First you build your sauna, then you build your house.

-Finnish proverb

For now, this will have to suffice as the ‘house’…

“Somewhere there is a secluded spot deep in the wilds beside a little lake or stream where you should have a permanent shelter that will forever beckon and urge you to come and camp and enjoy true sanctuary. There you should build an Adirondack open camp—a sturdy, woodsy log lean-to of quick construction as log building goes, yet of generous proportions and full of coziness. The memories of nights spent there in the open, precious as they may be, will scarcely equal those of the building of the camp—the busy, happy days of hauling and notching and chinking will be a joy forever.

Traditional styles of shelters vary in different parts of the country. The one we are considering has been labeled as the Adirondack lean-to because of its long-continued and ever-increasing popularity in the northeastern states, particularly in the Adirondacks, where it is to be found along all the trails and portages, ready and waiting for any weary traveler who seeks its shelter. Today it is far from a provincial, northeastern structure for it has been accepted across the land as the best of open camps, combining the fascination and charm of living in the open with ideal protection from the weather. It is a most satisfactory protection from the cold, an excellent shelter from the wet, provides plenty of fresh air and enable s you to see the cheery blaze of the campfire—could one ask more?”

-A. S. Barnes & Company, Woodcraft 1939