Melville Nauheim is a frame lean-to on the Long Trail in southern Vermont’s Glastenbury Wilderness — 1.4 miles north of Vermont Route 9 on a 250-foot spur trail at elevation 2,300 feet, on the steep southern approach to Glastenbury Mountain. It was built in 1977 by the Bennington Section of the Green Mountain Club with $3,000 donated by Mrs. Ruth Nauheim of New York City in memory of her late husband, Melville Nauheim, with the intent that the shelter be built "away from any roads or ski areas." Dedicated on May 28, 1978 as part of a triple ceremony that also opened the longest trail relocation in GMC history — a nearly 12-mile reroute through the Glastenbury region — the shelter has been in continuous service ever since. Mrs. Nauheim herself visited on July 23, 1980, and declared herself "very pleased with the shelter and its location." The shelter received a new roof in 2008–2009 installed by college service crews, was fully refurbished in 2021, and received an ADA-accessible moldering privy that year as part of a GMC initiative to eliminate pit privies from the Long Trail system — with the materials airlifted by helicopter to the remote site. The Bennington Section remains responsible for its maintenance.
Setting: Division II and the South Approach to Glastenbury Mountain
Vermont Route 9 — the Molly Stark Byway — crosses the southern Green Mountains between Bennington and Brattleboro, climbing through the Woodford highlands and then descending toward Wilmington. The Long Trail crosses it 5.2 miles east of Bennington village, passes through the woods on the north side of the highway, and begins its long ascent toward the Glastenbury Wilderness.
This section of the Long Trail — Division II in the GMC’s regional organization, running from Vermont 9 to the Arlington-West Wardsboro Road — is remote by the standards of southern Vermont hiking. The terrain is heavily forested, the ridgeline carries no views for long stretches, and the distances to any road are considerable. The Glastenbury Mountain area, which the trail eventually reaches some 10 miles north of Route 9, has been since 1984 part of the Glastenbury Wilderness — a 23,000-acre federal wilderness area where trail and shelter construction must follow wilderness area regulations, including the prohibition of power tools. Melville Nauheim Shelter sits near the southern end of this section, just above the steep initial climb from the highway, accessible but genuinely backcountry.
The Long Trail from Route 9 north was not always on its current route. The original trail, established circa 1920, followed Hell Hollow Brook upstream from Woodford Hollow — a route that had long since been obliterated by the time of the shelter’s construction. The trail that Nauheim Shelter sits on is a relocated route, opened simultaneously with the shelter’s dedication.
The Gift: A Memorial Donation (1975)
The first documentary record of Melville Nauheim Shelter in the GMC archive appears in the November 1975 Long Trail News, which notes that a donation of $3,000 from the Nauheim family had been received — earmarked for the construction of a shelter and tent platform "to be built in the mountains away from any roads or ski areas." This language — specifying distance from roads and ski areas — tells us something about the donor’s intent. Mrs. Nauheim and her late husband appear to have valued the backcountry character of the Long Trail and to have wanted the memorial structure placed where hikers would genuinely need it, not at a convenient roadside site.
The identity of Melville Nauheim beyond his connection to the GMC donation is not documented in the GMC sources. Mrs. Ruth Nauheim is identified as being of New York City — consistent with the pattern of New York–area families whose members had connections to Vermont’s hiking tradition. What the record preserves is the act: a family’s decision to mark a loss by building something useful and lasting in the mountains.
Site Selection and Construction (1976–1977)
The November 1977 Long Trail News reported that "during the summer of 1976 a site for the Melville Nauheim Shelter was selected just south of Maple Hill." Maple Hill is a wooded ridge 1.9 miles north of Vermont Route 9, with a power line crossing at its summit that offers views of Bennington and Mount Anthony to the west and of Mount Snow, Haystack Mountain, and the Hoosac Range to the east. The selected site — a few hundred feet south of that ridge, at about 2,300 feet elevation — placed the shelter close to the power line viewpoint but sheltered enough by the surrounding spruce and balsam to be protected from the worst of the mountain weather.
The Bennington Section undertook construction during the 1977 hiking season. David G. Hapgood, then the Section’s trails and shelters chairman, was the driving figure on the project — the person who organized the work parties, oversaw the material carries, and kept the build on track. In July 1977 he wrote an informal progress report that, as the August 1978 Long Trail News later described, was "couched in humor" but reflected the "considerable physical effort which the project required" — the wry longing for a helicopter that anyone who has ever packed shelter materials up a steep half-mile trail will recognize. There were no roads near the site; everything had to be carried.
The November 1977 LTN noted that the section "will probably have completed the major project by the time GMC’ers read this article" and promised a full report in the February issue. The shelter was indeed finished: a frame lean-to with bunk space for eight, on a 250-foot spur trail off the main Long Trail route, with water from a stream just north of the spur.
The Triple Dedication: May 28, 1978
On Sunday, May 28, 1978, the GMC held a ceremony that was, in effect, three dedications compressed into one afternoon. The occasion marked the official opening of the nearly 12-mile-long relocation of the Long Trail between Harmon Hill and Glastenbury Mountain — a major trail project that had been years in the making. Simultaneously, the new William D. MacArthur Memorial Bridge over City Stream (just north of Route 9) was dedicated, along with Melville Nauheim Shelter itself.
The ceremony began at the bridge. A piece of brush — standing in for a ribbon — was cut with brush clippers to mark the opening. GMC Executive Director Steve Rice and Fran Callahan, sister of the late William D. MacArthur, wielded the clippers. GMC Club President Joe Frank stood at the left; District Ranger Wolfgang Schumann of the U.S. Forest Service at the right. The bridge, built in 1977 by the Forest Service, honors MacArthur, a dedicated GMC member who had devoted many years to trail improvement and relocation in the Pioneer Valley and Bennington Sections.
Following the bridge dedication, the majority of the spectators — described as hiking north "between huffing and puffing and wiping of sweaty brows" and expressing "exclamations of admiration" about the "numerous log and stone steps wending their way up the very steep first half-mile of Trail north of the MacArthur Bridge" — made their way the mile and a half to Melville Nauheim Shelter. There, the shelter’s own ceremony began with food: doughnuts, cookies, hot coffee, cocoa, and lemonade.
President Frank opened the dedication and "described how Mrs. Melville Nauheim of New York City came to present the GMC with funds to build a shelter in memory of her late husband." Robert Agard, president of the Bennington Section, served as the principal speaker, "briefly reviewing that construction effort and those who helped to carry it out." He gave "special credit to Hapgood, the Section’s trails and shelters chairman, for the project’s successful completion."
At the GMC’s annual awards, the Bennington Section’s construction of Melville Nauheim Shelter was recognized in the category of "Best Shelter Improvement" — the highest recognition available for such work. The shelter had already earned its place in the club’s institutional memory before the first season of hikers had slept in it.
Mrs. Ruth Nauheim Visits (1980)
On July 23, 1980, Mrs. Ruth Nauheim visited the shelter for the first time, accompanied by a friend and by Margaret Jones and Bob Agard, both members of the Bennington Section. The November 1980 Long Trail News recorded the visit with a photograph taken by Agard, along with a caption noting that Mrs. Nauheim "was very pleased with the shelter and its location."
That first visit — two years after the dedication — closed the circle that had begun with the 1975 donation. Mrs. Nauheim had funded the shelter in memory of her husband without having seen the site; she had placed her trust in the GMC and the Bennington Section to choose the right place and build something worthy. The visit confirmed that they had.
The Shelter in Use: Hikers, Adopters, and the Challenge Grant Era
The earliest hiker accounts in the GMC collection date from 1981 and 1982. A February 1982 Long Trail News article by two hikers who completed a Long Trail end-to-end describes "making the steep ascent to Melville Nauheim Shelter the night before by the light of our pocket flashlights" — a detail that captures both the shelter’s location (steeply uphill, accessible only by headlamp when darkness catches a hiker short) and its welcome. In a separate 1982 account, a hiker reflects on her Long Trail traverse in superlatives: "the best views, the most beautiful streams, excellent weather, the nicest people" — with Melville Nauheim among the shelters that "give depth and perception to the picture."
Through the 1980s the shelter passed in and out of the adopt-a-shelter program. The May 1987 Long Trail News lists it in the adopter roster without an assigned adopter; the August 1988 issue lists it as available. During this period, though, maintenance continued. A November 1988 LTN note from the Bennington Section reports that "work has continued on the Melville Nauheim shelter" — and the February 1989 issue documents Challenge Grant projects funded through a GMC-U.S. Forest Service partnership: "Replace toilet, install picnic table and fire ring, stain shelter." The work was completed in the 1989 field season.
The 1995 GMC Annual Meeting was hosted by the Bennington Section at Prospect Mountain in Woodford — directly accessible from Route 9, near the Long Trail crossing. One of the scheduled post-meeting hikes was "The Long Trail north to Melville Nauheim Shelter. Moderate." — the shelter serving as the destination for a club excursion by the very section that had built it.
By the Fall 2002 Long Trail News, Buddy Hayford, a member-at-large, is listed as the Melville Nauheim Shelter adopter — the first named individual adopter in the available record. The adopt-a-shelter program had finally found a long-term caretaker for the remote lean-to.
Renovation and Renewal (2006–2023)
By the mid-2000s the shelter’s original frame construction was showing its age, and the roof in particular needed replacement. The Winter 2006 Long Trail News announced that the GMC had applied for an Appalachian Trail Conservancy grant to fund the project: "We have applied for an Appalachian Trail Conservancy grant to replace the roof on Melville Nauheim Shelter on the south end of Glastenbury Mountain next season. GMC’s Bennington Section has committed to helping on this project, and we anticipate support by college orientation groups."
The roof replacement was listed as a project for 2008 and was completed in the 2008–2009 field year. The Winter 2009 Long Trail News reported that "service crews re-roofed Melville Nauheim Shelter and moved its privy" — the college service crews from Middlebury College, Williams College, and Yale University who partnered with GMC on Long Trail projects that season.
For the next decade, the shelter continued in service with the now-standard pit privy. The Fall 2018 Long Trail News lists Melville Nauheim among fourteen pit privies at shelters on Green Mountain National Forest land — a category that the GMC was systematically working to eliminate by converting to moldering (composting) privies. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted field programs in 2020, but the 2021 construction season more than compensated.
In July 2021, a helicopter airlift delivered more than 18 tons of construction material to five backcountry sites, including Melville Nauheim. The Winter 2021 Long Trail News described the scope: "Currently, neat stacks of materials sit dormant in the woods, waiting for next year’s professional crews and volunteers to turn them into new backcountry facilities." The following year, GMC’s Construction Crew — described in the Fall 2021 LTN as "small-yet-mighty" — "refurbished and renovated Emily Proctor, Cooley Glen, and Melville Nauheim Shelters" and "built new ADA-accessible moldering privies at Emily Proctor, Boyce, Kid Gore, Melville Nauheim, and Seth Warner Shelters." The new privy was built in compliance with federal wilderness area regulations, using hand tools only. Work on the privy continued into 2022, with the Fall 2022 LTN noting that crews "buttoned up 2021 privy work at Melville Nauheim and Kid Gore shelters."
In 2023, Bennington Section volunteers reconstructed the shelter’s picnic table — a small act of maintenance noted in the Winter 2023 Long Trail News as a "special shoutout" for volunteer labor during a record-challenging field season that included a hundred-year flood event.
Sources
Woodward, Paul and Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History, 2nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1999. P. 73.
Long Trail Guide Book, 21st ed. Green Mountain Club, 1977. Pp. 25–26, 87. Melville Nauheim Shelter entry and distance tables.
Long Trail Guide Book, 22nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1983. Pp. 24–25, 87.
Long Trail Guide Book, 23rd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. Pp. 27–28, 88.
Long Trail News, November 1975. Nauheim family $3,000 donation. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, November 1977, p. 13. Site selection and construction update. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, May 1978, p. 14. Dedication ceremony announcement. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, August 1978, pp. 3–6. Dedication accounts; award; Hapgood construction report. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, November 1980, p. 1. Mrs. Ruth Nauheim’s visit, July 23, 1980. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, February 1982, pp. 9, 14. Hiker accounts of the shelter. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, May 1987, p. 6. Shelter adopter listings. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, August 1988, p. 12. Adopt-a-shelter listings. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, November 1988, p. 14. Bennington Section work on Nauheim. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, February 1989, p. 16. Challenge Grant projects. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, May 1989, p. 19. Field season calendar; Nauheim Challenge Grant work. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Spring 1995, pp. 5–6. Annual Meeting hike; adopter listings. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Summer 1995, p. 13. Annual Meeting; Nauheim hike. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Spring 1996, p. 6. Shelter adoption listings. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Spring 1997, p. 9. Shelter adoption listings. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Summer 1997, p. 7. Shelter adoption listings. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Fall 2002, p. 15. Volunteer awards; Buddy Hayford as Nauheim adopter. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Winter 2006, p. 11. ATC grant application for roof replacement. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Summer 2008, p. 12. Roof replacement project listed for 2008. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Winter 2009, p. 9. Roof replacement and privy move completed. Green Mountain Club.
Smoke and Blazes (Killington Section), vol. 62, 2009, p. 7. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Fall 2018, p. 19. Pit privy inventory. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Spring 2020, pp. 18, 22–23. Shelter rehabilitation; COVID-19 field program adjustments; planned privy replacement. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Summer 2020, p. 23. COVID-19 field season; moldering privy prefabrication plans. Green Mountain Club.
Stepping Stone (Bennington Section), Spring/Summer 2020, p. 8. Shelter logbook podcast. Bennington Section, Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Spring 2021, p. 12. Field program plans; Nauheim privy replacement. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Fall 2021, pp. 10–11. Airlift materials; construction crew projects. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Winter 2021, pp. 5, 17. Airlift summary; shelter renovation and privy construction. Green Mountain Club.
Stepping Stone (Bennington Section), Fall 2021, p. 2. Airlift supplies for Nauheim privy. Bennington Section, Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Fall 2022, p. 16. Privy work completion. Green Mountain Club.
Long Trail News, Winter 2023, p. 4. Picnic table reconstruction; field season summary. Green Mountain Club.
