The second Laura Woodward Shelter stood for forty-five years on the same ridge in Division 12 where its predecessor had burned. Built by the Long Trail Patrol in 1956 at a cost of just $386.14, it served hikers through the era of the Jay Peak Tramway, the rise of through-hiking, and the Long Trail’s designation as a historic trail — until its own sill logs rotted away and a New Hampshire hiker donated its replacement.
Building the Replacement: 1956
When fire destroyed the first Laura Woodward Shelter in August 1955, the GMC’s immediate response was cautious. The Long Trail News of May 1956 reported that the Club faced a backlog of shelters in need of repair across the system, and that the Laura Woodward Shelter "may not get re-built this year." At the August 1956 meeting of Trustees, the matter remained unresolved: the board voted to leave the timing "to the discretion of the Trails and Shelters Committee."
The Committee moved faster than the Trustees’ hedged language suggested. The Long Trail Patrol built the replacement that same season, and the Long Trail News of February 1957 recorded the result: the new camp stood on the same site as the burned shelter, with a lumber road on the east providing construction access and keeping costs to $386.14 — a fraction of what a more remote build would have required.
The 15th Edition of the Long Trail Guide Book (1956), printed before the new shelter was finished, still described only "the site of Laura Woodward Shelter (246.6 m.), burned in 1955." By the 16th Edition (1960), the new structure had taken its place in the guidebook’s narrative:
"This log shelter was built in 1956 by the Long Trail Patrol to replace a similar structure burned the previous year. There is bunk space for 6 to 8, and water is located at a spring on a spur 200 ft. north on the Long Trail."
Forty-Five Years of Service
The second Laura Woodward Shelter served hikers through the Long Trail’s busiest decades. It appears in nine editions of the Long Trail Guide Book, each repeating the same quiet description while the trail around it changed: Jay Peak acquired a tramway in the early 1960s, ski development expanded the mountain, and through-hiking grew from a curiosity into an established tradition. The shelter’s location — roughly 3 miles north of Jay Camp, at 2,800 feet on the ridge leading toward the Canadian border — made it an important waypoint in Division 12, one of the most remote stretches of the Long Trail.
By the 1980s the Jay Section had taken over maintenance responsibility for the shelter, a fact noted in the 22nd Edition (1983) and all subsequent editions.
In 1998, the Long Trail News included the shelter in a survey of historically significant structures on the trail, listing it alongside others built in the same era: "Laura Woodward Shelter, built in 1956 and named for a Long Trail pioneer." By then the shelter was forty-two years old — old enough to qualify as historically significant by preservation standards, and old enough to be showing its age.
The End: Rotting Sills, 2001
By 2001 the shelter’s structural condition had deteriorated past the point of repair. The Long Trail News (Winter 2001) reported that it "was in need of replacement as well, mostly due to rotting sill logs" — the base timbers that keep an Adirondack lean-to off the ground and bear the weight of its walls.
The timing aligned it with another troubled shelter nearby. Shooting Star Shelter, four miles to the north, had been built in 1934 and had collapsed entirely the previous winter under record snowfall. The GMC planned to replace both shelters in the 2001 field season.
The Replacement: September 2001
The man who replaced Laura Woodward Shelter was Tom Abbott of New Hampshire, a hiker who had been so moved by the Long Trail and its shelter system that he wanted to give something back. When the GMC needed a replacement for Laura Woodward, Abbott offered to build it. He prebuilt the new Adirondack-style lean-to in his yard, disassembled it into bundles for transport, and handed it over to the Club.
Sources
- Long Trail Guide Book. 24th Edition ed. Green Mountain Club, 1956.
- Long Trail News 1957 (1957). Green Mountain Club. 3.
- Long Trail News 1957 (1957). Green Mountain Club. 1.
- Long Trail News 1957 (1957). Green Mountain Club. 5.
- "Long Trail News." , no. February (1957).
- Long Trail News 1958 (1958). Green Mountain Club. 3.
- Long Trail News 1981 (1981). Green Mountain Club. 12.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 24th Edition ed. Green Mountain Club, 1996.
- Long Trail News 1999 (1999). Green Mountain Club. 19.
- Long Trail News 2001 (2001). Green Mountain Club. 15.
- Green Mountain Club. Guide Book of the Long Trail. 16 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1960. Pp. 67.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 17 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1963. Pp. 67.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 17 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1963. Pp. 69.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 18 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1966. Pp. 70.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 19 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1968. Pp. 70.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 20 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1971. Pp. 74.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 20 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1971. Pp. 72.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 21 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1977. Pp. 83.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 22 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1983. Pp. 83.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 23 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. Pp. 86.
- Woodward, Paul & Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History. 2nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1999. Pp. 60.
