Sunrise Shelter 1st

The first Sunrise Shelter was a framed shelter built by the Long Trail Patrol in 1964 as a gift from Mortimer R. Proctor, governor of Vermont from 1945 to 1947 and former president of the Green Mountain Club. The shelter replaced Goshen Lodge, which had been located 200 feet south in a clearing.

The shelter was dedicated on October 11, 1964, with two inches of snow on the ground—a prediction made by Roy Buchanan, the veteran trail builder who guided its construction.

Twenty-five persons gathered for the dedication ceremony, and though Mortimer Proctor was unable to attend, President Bob Humes read a letter from the donor to the assembled group.

The shelter had bunk space for 8 persons, with water located at a brook 200 feet to the south. Located one mile south of Brandon Gap on the Long Trail, the shelter served hikers throughout its nearly six decades of operation.
It appeared in GMC shelter adopter lists in the 1980s and 1990s and continued to be referenced in hiking guides and section newsletters through the early 2020s.

In 2023, the Green Mountain Club completed construction of a new Sunrise Shelter approximately 1.5 miles south of the 1964 shelter’s previous site, farther from the road to conform to current management standards.

The old 1964 shelter site was decommissioned in early August 2023. The original Sunrise Shelter 1st thus served Long Trail hikers for 59 years before being replaced.

Sources

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