One of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, Beard provides a hand-on guide for building a variety of habitable structures in the wilderness and other difficult environments. Practical, hands-on guide by one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America contains a wealth of information and advice on how to build everything from a bark tee pee and tree-top house to a log cabin and beaver mat hut. Over 332 illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow text make this an invaluable book.

Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties - 1914 - FOREWORD - 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 aweinspiring 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 weathermade 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. Recently a pygmy skeleton was discovered near Los Angeles which is claimed to be about twenty thousand years old, but we do not know whether this man knew how to build a fire or not. We do know, however, that the American camper was here on this continent when our Bible was yet an unfinished manuscript and that he was building his fires, toasting his venison, and building sheds when the red-headed Eric settled in Greenland, when Thorwald fought with the Skraelings, and Bi arnis dragon ship made the trip down the coast of Vineland about the dawn of the Christian era. We also know that the American camper was here when Columbus with his comical toy ships was blundering around the West Indies. We also know that the American camper watched Henry Hudson steer the Half Moo around Manhattan Island. I t is this same American camper who has taught Foreword ix us to build many of the shacks to be found in the following pages...

One of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, Beard provides a hand-on guide for building a variety of habitable structures in the wilderness and other difficult environments. Practical, hands-on guide by one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America contains a wealth of information and advice on how to build everything from a bark tee pee and tree-top house to a log cabin and beaver mat hut. Over 332 illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow text make this an invaluable book.

Although this fine book was meant orginaly for boys to build something beyond a scrap lumber club house, or create something more interesting out of a pile of loose brush, than a child's imagined fort, the wisdom is ageless for all to apply as a survival skill, or a temporary refuge. This is a practical, hands-on guide by one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America and a joy to read.Over 332 illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow text make this an invaluable book.

Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties - 1914 - FOREWORD - 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 aweinspiring 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 weathermade 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. Recently a pygmy skeleton was discovered near Los Angeles which is claimed to be about twenty thousand years old, but we do not know whether this man knew how to build a fire or not. We do know, however, that the American camper was here on this continent when our Bible was yet an unfinished manuscript and that he was building his fires, toasting his venison, and building sheds when the red-headed Eric settled in Greenland, when Thorwald fought with the Skraelings, and Bi arnis dragon ship made the trip down the coast of Vineland about the dawn of the Christian era. We also know that the American camper was here when Columbus with his comical toy ships was blundering around the West Indies. We also know that the American camper watched Henry Hudson steer the Half Moo around Manhattan Island. I t is this same American camper who has taught Foreword ix us to build many of the shacks to be found in the following pages...

Written for boys of all ages, this is an illustrated guide to putting a roof over one's head. From basic lean-tos to full log cabins, the author describes shelters that can be built with tools starting as simple as a single hatchet. He describes the construction of Indian communal houses, sawed-lumber shanties, sod houses, hogans, log tents, tree