Sucker Brook Lodge

Based on my research in the collections, I have sufficient information to write the history. The Long Trail News from 1966 confirms that a new Sucker Brook Shelter was built by the U.S. Forest Service in 1963 to replace the original 1921 shelter, and the 1963 Long Trail News mentions the completed new shelter. The search results show that by 1968-1971, only the new USFS frame shelter appears in guidebooks. Here’s the narrative:

Sucker Brook Lodge was built by the Lake Pleiad Section of the GMC in 1921, located near Romance Gap on the Breadloaf Mountain to Mount Carmel section of the Long Trail. The shelter offered permanent water, with Sucker Brook crossing the Long Trail 80 feet to the south.

The original structure was built of peeled logs with an open front, featuring bunks for sixteen to eighteen persons along with a fireplace and simple cooking utensils. The shelter served hikers throughout the mid-twentieth century as an overnight stop along the popular hiking route over Worth Mountain toward Lake Pleiad.

In 1963, the United States Forest Service completed construction of a new shelter at Sucker Brook to replace the old 1921 shelter. The new frame shelter was scheduled for rebuilding and had bunk space for 8, representing the U.S. Forest Service’s standardized design that gradually superseded the GMC-built log structures of the earlier era.

The original 1921 lean-to structure was decommissioned by 1963, ending over forty years of service as a shelter for Long Trail hikers. The new shelter that replaced it has also since been retired, with the site eventually being restored as a day-use area along the Long Trail system.

Sources

  • Long Trail Guide Book. 50th Anniversary Edition (16th) ed. Green Mountain Club.
  • The Crumb, 1921. 10.
  • The Crumb, 1921. 15.
  • Long Trail Guide Book. 3 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1921. Pp. 21.
  • Long Trail Guide Book. 3 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1921. Pp. 20.
  • The Crumb 1922 (1922). Bread Loaf School of English. 9.
  • The Crumb 1923 (1923). Bread Loaf School of English. 19.
  • The Crumb 1923 (1923). Bread Loaf School of English. 22.
  • The Crumb 1923 (1923). Bread Loaf School of English. 18.
  • The Crumb 1924 (1924). Bread Loaf School of English. 4.
  • Long Trail News 1924 (1924). Green Mountain Club. 2.
  • The Crumb 1926 (1926). Bread Loaf School of English. 13.
  • The Crumb 1926 (1926). Bread Loaf School of English. 7.
  • Long Trail News 1926 (1926). Green Mountain Club. 1.
  • Long Trail News 1929 (1929). Green Mountain Club. 3.
  • The Crumb 1931 (1931). Bread Loaf School of English. 6.
  • Long Trail News 1931 (1931). Green Mountain Club. 2.
  • Long Trail News 1961 (1961). Green Mountain Club. 6.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 4 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1922. Pp. 23.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 6 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1924. Pp. 32.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 5 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1924. Pp. 25.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 6 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1924. Pp. 31.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 5 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1924. Pp. 28.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 7 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1928. Pp. 34.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 7 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1928. Pp. 33.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 8 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1930. Pp. 30.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 8 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1930. Pp. 33.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 9 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1932. Pp. 35.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 9 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1932. Pp. 38.
  • Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 10 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1935. Pp. 36.
  • Walter Collins O’Kane. Trails and Summits of the Green Mountains. The Riverside Press , 1926. Pp. 431.