Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties : And How to Make Them

As this book is written for boys of all ages, it has been divided under two general heads, "The Tomahawk Camps" and "The Axe Camps," that is, camps which may be built with no tool but a hatchet, and camps that will need the aid of an axe. The smallest boys can build some of the simple shelters and the older boys can build the more difficult ones. The reader may, if he likes, begin with the first of the book, build his way through it, and graduate by building the log houses; in doing this he will be closely following the history of the human race, because ever since our arboreal ancestors with prehensile toes scampered among the branches of the pre-glacial forests and built nestlike shelters in the trees, men have made themselves shacks for a temporary refuge. But as one of the members of the Camp-Fire Club of America, as one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, and as the founder of the Boy Pioneers of America, it would not be proper for the author to admit for one moment that there can be such a thing as a camp without a camp-fire, and for that reason the tree folks and the "missing link" whose remains were found in Java, and to whom the scientists gave the awe-inspiring name of Pithecanthropus erectus, cannot be counted as campers, because they did not know how to build a camp-fire; neither can we admit the ancient maker of stone implements, called eoliths, to be one of us, because he, too, knew not the joys of a camp-fire. But there was another fellow, called the Neanderthal man, who lived in the ice age in Europe and he had to be a camp-fire man or freeze! As far as we know, he was the first man to build a camp-fire. The cold weather made him hustle, and hustling developed him. True, he did cook and eat his neighbors once in a while, and even split their bones for the marrow; but we will forget that part and just remember him as the first camper in Europe. Where to find mountain goose. How to pick and use its feathers The half-cave shelter How to make the fallen-tree shelter and the scout-master How to make the Adirondack, the wick-up, the bark teepee, the pioneer, and the scout How to make beaver-mat huts, or fagot shacks, without injury to the trees Indian shacks and shelters Birch bark or tar paper shack Indian communal houses Bark and tar paper A sawed-lumber shanty A sod house for the lawn How to build elevated shacks, shanties, and shelters The bog ken Over-water camps Signal-tower, game lookout, and rustic observatory Tree-top houses Caches How to use an axe How to split lots, make shakes, splits, or clapboards. How to chop a log in half. How to flatten a log. Also some don'ts Axemen's camps Railroad-tie shacks, barrel shacks, and chimehuevis The barabara The Navajo hogan, Hornaday dugout, and sod house How to build an American boy's hogan How to cut and notch logs Notched log ladders A pole house. How to use a cross-cut saw and a froe Log-rolling and other building stunts The Adirondack open log camp and a one-room cabin The northland tilt and Indian log tent How to build the red jacket, the New Brunswick, and the Christopher gist Cabin doors and door-latches, thumb-latches and foot latches and how to make them Secret locks How to make the bow-arrow cabin door and latch and the Deming twin bolts, hall, and billy The aures lock latch The American log cabin A hunter's or fisherman's cabin Hot to make Wyoming olebo, a Hoko River olebo, a shake cabin, a Canadian mossback, and a two-pen or southern style saddle-bag house Native names for the parts of a Kanuck log cabin, and how to build one How to make a pole house and how to make a unique but thoroughly American totem log house How to build a Susitna log cabin and how to cut trees for the end plates How to make a fireplace and chimney for a simple log cabin Hearthstones and fireplaces More hearths and fireplaces Fireplaces and the art of tending the fire The building of the log house How to lay a tar paper, birch bark, or patent roofing How to make a concealed log cabin inside of a modern house How to build appropriate gateways for grounds enclosing long houses, game preserves, ranches, big country estates, and last but no least Boy Scouts' camp grounds. A practical and essential guide for anyone looking to build on their homestead using skills and tools that were available to the homesteaders of days gone by. Nineteenth-century building advice that is eminently practical in the twenty-first century. 330 b/w illustrations