Dufresne Job was a logging operation located on Stratton’s northwest slopes, operated by Louis Dufresne of Manchester, Vermont beginning in 1886 and continuing into the 20th Century. Dufresne sold off the last of his lands in Stratton in 1903, though the site remained active as a lumber camp through at least the 1920s.
By the 1920s, the Dufresne Job had become an established waypoint on the Long Trail.
The 1920 Long Trail Guide noted the location as "abandoned" with "some shelter in old buildings", and the 1922 guide described it as having a house that "affords some shelter but is dirty and in bad repair as is the shack adjoining". By 1926, hikers could expect to find "an abandoned lumber camp known as the ‘Dufresne Job’".
The site gained further visibility through documented hiking journeys. In July 1927, hiker Appleby arrived at Dufresne Job on July 3 at 11 a.m. and remained there 27 hours on account of a disabled companion. This account was later published in the Long Trail News, recording the shelter’s use during the interwar period.
The trail then headed down the northwestern slope to another logging operation known as the Dufresne Job, then followed the Timber Road to Manchester. The shelter has since vanished; currently, the Long Trail progresses through the remains of this old logging complex, as it extends between Stratton Mountain and Stratton Pond.
Sources
- Stratton Logging Railroad – The Vermont Journal & The Shopper. Accessed July 17, 2026. https://vermontjournal.com/featured-articles/stratton-logging-railroad/.
- Long Trail Guide Book 1920 (1920). Green Mountain Club. 25.
- Long Trail Guide Book 1922 (1922). Green Mountain Club. 36.
- Long Trail Guide Book 1924 (1924). Green Mountain Club. 46.
- Long Trail News 1928 (1928). Green Mountain Club. 3.
- "Long Trail News." , no. May (1952).
- Walter Collins O’Kane. Trails and Summits of the Green Mountains. The Riverside Press , 1926. Pp. 385.
- Young, D.K.. History of Stratton, Vermont. Green Mountain Club. Pp. 305.
