The Lake Mansfield Trout Club is situated at the southeasterly end of Nebraska Notch, a deep valley beneath the western face of Mount Mansfield in Underhill, Vermont.
The Club’s story begins not with careful planning but with an unlikely accident. Sometime in the 1880s or early 1890s, two local men — Orlo Luce and Mark Lovejoy — went fishing along Miller Brook, a stream running through a valley west of Stowe, Vermont, beneath the western flank of Mount Mansfield. Spotting a young bull in a nearby field, Lovejoy expressed caution. Luce paid him no mind. The bull charged, and Luce found himself treed. Lovejoy, laughing, fell asleep under a nearby tree and left his friend to his own devices. Perched aloft and waiting for the bull to lose interest, Luce had time to think. He looked at the brook below and the surrounding hills and imagined what a fine thing it would be to build a dam here and create a pond for trout fishing.
The idea percolated for the better part of a decade. In July 1899, Luce and Lovejoy returned to Miller Brook — this time with a promotional party. They gathered a group of local men interested in forming a corporation and fishing club. By September of that year it was official. They leased land from brothers Charles and Frank Burt and acquired additional acreage from Plummer Pratt. Shares were sold at $50 each to finance the construction. A dam was built across what was now being called Nebraska Brook. The final cost came to $6,752 — no small sum — and the dam was completed in October 1901, impounding a forty-acre artificial lake. An Italianate farmhouse on the site was converted first to a horse barn and then, through building campaigns in 1904 and 1911, expanded into the large Adirondack Rustic lodge that stands today: a two-and-a-half-story wood-shingled structure with exposed rafter tails, a wraparound porch, a massive cobblestone fireplace, and interiors of knotty pine and matchboard. The new lake was stocked with trout and ready for fishing by around 1906.
The club drained and improved the lake twice more in its history — in 1924 and again in 1946 — each time rebuilding the dam to better standards. Through it all, the Lake Mansfield Trout Club remained a private sanctuary for fishing, swimming, boating, and what one member characterized simply as "serenity."
The Trails: An Ambitious and Uneven Legacy
The Trout Club’s most enduring gift to the wider public was never intended as such. Over the decades following the club’s founding, members began cutting trails into the hills and valleys that surrounded their lake. These were private paths built for private enjoyment — routes to scenic viewpoints, ridgelines, and the wild country between Lake Mansfield and the Long Trail. At their peak the club maintained some fifteen named trails covering the western approaches to Mount Mansfield’s massif.
The trail-building impulse was strong but the commitment to maintenance less reliable. Seasons passed, membership changed, and stretches of trail would grow over, blowdowns would go uncleared, and blazes would fade until a path became more rumor than reality. Then, periodically, a fresh cadre of members would shoulder axes, saws, and paint brushes, and the trails would re-emerge from the forest. This cycle — creation, neglect, revival — has repeated itself throughout the club’s history. The trails existed in a kind of managed impermanence, their survival depending on the enthusiasm of whoever happened to be active at any given moment.
Taylor Lodge and Trout Club
By the summer of 1925, the Green Mountain Club’s Burlington Section felt a need for a lodge in the vicinity of Nebraska Notch and had been using the Trout Club facilities. The Trout Club was willing to donate the land but stipulated that an open shelter be built.
The Section wanted a closed lodge, so the project was put on hold due to lack of funds and the Trout Club’s stipulation, until the Main Club offered $1000 from the Judge Hazelton Fund for the building of a lodge.
The club voted to start building the lodge in Nebraska Notch with a cost not to exceed $750. The lodge referred to as Nebraska Notch Lodge and later named Taylor Lodge was built for $150 less than authorized. This lodge, named for the founder of the GMC, was built by the Burlington Section in 1926 under the skillful direction of Ernest E. Smith and Dr. E. G. Twitchell.
In January 1951 a group of hikers who had planned to spend the night there discovered that it had been burned to the ground, with the ruins covered with snow.The Section carried fire insurance for the rebuilding. A second Taylor Lodge was built in 1951 by members of the Burlington Section under the direction of Prof. Buchanan, with bunks for about 12 and floor space for more.
The club has continued to support trail maintenance and infrastructure around the shelter. In 1999, a new signed parking lot was established for the Lake Mansfield Trail on the County Road just off Nebraska Valley Road about one-half mile below the Lake Mansfield Trout Club, with hikers allowed to park at the Trout Club parking lot as well.
The Lake Mansfield Trout Club gave permission to drive across its property during a 2002 work project, saving a half-mile of hauling.
Sources
- Lake Mansfield (VT) Trail System | New England & New York Backcountry & Hiking Forum. Accessed July 17, 2026. https://www.vftt.org/threads/lake-mansfield-vt-trail-system.62843/.
- Long Trail Guide Book 1922 (1922). Green Mountain Club. 14.
- Long Trail Guide Book 1924 (1924). Green Mountain Club. 18.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 13th Edition ed. Green Mountain Club, 1947.
- Long Trail News 1999 (1999). Green Mountain Club. 8.
- Long Trail News 2002 (2002). Green Mountain Club. 21.
- Ridgelines (Burlington) 2026 (2026). Burlington Section, Green Mountain Club. 5.
- Ridgelines (Burlington) 2026 (2026). Burlington Section, Green Mountain Club. 4.
- Glenn M. Andres and Curtis B. Johnson. “Lake Mansfield Trout Club.” SAH ARCHIPEDIA. Accessed July 17, 2026. https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VT-01-LA20.
- Holmes, Marjorie . History of the Green Mountain Club, Burlington Section. Green Mountain Club. Pp. 16.
- Walter Collins O’Kane. Trails and Summits of the Green Mountains. The Riverside Press , 1926. Pp. 416.
- Walter O’Kane. Trails and Summits of the Green Mountains. 1926.
- Woodward, Paul & Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History. 2nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1999. Pp. 116.
