Tucker-Johnson Shelter stood for forty-two years on a wooded eastern slope north of Willard Gap in the Green Mountain National Forest, sheltering hikers on the Long Trail between Sherburne Pass and Brandon Gap. Built in 1969 by the Long Trail Patrol and Killington Section volunteers, it replaced an earlier structure at the same general location and honored two men whose contributions to the GMC made the shelter possible. Its design — a wide-overhang wood-frame lean-to with double bunks and a dry-laid stone foundation — became influential enough that a later shelter elsewhere on the Long Trail was built as a direct copy. Tucker-Johnson Shelter was lost to fire in 2011. Its successor, built in 2018, stands 100 feet south of the original site.
Fred Tucker Lodge, 1938–1969
The first shelter near this location was built in 1938 by the Long Trail Patrol. Named Tucker Lodge in honor of Fred H. Tucker of Boston, a valued early member of the GMC Board of Trustees, it occupied a spot south of Willard Gap on the Long Trail as it existed at the time. The trail then ran west of Deer Leap Mountain — a route that brought Tucker Lodge squarely within the Killington Section’s maintenance territory, which extended northward to Willard Gap.
Tucker Lodge served hikers for three decades, but by the late 1960s two forces had conspired to make replacement necessary. The lodge itself had deteriorated through years of use and the slow attrition of Vermont weather. And a road serving a nearby ski chalet had been extended close enough to the old structure that, as the Long Trail News reported at the 1969 dedication of its replacement, the old location "no longer seems advisable to keep in repair." The Killington Section and Long Trail Patrol turned to building something new.
Building Tucker-Johnson, 1969
In 1969, the Long Trail Patrol — led by builder Louis "Sandy" Stare and Patrol Leader Fred Gilbert — together with members of the Killington Section undertook construction of a replacement shelter. The new structure would be sited about half a mile north of Willard Gap, on a wooded eastern slope beside Eagle Square Brook, at a point 1.8 miles north of Route 4 at Sherburne Pass. The site put the shelter in classic Long Trail woodland — sheltered, with reliable water from the nearby brook, and set back from the open ridge above Sherburne Pass.
The build took three weeks. Sandy Stare, Fred Gilbert, and volunteers from the American Friends Service Committee hauled one and a half tons of lumber 1.5 miles from Route 4. Killington Section members — including Doc and Mrs. Howard and Herbert Ogden — helped with the material carry.
The design was an evolution of earlier Long Trail Patrol construction. The shelter was wood-framed, with double-deck bunks on each side and a table between them — a configuration that made efficient use of the interior space and provided room for eight hikers. A wide roof overhang extended well beyond the open front of the shelter, protecting the entrance and the people sheltering there from Vermont’s frequent rain and wind. The structure sat on a dry-laid stone foundation, visible in photographs from both the 1990s and mid-2000s. The total cost of construction came to $1,112.04 — comparable to other Long Trail shelters of the period, though significantly more than the 1966 Duck Brook Shelter ($575.75) and Rolston’s Rest ($419.17) built just three years earlier, and reflecting both the size of the structure and its relatively accessible location.
The shelter took two names. Fred H. Tucker was carried forward from the original Tucker Lodge, honoring his long service to the GMC. The "Johnson" honored Otto Johnson of Proctor, Vermont, who had bequeathed $1,000 to fund the shelter’s construction — a bequest that made the project financially viable.
The Dedication, October 5, 1969
On Sunday, October 5, 1969, seventeen GMCers and guests hiked in for the dedication ceremony. Four had spent the previous Saturday night at the new shelter — and were busy preparing hors d’oeuvres and other goodies when the first hikers arrived Sunday morning. Some took a shortcut in via the chalet road; most followed the Long Trail north from Sherburne Pass through Willard Gap and then about half a mile to the new location.
The ceremony, planned for noon, ran a little late as the group waited for more dignitaries to arrive. After the refreshments were duly dispatched, the speeches began. Dave Rice, a member of the construction patrol, described the building process. Rod Rice, chairman of Trails and Shelters, gave a brief history of old Tucker Lodge and explained the new shelter’s dual name: in memory of Fred H. Tucker and in honor of Otto Johnson of Proctor, whose bequest had made it possible. GMC President Shirley Strong unveiled the sign, which had been crafted by Vice President Granget Kammerer. The dedication was — as the Long Trail News put it — "promptly recorded by a dozen photographers," and Tucker-Johnson Shelter was officially open.
The Shelter in the Guide Books
Beginning with the 20th edition of the Long Trail Guide Book (1971), Tucker-Johnson Shelter appeared in every edition through the 24th (1996) and beyond. The language across editions was remarkably consistent:
"Tucker-Johnson Shelter (1.8 m.). This frame shelter, with bunks for 8, was built in 1969 by the Long Trail Patrol, Louis Stare, and members of the Killington Section. It replaces the former Tucker Lodge, which was named for Fred H. Tucker of Boston, long a valued member of the GMC, and is maintained by the Killington Section. It is named in memory of Mr. Tucker and for the late Otto Johnson of Proctor, Vt., who bequeathed funds for its construction. Nearby Eagle Square Brook furnishes water."
The shelter was located in Division VI of the Long Trail, the section running from Sherburne Pass (Route 4) to Brandon Gap (Route 73). From the dedication of Maine Junction — where the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail formally diverge — Tucker-Johnson was a short distance north, making it the first overnight shelter on the Long Trail proper after the split. Hikers reached it 4.3 miles south of Pico Camp and 3.6 miles north of Rolston Rest Shelter. The Inn at Long Trail (formerly the Long Trail Lodge) at Sherburne Pass provided meals and resupply for hikers within 1.8 miles.
A Shelter Worth Copying
The design of Tucker-Johnson Shelter was considered successful enough that it was replicated elsewhere on the Long Trail. When Carmel Camp — an older steel-framed structure in southern Vermont — was demolished in 1976, it was replaced by the new David Logan Shelter. The Woodward shelter history described the result: "It is a duplicate of Tucker-Johnson Shelter." The Tucker-Johnson design had effectively become a standard for what a well-built, wood-framed Long Trail lean-to should look like.
Maintenance and the Question of Section Responsibility
Tucker-Johnson Shelter was maintained by the Killington Section from its construction through the 1970s and much of the 1980s and 1990s. The arrangement had a historical basis: the old Tucker Lodge had fallen within the Killington Section’s LT maintenance territory, which ran north to Willard Gap. Tucker-Johnson, built north of Willard Gap, was technically outside that territory — but the section continued to maintain it as a matter of institutional continuity.
By 1997, the question came to a head. At a January directors’ meeting, the Killington Section formally voted to disclaim responsibility for Tucker-Johnson Shelter. The minutes were candid about the rationale: "It is not on the part of the Long Trail we maintain. The old Tucker Lodge, south of Willard Gap, was on the LT as long as the LT went west of Deer Leap Mountain, and the Section used to maintain the LT as far north as Willard Gap. That is probably why we have maintained Tucker-Johnson until now." The same year, the GMC’s Long Trail News listed the stretch from Maine Junction to Tucker-Johnson Shelter as needing a trail and shelter adopter.
The arrangement was soon resolved. By 2002, the Long Trail News section directory listed the Killington Section’s maintenance responsibility as running from Vermont Route 140 to Tucker-Johnson Shelter — 25.1 miles of Long Trail in all, plus 7.1 miles of spur trail and 2.4 miles on Blue Ridge Mountain. Whatever the formal jurisdictional complexities of 1997, the Killington Section remained the shelter’s practical caretaker.
Maintenance Work Through the 2000s
Tucker-Johnson Shelter received consistent attention through the first decade of the twenty-first century. In 2000, volunteer Don Whitney built a new privy at Tucker-Johnson and at nearby Rolston Rest Shelter. In 2006, the GMC’s Annual Meeting weekend — held at the Long Trail Brewery in Bridgewater Corners — included a National Trails Day volunteer project at the shelter: straightening the structure, replacing floor boards and sills, and working on the dry-laid stone foundation. The following year, as part of a busy 2007 field season that also saw the construction of an accessible section of the Appalachian Trail near Thundering Falls and the restoration of Minerva Hinchey Shelter, Tucker-Johnson received a new roof.
In the fall of 2009, the Killington Section turned out ten and eleven people on consecutive weekends for end-of-season maintenance work. Among the tasks: clearing waterbars and side ditches between Jungle Junction and Tucker-Johnson Shelter, and brushing the Long Trail from Route 4 to Tucker-Johnson. Bog bridging (puncheon) was installed in stages along the section, addressing what the Killington Section’s trails chair called the "foot bath in the wilderness" syndrome — the boggy stretches that made the approach to the shelter muddy in wet weather.
The 2009 work parties left the shelter in good condition heading into winter. It would stand for two more years.
Fire, 2011
Tucker-Johnson Shelter burned in 2011, after forty-two years of service. The cause of the fire is not recorded in the available GMC publications. By the 2012 edition of the Long Trail News section directory, the Killington Section’s maintenance area was listed as extending to the "Tucker-Johnson Shelter site" — the word "site" marking the gap where the shelter had stood.
The loss was significant. Tucker-Johnson had occupied a critical gap in the Long Trail shelter chain near heavily traveled Sherburne Pass and the AT/LT junction at Maine Junction. Hikers heading north from Route 4 on the Long Trail now had no shelter between Sherburne Pass and Rolston Rest Shelter, a stretch of more than five miles. The GMC recognized the need for a replacement but faced the lengthy process of planning and permitting in the Green Mountain National Forest.
Legacy and Replacement
Seven years passed before a replacement was funded and constructed. In spring 2018, GMC Executive Director Mike DeBonis announced in the Long Trail News that a new Tucker-Johnson Shelter would be built, made possible by a generous donor. The new design would replicate the original — wood frame, double bunks on each side, table in the middle, liberal roof overhang — based on drawings George Pearlstein had made when he served as GMC President in the 1970s and adapted the original design. The new structure would be sited 100 feet south of the original location, creating a larger buffer between it and Eagle Square Brook. Jonathan Bigelow of the Manchester Section led volunteer builders in completing the new shelter over a fall weekend in October 2018.
Sources
- Long Trail News 1969 (1969). Green Mountain Club. 8.
- "Long Trail News." , no. November (1969).
- Ridgelines (Burlington) 1973 (1973). Burlington Section, Green Mountain Club. 1.
- Smoke and Blazes (Killington) 33 (1980). Killington Section, Green Mountain Club. 7.
- Long Trail News 1997 (1997). Green Mountain Club. 9.
- Smoke and Blazes (Killington) 50 (1997). Killington Section, Green Mountain Club. 4.
- Long Trail News 2000 (2000). Green Mountain Club. 6.
- Long Trail News 2002 (2002). Green Mountain Club. 20.
- Long Trail News 2006 (2006). Green Mountain Club. 5.
- Long Trail News 2007 (2007). Green Mountain Club. 31.
- Smoke and Blazes (Killington) 62 (2009). Killington Section, Green Mountain Club. 1.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 20 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1971. Pp. 80.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 21 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1977. Pp. 89.
- Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 23 ed. Green Mountain Club, 1985. Pp. 46.
- Mike DeBonis, "Tucker-Johnson Shelter Replacement." Long Trail News 2018 (2018). Green Mountain Club. 15.
- Woodward, Paul & Joanne. Long Trail System Shelter History. 2nd ed. Green Mountain Club, 1999. Pp. 36.
