Lula Tye Shelter was a wood-frame lean-to on the east shore of Little Rock Pond in the town of Wallingford, Vermont. Built by the U.S. Forest Service in 1962 as the East Shore Shelter, it was formally dedicated on June 2, 1963, and renamed in honor of Lula M. Tye — the Green Mountain Club’s first paid staff member and its corresponding secretary for nearly thirty years. The shelter stood for almost five decades as one of the most-visited overnight facilities on the Long Trail system, served by a GMC caretaker program and visited by thousands of hikers on the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail. In 1972, shoreline damage at the pond prompted the Student Conservation Association to disassemble the shelter, carry it 0.3 miles south, and reassemble it at a new location. It was removed in 2011 by a Yale University student orientation service crew, and the site was restored. Lula Tye Shelter (GMC ID 000156) is no longer extant.
Who Was Lula Tye
Lula M. Tye was born in 1888 and came to the GMC through the world of Rutland civic administration. Before joining the club, she had worked as financial secretary to the Rutland Businessmen’s Association and then as manager of the Rutland Chamber of Commerce — roles in which, as a 2015 Long Trail News article on women’s history in the GMC described her, she became "the thread that bound Rutland’s business community together for nearly half a century."
In January 1926, the GMC trustees voted to hire her as the club’s first paid staff member. The job had simply outgrown volunteer capacity: routine administrative duties — correspondence, membership records, publications — required more time than any volunteer could give. Tye replaced James P. Taylor as Corresponding Secretary, and over the course of nearly thirty years she became, in the words of Art Koerber, a GMC member at-large who spoke at the shelter dedication, simply "the Club" — the person who held the institutional fabric together as officers and trustees came and went. She served 29 years and six months before retiring in 1955, and she attended Long Trail outings and represented the GMC at conferences throughout her tenure. She died in February 1962 at the age of 73, the same year the shelter that would bear her name was built.
Her memory is invoked alongside Minerva Hinchey, another female GMC administrative stalwart who also had a shelter named in her honor — the Minerva Hinchey Shelter, which remains in use south of Clarendon Gorge. Both women shaped the GMC not on the trail but at the desk, and both were recognized with shelters in the same era.
Construction and Setting (1962)
Little Rock Pond sits on the Long Trail / Appalachian Trail corridor in the town of Wallingford, at the boundary of the Green Mountain National Forest. The pond draws heavy hiker use from both the north and south, and by the early 1960s the USFS was investing in overnight infrastructure to handle the volume while protecting the pond’s fragile shoreline.
In 1962, the U.S. Forest Service built two shelters to serve the pond: the East Shore Shelter (later Lula Tye) and what would become the Little Rock Pond Shelter. Both were wood-frame lean-tos with bunk space for six to eight people, constructed with red-stained planks. The East Shore Shelter occupied the pond’s east bank, "open on the side toward the lake" as the dedication account would describe it — a design that gave hikers a view of the water from their bunks.
The Little Rock Pond Shelter was initially sited on the pond’s small island. It was also moved in 1972, to the north end of the pond. The two shelters anchored the overnight experience at Little Rock Pond from opposite ends of the water for roughly a decade before the shoreline impacts required their relocation.
The Dedication (June 2, 1963)
On Sunday, June 2, 1963, approximately 35 GMC members walked two miles in to Little Rock Pond for the formal dedication of the East Shore Shelter in Lula Tye’s memory. The account in the Long Trail News for August 1963 described the shelter as "strongly constructed of red stained planks," built to accommodate about eight, "open on the side toward the lake." A sign had been attached to the outside bearing the new name: the Lula Tye Shelter.
District Ranger Sid Davis of the U.S. Forest Service had directed the construction, and USFS Staff Assistant John Maslack attended the ceremony. The dedication brought together GMC members and a representative of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s New England chapter — Max Sauter spoke for the "Appies," reflecting the collaborative relationship the two clubs maintained along the trail corridor.
Several speakers paid tribute. Ben Rolston gave the most precise accounting of Tye’s service: "29 years and six months." Art Koerber offered the most memorable characterization: for him, Lula Tye "was the Club." As the ceremony concluded, heads bowed in a moment of respectful and affectionate silence for the woman who had given three decades to the organization.
Davis also mentioned that the USFS was building a Sucker Pond shelter and had plans for two or three additional shelters in the area — the pond dedication was part of a broader USFS investment in the National Forest trail corridor at the time.
The dedication also inspired Sandy Stare, then a hiker who visited Little Rock Pond that year, to build the Lost Pond Shelter on the Long Trail further north. Stare later went on to help lead renovation projects on several other shelters, including Minerva Hinchey, Lula Tye itself, the East Shore shelter, and Tucker Johnson Shelter.
Early Use and the Caretaker Era
From its earliest years, Lula Tye Shelter was part of the GMC’s developing caretaker program. By the mid-1970s, a GMC caretaker was in residence at Little Rock Pond, and a small overnight fee was charged for use at designated sites, at Lula Tye Shelter, and at Little Rock Pond Shelter — among the first campsite fees on the Long Trail system. Tent platforms and toilet facilities, including a Clivus Multrum composting unit, were provided on a rise 100 feet east of the pond.
The 1977 Long Trail Guide Book described the scene at the southern end of Little Rock Pond: "The heavy use this popular pond receives requires careful management to preserve its beauty and fragile shoreline environment. Camping within 200 ft. of the pond’s shoreline is restricted to designated sites only. A GMC Caretaker is in residence, and a small fee is charged for overnight use at these designated sites, at Lula Tye Shelter, and at Little Rock Pond Shelter."
As the decades passed, Little Rock Pond became one of the busiest GMC caretaker sites on the Long Trail, consistently listed in annual caretaker rosters alongside Stratton Pond, Taft Lodge, and Battell Shelter. A 2005 Ridgelines (Burlington Section) profile of two first-year caretakers noted that Kelly Walsh had worked that season at Montclair Glen Lodge and at "Lula Tye, Little Rock Pond and Stratton Pond Shelters." By the mid-1990s, per the 24th edition of the Long Trail Guide Book, the shelter had been "used from 1972 to present" in its relocated position, with fees charged for overnight use.
The 1972 Relocation
By 1972, a decade of heavy use had left visible damage along the Little Rock Pond shoreline, and the USFS and GMC moved to address it. Both shelters serving the pond were relocated: the Little Rock Pond Shelter was moved from its island site to the north end of the pond; and the Lula Tye Shelter was moved 0.3 miles south of its original east-shore location, away from the most fragile shoreline zone.
The Lula Tye relocation was carried out in July 1972 by a Student Conservation Association crew working under USFS and GMC direction. The SCA workers disassembled the shelter, carried the materials south along the trail, and reassembled the structure at its new site. The Long Trail News for February 1974 confirmed the event matter-of-factly: "The two shelters at Little Rock Pond were moved in 1972 to new sites located short distances north and south of the Pond. The trail around the west side of the Pond has been closed, and the trail to Green Mountain now begins at the north end of the Pond."
The 1974 LTN also noted that "relocation of the Long Trail further away from the Pond is planned for 1974" — the broader effort to pull the trail corridor back from the water’s edge that would characterize management at the pond for the next several decades.
Later Years and Replacement
After the relocation, the shelter continued in service through the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s — more than three additional decades in its new position. The Little Rock Pond complex evolved around it: new trail routing pulled the main corridor further from the water, tent platforms replaced more informal camping, and the caretaker program matured into one of the GMC’s flagship operations.
Plans eventually developed to replace both aging USFS shelters at the pond with new structures. Archaeological work at the proposed building site revealed Abenaki ancestral material, which shaped the planning process. Construction of a new Little Rock Pond Shelter was completed in 2010.
Removal (2011)
In 2011, a Yale University student orientation service crew removed the Lula Tye Shelter and restored the site. The shelter that had stood — in two locations — for 49 years was gone. The GMC database records its end year as 2011 and lists it as no longer extant.
Sources
- "Lula Tye served as Corresponding Secretary of the GMC from 1926–1955." Long Trail News, 1926. Green Mountain Club. 1995.
- "Little Rock Pond Shelter Dedicated to Lula M. Tye." Long Trail News, 1963. Green Mountain Club. 4-5.
- Long Trail News, 1972. Green Mountain Club.
- "Trail and Shelter Changes." Long Trail News, 1975. Green Mountain Club. 7.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 21st ed. Green Mountain Club, 1977. Pp. 38.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 22nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1983. Pp. 37.
- Long Trail Guide Book. 24th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1996.
- "A Conversation with Caretakers Annaliese and Kelly." Ridgelines, 2005. Burlington Section, GMC. 2.
- "Trivia item on Lula Tye Shelter." Smoke & Blazes 58 (2005). Killington Section, GMC.
- "Sandy Stare obituary." Long Trail News, 2021. Green Mountain Club.
- George F. Pearlstein, "Trail and Shelter Changes." Long Trail News, 1974. Green Mountain Club. 5.
- Reidun Nuquist, "Women in the GMC." Long Trail News, 2015. Green Mountain Club.
- Woodward, Paul and Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History. 2nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1999.
