On August 21st, Ethan Pond Shelter turned 56. While not quite old enough to collect Social Security or join AARP, it is old enough to have a mid-life crisis. But in all seriousness, Ethan Pond is currently our oldest-standing AMC maintained shelter.
In an interesting contrast, Ethan Pond Campsite, while hosting our oldest standing shelter, is one of our youngest-built campsites. Many of our other sites had shelters or camps dating back to the 1920s and some even earlier to the early 1900s, or were newer sites that were redesigned near the location of older campsites (Imp and Garfield are examples of this).
Ethan Pond Shelter is unique also because it is the only AMC shelter built with vertical rather than horizontal logs, mostly because the trees available were relatively small diameter. Other shelters that are no longer with us of this style include Eliza Brook (replaced in 2010) and Garfield Pond (removed in 1970).
With increasing overnight use throughout the 1950s, AMC decided to build a shelter at Ethan Pond. It took AMC Trail Crew (with a crew overseen by Frank von Hippel)
the majority of the summer to construct the shelter, starting in late June with packing in tools and gear, and finishing with dedicating the shelter on August 21st, 1957.
Ethan Pond Campsite is one of the quietest campsites in the AMC network of campsites, and is visited by almost as many moose and bears as people. There is a caretaker on-site from the end of June until Labor Day weekend.
Happy Birthday Ethan Pond Shelter, and may you continue to live the long and full life you've been living thus far!!!Labels: Backcountry Campsites Projects, Backcountry Caretaker
