River, and follows this up along the bank for half a mile. Here it crosses another branch and half a mile farther on comes out on the upper road.
It was at this upper road crossing that the Bersaw Home stood — slightly off the trail, "up the hill a few rods" to the right.
Mrs. Valier Bersaw and the Home
The 1937 Long Trail Guide Book (Edition 11) described the Bersaw Home as follows:
At the right, up the hill a few rods, is the home of Mrs. Valier Bersaw, phone, food and lodging. Mail may also be sent in her care, Cuttingsville, Vt.
Mrs. Bersaw offered a full complement of hiker services: a meal, a bed, access to a telephone, and the ability to receive mail at Cuttingsville. In an era when through-hikers depended on private farmhouses for resupply, the inclusion of mail service was a practical necessity on a multi-week journey.
The appendix to Edition 11 listed Division V lodging options as: "East Clarendon, Roskenny Place, Mrs. Valier Bersaw, Long Trail Lodge" — four separate entries representing distinct stops spread across the division. The Bersaw Home was one of two private residences serving hikers in this stretch in 1937, the other being Roskenny Place (near the East Clarendon depot, operated by Mrs. Theresa Fitzpatrick). The two establishments were in different towns and run by different women, though both appeared in the same division’s lodging list.
Duration of Service
The Bersaw Home appeared in the 1937 guidebook but had been dropped from subsequent editions. The GMC shelter database records an end year of 1940, suggesting that the home ceased serving hikers around that time, possibly coinciding with Edition 12 of the guidebook. No further documentation of the property’s history — why it stopped accepting hikers, what became of the structure — has been found. The building no longer stands.
Sources
Green Mountain Club (GMC). GMC Shelter Database, Shelter ID 000284.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book, Edition 11. Green Mountain Club, 1937. pp. 25, 70. [Narrative p. 25: "At the right, up the hill a few rods, is the home of Mrs. Valier Bersaw, phone, food and lodging. Mail may also be sent in her care, Cuttingsville, Vt."; appendix p. 70, Division V: "East Clarendon, Roskenny Place, Mrs. Valier Bersaw, Long Trail Lodge."]
Woodward, Paul and Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History, 2nd edition. Green Mountain Club, September 10, 1999. p. 143. ["Location is on the right up the hill a few rods after reaching the upper road in Cuttingsville. Mrs. Valier Bersaw provides food, lodging, and phone. Mail may also be sent in her care. [GB 11th Edition 1937]"]
