The Gren Anderson Shelter, located in Stokes State Forest near Culvers Lake, was formally dedicated on November 16, 1959, before an assembly of seventy‑two members of the New York Section of the Green Mountain Club. The shelter was built to fill a critical gap in the Appalachian Trail’s New Jersey shelter system and was named in memory of Gren Anderson, the Section’s late president and a respected leader in regional trail work. During the ceremony, a commemorative plaque was unveiled by Mrs. Anderson, honoring her husband’s contributions.
Construction of the shelter was funded entirely by the New York Section of the Green Mountain Club, and the work itself was carried out by club volunteers. The project was led by Sam Wilkinson, a trustee who designed the structure, and Harry Smith, whose ingenuity and leadership guided the crew through a summer of labor. The resulting lean‑to was considered unusually well‑appointed for its time: it featured a plank floor, a built‑in table, a movable park‑style table, rustic rain gutters along the front eaves, and a stone fireplace. Even the privy reflected the builders’ creativity—its “one‑holer” included a red signal flag that could be operated only from inside, a humorous invention credited to Smith.
On the night before the dedication, club members conducted a practical test of the shelter’s capacity and determined that it could sleep nine hikers, slightly more than originally planned.
Upon completion, the shelter was formally transferred to Stokes State Forest, whose staff assumed responsibility for its long‑term maintenance. Since then, the Gren Anderson Shelter has served generations of Appalachian Trail hikers traveling between Culver Gap and Sunrise Mountain, offering a well‑built, historically rich overnight stop in one of New Jersey’s most scenic forest landscapes.
Sources
- "Long Trail News." 1959.
