And Shanties - And How to Make Them

a reference book showing many different styles of shelter. You wont find specifics IE cut this stick this long, but you will be able to use the general idea to improvise and adjust the concept to the location you are standing on.

I haven't finished the book yet but it is typical of these sorts of books. The illustrations could be better, some of it does seem to assume some prior knowledge of terminology used in construction but, it is what it is & that is a decent guide. If you read it & comprehend what you've read you could survive in any season sheltered; in an emergency your survival could depend on being warm & dry (or cool & shaded) for a few days & this book will provide you with the knowledge to do it.

If you've ever built little "clubhouses" like most neighborhood boys did when I was a kid then you already have the foundation of knowledge for basic emergency survival shelters.....bet you didn't think that's what you were doing when you were doing it huh?

This is a great book! Dan Beard, one of the principal founders of the BSA, herein illustatrates several easy to build wilderness structures in an easy to read, sometimes humorous style. From lean-to's, shacks, log cabins, even tree houses; there's a wealth of practical information for any outdoorsman within these pages.

I'm very pleased to see this book still available. If you've any interest in the outdoors at all you will not be displeased by an investment in this wonderful book.

Well written, easy to read, and full of details and pictures. Presented in a clear and concise manner this book will take you naked into the wilderness and give you the basics of survival structures but build you up to a full understanding of large permenant structures. a pleasure to read, recommend to everyone of all age groups.

If I could of given a lower rating than one star i would have. Quite frankly the book sold by this particular publisher borders on fraud. There is no artwork. Which makes this book a pointless book of text, without any redeeming value. While Beard's orginal work is a fine example of this type of work, the company that published this edition hasn't a clue. Highly recommend you don't purchase this edition of Beard's work you will be sorry. Any edition of Beard's, other than this edition will be a worthly addition to your library.

The book includes illustrations and instructions for a variety of shelters, with different materials and degrees of difficulty. While this was clearly written before either the Outdoor Code or Leave No Trace became common Beard does frequently request the reader to consider the impact that gathering building materials will make. While some of the shelters start with cutting down a tree or harvesting a lot of branches from live trees he also includes methods that will not harm trees. Interesting to see so many variations so you can work with different materials.

Anyone who enjoyed the boy scout handbook would love this book. It's full of all the diagrams and how-to's I enjoyed as a kid. This one's for grown kids and covers dwellings of every type - temporary to permanent, small to large. Great drawings; I'm so glad I found this book.

I have started passing along the outdoors skills and enjoyment to the kids in my extended family since retirement fromm the military. This book has helped illustrate the many shelters and by practicing the knowledge obtained in this book to acquire the skill needed to perform the task, anyone who ventures into the outdoors will be better preared to meet the unexpected and maintain the security of a shelter during a storm. I purchased a copy for each of the "families" so the kids could read and study while we weren't actually in the woods practicing.

To those who are interested in building shelters or various designs of shelters this is an invaluable addition to your resources. This book should be mandatory reading to all; both, children and adults.

Anyone who enjoyed the boy scout handbook would love this book. It's full of all the diagrams and how-to's I enjoyed as a kid. This one's for grown kids and covers dwellings of every type - temporary to permanent, small to large. Great drawings; I'm so glad I found this book.

I have started passing along the outdoors skills and enjoyment to the kids in my extended family since retirement fromm the military. This book has helped illustrate the many shelters and by practicing the knowledge obtained in this book to acquire the skill needed to perform the task, anyone who ventures into the outdoors will be better preared to meet the unexpected and maintain the security of a shelter during a storm. I purchased a copy for each of the "families" so the kids could read and study while we weren't actually in the woods practicing.

To those who are interested in building shelters or various designs of shelters this is an invaluable addition to your resources. This book should be mandatory reading to all; both, children and adults.

I found this book surprisingly good. I bought it as a reference but ended up reading it cover to cover immediately. Each chapter draws you into the next. The whole thing gives good insight into primitive housing of our ancestors.

Eco Alert! If you pride yourself on "leave no trace camping", this book will likely shock and disgust you. Just remember it is not oriented toward camping in a modern sense. This is more like seasonal housing for nomads or pioneers.

I am into bushcraft, survival, primitive skills. This book is an excellent part of my various books on the subjects. It starts with simple style debris shelters, A frame shelters, platform shelters for building in swamps and soft ground areas.

It goes on to list larger wood tents, log cabins, proper use of axe, thatching for larger shelters. A very good laid out book that is both detailed and understandable and more in depth on shelters then any others i've seen on the subject.

This is a repackaged version of the FREE project Gutenberg version of this book. The *real* book is awesome. This edition lacks much of the artwork you'd actually need to build anything from the book. Make sure you get one of the legitimate versions from the store and don't bother with this one.

My, how we've changed over the years. In the classic book Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties: And How to Build Them, D. C. Beard covers the wide array of possibilities for building your own dwelling out of nothing but materials provided by nature. This was originally published in 1914, and I think it's more interesting to observe the changes in culture than anything else.

Daniel Beard became fascinated with cabins and such in 1864 when he exhibited a saddleback cabin scaled down to size for him to carry to the fair. He sold it for $7.50, which was a major disappointment to him, as he thought it worth much more. That started him on his journey to sketch, document, and build just about any type of natural dwelling you can think of. He starts out with how to make a soft sleeping platform using pine boughs. From there, you have half-cave shelters, fallen tree shelters, and teepee-like structures. By the end of the book, we're dealing with full-scale houses, obviously beyond the skills of the boy scouts he tends to target in the first half of the book. But even then, the emphasis is on using logs and axes to accomplish most of the work.

Most of these skills are lost on 99% of Americans, and sending out a group of boys to build even the simplest of these structures would likely turn into a disaster. But back when this was written, it was pretty much assumed that most boys had basic scouting skills and would be able to build some of these shelters in just a matter of hours, or at most a couple of days. He even has them building hogan shelters built into the side of a hill and designed to last a considerable time. These days, we'd likely freak out because the kids had an axe or a shovel in their hands... And building a shelter covered by sod? But what if it collapses??? Needless to say, we wouldn't fare well if forced to rely on our own skills to survive without our comfortable houses.

If you're an outdoors-type person and you want to work on survival skills, this would be an interesting way to start out. Or if you're just looking for how much we've changed (or regressed) in the last 100 years, this'll point out many areas that fall into that category.

This is the ultimate reference to fabricating primitive shelters. This is a reprint of the classic book published in 1914. Authored by Daniel Carter Beard, an American illustrator, author, youth leader, and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

His book illustrates everything from Indian hogans, wigwams and lean-tos to log cabins, with details on hearths and chimneys. Additionally it covers caches and the use of the ax, as most all the shelters in this book can be made with only a ax and a knife. I highly recommend this book for the outdoors person, suvialist and scout-masters. This is a great read.

This is the ultimate reference to fabricating primitive shelters. This is a reprint of the classic book published in 1914. Authored by Daniel Carter Beard, an American illustrator, author, youth leader, and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

His book illustrates everything from Indian hogans, wigwams and lean-tos to log cabins, with details on hearths and chimneys. Additionally it covers caches and the use of the ax, as most all the shelters in this book can be made with only a ax and a knife. I highly recommend this book for the outdoors person, suvialist and scout-masters. This is a great read.

I'VE KNOWN OF AND ENJOYED "SHELTERS, SHACKS & SHANTIES" SINCE MY GRANDFATHER GAVE ME THE ORIGINAL EDITION, WHEN I WAS A MERE PUP.
A LOT OF THE ITEMS HAVE BEEN ACTUALLY "FIELD TESTED" (SUCH AS THE "TRICK" OF MAKING A BOG-SHANTY FOUNDATION OUT OF A BRUSH-MAT!) AND REALLY PROVEN TO "WORK" IN THE WILD, OVER A YOUTH FRITTERED AWAY PLAYING "SASQATIL," AS THE THE GREYHAIRED ELDER INDIANS CALLED HIM.
AS A YOUNGSTER I THOUGHT NOTHING OF GOING OUT FOR A COUPLE WEEKS WITH 25-30 POUNDS OF GEAR, FEASTING ON FISH AND CORNPONE AND SLEEPING IN A SIMPLE BEARD-INSPIRED STICK-SHACK TO KEEP THINGS "CIVILIZED."
EVEN THE BOG-SHANTY WAS BUILT, AND DAN BEARD'S SUGGESTION FOR MAKING A STONES-AND-SOIL HEARTH FOR COOKING WAS TESTED AND FOUND PRACTICAL! (YES, YOU CAN COOK ON AN OPEN HEARTH, IN A POLE SHACK, ATOP A WOODEN FLOOR, BUILT ATOP A 7-FOOT-THICK PAD OF BRUSH, WITHOUT MAKING AN ASH OF YOURSELF!)
THE TRICKS AND TIPS REALLY WORK, IN "THE REAL WORLD," AND THE ADVANTAGE IS THAT ALL OF THESE STRUCTURES UTILIZE SUCH SMALL STICKS & TIMBERS THAT THE SO-CALLED "GREEN IMPACT" IS TRIVIAL; SUCH SAPLINGS AS ARE USED ROUTINELY DIE AS THEY ARE CROWDED OUT BY BIGGER TREES, AND THE THINNING-OUT FOR BUILDING MATERIALS FREES UP WATER AND NOURISHMENT FOR THE MORE ESTABLISHED TIMBER.
SO LONG AS SOMEONE DOESN'T GO BONKERS AND TRY TO BUILD A HAMLET IN A HECTARE OF TIMBER, AN OCCASIONAL SHELTER, SHACK OR SHANTY SHAN'T STRESS MOTHER NATURE, UNDULY!
EVEN IF YOU NEVER BOTHER WITH SUCH PRIMITIVE CONSTRUCTION, EVERYTHING YOU'LL READ ABOUT WAS SOLIDLY BASED ON HOW THINGS WERE DONE BY "PREHISTORIC PEOPLES," GOING BACK AS FAR AS YOU CARE TO LOOK!
YOU'LL CERTAINLY GET A VERY NOVEL HANDS-ON INSIGHT INTO HOW EARLY PEOPLES HAD BUILT THEIR DWELLINGS, AND THE BOOK'LL BREAK KIDS OF THE TIRESOME MYTH THAT "ALL INDIANS LIVED IN TEEPEES." (GIVE ME A BREAK!) JUST MAKE SOME OF THESE SHACKS FOUR OR SIX TIMES AS WIDE, AND ONE OR MAYBE EVEN TWO HUNDRED FEET LONG, AND YOU'VE GOT PRETTY GOOD VERSIONS OF THE LONGHOUSES OF THE IRIQUOIS CONFEDERATION!
THE BOOK'S ALSO GREAT FODDER FOR FUN FANTASIES AND DELIGHTFUL DAYDREAMS, AND DOZENS OF IMAGINARY DEEP-WOODS OUTINGS, AS WELL AS BEING A WONDERFUL RESOURCE TOOL FOR WRITERS WHOSE OUTDOOR WORKS OCCASIONALLY TURN THEIR BACKS ON EDDIE BAUER & CO.
ENJOY!

An interesting collection of plans to build everything from emergency shelters to a log home without using purchased building materials. Contains much information on building authentic log structures of numerous designs. Plans for building authentic doors and latches, windows, and furnishing for "rustic" homes are also included. A chapter is included for those of us who have always wanted a log home but can't get the spouse to agree--a rustic log room or den "hidden" inside a modern home. I had a copy of the original for years before losing it in a fire and look very forward to replacing it. Thanks the store.com

This book contains a remarkable collection of shelters, from a downed tree covered in pine boughs on up to a two-story, multi-bedroom log home. It includes a menagerie of lean-tos, some specialized for marshy ground, and a wide range of Native American structures, covering the range from overnight housing to large, permanent structures. Wood dominates as a building material, but sod, various kinds of thatch, stone, and packed earth serve their purposes, too. Although this emphasizes natural materials, the author's "whatever works" attitude reaches out to sawn lumber, tar paper, and materials from the technological world. The final chapters describe what might be the ultimate "man cave": a room in an urban, even quite posh building, with an interior built to look like a log cabin.

I was struck repeatedly by the basic assumption behind nearly all of these shelters: that the forested country has effectively limitless resources, and that nearly no one uses them. Take as much as you want of whatever wood or material comes to hand, build where you wish, and don't worry about walking away from it when you're done. That's true in only a very few places (if any) today, such places were becoming rarer even when this book was written, a century back as of this writing. Any such guide written today would pay a lot more attention to stewardship of the shared wilderness - but it wasn't written today. Also, his omission of dealing safely with human waste goes beyond delicacy, closer to negligence.

Some information will still suit modern back-woodsmen, though, and I imagine it being fertile material for model-builders of many kinds. And, even if I never use the material directly, it's a fascinating look back at the tools, materials, and techniques that settled North America.

-- wiredweird

Not what I expected buy, very informative, & detailed. Almost none of the projects described in this book can be done solo. I was looking for a book that detailed makeshift shelter, that would be necessary in any number of emergency situations. I guess I'll keep looking.

Excellent resource material. only wish it was formatted for easier reading/ pictures/ diagrams.
Sometimes one doesn't have the time in outdoor situations to read the book: Just need the meat and potaoes of the information to get through the situation.
BUT, excellent source of knowledge.

I had pretty much forgotten the fact that I spent the majority of my youth in the forests of northern VA with my Boy Scout manual building stuff like this for fun. Reading and reviewing this offering was like a walk down memory lane. It's far more useful than a Boy Scout manual too.

Interesting book that shows dozens of ways to make shelters in the wilderness. A good book for those of us who love traipsing through the bush, which in turn leaves us with that small chance of getting lost or stranded. The book I got was published by Loompanics Unlimited, and copied from the original 1914 edition, but I imagine all editions by all publishers are the same.

This is a remarkably complete listing of shelters, shacks and shanties. It is dated, but still very good. Dover Books only publishes the best of dated books. I won't say this lists everything. It is still very thorough.

Should have read the other negative reviews on this book. I ordered it, thinking it might have updated info/material in it. This book is just the written text of Beard's original book. There are no illustrations or diagrams that the original contains. Here's the the store link for the original book - http://www.the store.com/gp/product/0486437477/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

Very comprehensive illustrated guide. I have never seen so many thought out and detailed ways to make so many shelters. Definitely glade I decided to look for a free PDF version online before spending money on it :) great book.

This book is great! I would recommend this to anyone 12+, because the shelters are quite hard to build. It is excellent for boy scouts. I got this for Christmas and in my troop were starting on plans already! Great for any wilderness lover and I recommend all the related books!
1/16/08

As a survivalist especially in the city, you shoulder your Bug out bag and leave the city for the hills and country. You may have to live in the wilds for a year until 90% of the stupid people are dead from starvation or dehydration. You will need shelter from the elements also called "roughing it". Watch Mountain man series and that is how you will have to live until sanity returns to the world.

I have lived in a very rural area my whole life. I love the forest, and because of this book I've been able to enjoy it even more. "Uncle Dan" Beard has lots of great ideas and illustrations to show how poeple used to, and still do, build shelters in the forest. It's great to have a historical resource to all of these techniques and ideas that are from the past - which otherwise might be forgotten about. GREAT BOOK!!

When sheltering is what you want to learn, this is a great idea book. It covers simple shelters to cabins all of course in the old no frills style. He even shows how to make locks. If nothing else just a look through its pages is well worth the time.

This book comes from a time when hunters and conservationists were in league with each other. Many of the tips he gives are not appropriate for parks but are still useable on PRIVATE land. Not for effete tree hugger types.

i was hoping for more information than I already knew...It was just a rehash of old boysout knowledge. Books like the army handbook on survivarl, len stroubs, michael hawks survival books are must books for the lone survivalist....

This book is great! I would recommend this to anyone 12+, because the shelters are quite hard to build. It is excellent for boy scouts. I got this for Christmas and in my troop were starting on plans already! Great for any wilderness lover and I recommend all the related books!
1/16/08

I just got this over the weekend and haven't had time to thoroughly look it over. I am one of those dreaded doomsday preparers you keep hearing about on the news. I bought this to supplement my gear and to further educate my self on basic construction of various shelter types. It covers everything from the most basic of shelters to cabins. Thumbing through the pages there is a lot of good designs in it. Not sire if it fits my needs though. but then part of the problem with preparing for a long term calamity is that you will never know what can come in handy until TSHTF. Those of you that don't comprehend the concept of Preparers should watch a couple of episodes of Doomsday Preparers on National geographic Channel on Tuesday. As well as visit [...]

View being prepared for a disaster the same as you would a the box of band aids in your medicine cabinet. Why do you have that box? is it because you foreseen that you might get injured and will need them? If so, then why would you view being prepared any different? I would rather have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. Think of it as a hobby or an investment.

This book is "Old School" and one of the best I have seen for making shelters. It has a good bit of detail and pictures that really help. I got it for my Nephews but started reading it and was very pleased. It is a lot more than just shelters. The book talks about building ladders, Long term shelters even how to build a proper fireplace, doors and much much more. You could do well with this book. Many of the newer books do not carry this kind of instruction but just skim over a subject. This book is great! If you are serious about making it when the time comes then you will need this book along with many others but this one is a high value item. After water, shelter and food are what you are going to need and this one book covers shelter nicely.

I did not read anyone else's reviews on this book before writing this review. I call this a Boy Scout Book, because it appeared that someone has taken a fair bit of content as in grammar and illustrations from a Boy Scout manual. Then I read on the back cover of the book (who reads the back cover online?) when I received the book that states Beard is/was one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, so that made sense. I was originally wondering how Beard could print this book without copyright infringement, lol. That being said, it is a pretty good book for covering the basics, generally, as it relates to varies types of shelters. Some of the illustrations are about 100 years old, and not completely easy to follow for the average person, in my opinion, and certainly not for a child or teenager. Some of the illustrations are too cluttered or too "busy", also in my opinion, Overall, tho, the book has some nifty ideas, and I award 4 stars for creativity, especially from ideas generated about 100 years ago. It's worth the money to buy this book.

Our Boy scouts could hardly wait to get into the woods and construct some of the projects shown in the book. Some of the shelters drawn in this book were built. And we slept in them over a week end. Scouts have a Pioneering Merit Badge and the book has really helped them achieve it. The drawings, projects and narriative make this one a preferred book for an outdoors man.

Love this leash. First time I was able to walk both of my dogs and have my coffee too. No tangles dogs had plenty of room to sniff and move around. Really happy with the product. I give a thumbs up & Five Stars *****