Early Visitors to the Wapack Lodge by Marion Davis

One of the unique items in our archives is the 33 page transcript of an interview with Marion (Buck) Davis. The interview was recorded shortly before her death in 1985. Marion Davis and Frank Robbins created the Wapack Trail in 1923. As soon as the trail was completed they began construction of the Wapack Lodge along the trail in New Ipswich. The trail was immediately popular and hikers and visitors needed a place to stay overnight and be fed, even before the lodge was finished! The following is Marion’s story of the first visitors to the lodge, before it was completed. We pick up the story when Marion is installing windows in the Lodge.

I remember Dad came up one day. I was trying to get a window in, and the studding was too close together, and I’d gotten a little bit fretty about it, and he said “You just leave off, and I’ll fix that for you.” And he did it so quick and easy. It was right after that that I was to have a couple of women come to stay overnight. And, goodness, how could you take folks in when you hadn’t got the building done. Well, my Dad and Frank had to make a little outhouse.

Besides that I had to have water. There was a well at the NE corner of the foundation, and we could lower a pail down into that to get water, but that came quite some time after. We went down to the spring and got water for this purpose. Of course the women came, and in order to have water to wash we had to use an old basin; we didn’t even have a sink drain so the water had to be thrown out.

We had just cleated in the big front door with just a board across it to hold it in place when the woman grabbed a hold of the door — and out came the door! I had to run and grab it to keep it from falling. The rest of that summer I worked on the house…

The first dinner party I had was 12 women from Ashby; Mrs. Foster and 2 of the Bricks girls, Ethel Lawrence (she’s now Ethel Brewer) – I can’t remember them all. But, you know, I didn’t have but 8 chairs to seat anybody in, and I had to go down to Mrs. Koski’s and lug up 4 chairs, 2 at a time — made two trips down there to get 4 chairs, — and she laughed about it, but anyway I had something to seat them in. Besides getting a chicken dinner for them — Oh, I was nervous — but you know when it was all over they praised me so that was all I needed. I had courage to go on with it after that.

– Marion Davis 1985