|  I am in love with this world. I have nestled lovingly in it. I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.
—John Burroughs
Wilderness survival may require an expedient shelter, such as a debris hut or a trash bag or a poncho tied up to a tree. A longer stay, whether voluntary or involuntary, calls for a more permanent dwelling. The books in this section discuss log cabins, shanties, tents, yurts, tipis, bent-pole houses, pit houses, iglus, and hogans, all using materials available in the wilderness, and all teaching us something about the human place in the world. As Peter Andrews says in Nomad Tent Types in the Middle East (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 1977), ISBN 3-88226-890-5, ”Little goes to waste in traditional nomadic life. There is respect both for the material and the effort invested in it . . .The material is almost always of local provenance, its use arises directly from the techniques available without affectation. Compared to our extravagance this is exemplary.” Many of these books also show how these structures were integrated not only into the natural environment but also into the daily lives of their makers, reflecting their cosmological beliefs and providing a setting for their ritual life. As Carleton Coon says in The Hunting Peoples (Guilford CT: Globe Pequot Press, 1987), ISBN 0-94113-027-4), “One might almost say that the domed hut is as specific to man, in a cultural sense, as the oriole’s special kind of nest is instinctively specific to orioles.”
 Daniel Beard, Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties (Bolinas, CA: Shelter Publications, 2000), ISBN 0936070137. Daniel Beard, born in 1850, surveyor and map maker, writer and illustrator, was one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America. This book, originally published in 1914, contains hundreds of pen and ink drawings and detailed directions for constructing more than fifty wooden structures from trees and their branches, from a simple one-night shelter to a complete log cabin, including a sod house, a tree house, over-water camps, a bog ken, and a hogan. It also explains how to build hearths and chimneys, notched log ladders, and secret locks, and includes plans for building authentic old-time doors and latches, windows, and furnishings.
 Bob Easton, et al., Shelter (Bolinas CA: Shelter Publications, 2000), ISBN 0-93607-011-0. With over 1,250 illustrations, this book, first published in 1973, is a source of ideas for building shelter in every conceivable environment. It covers yurts, huts, tree houses, cave houses, communal huts, wooden shacks, tents, domes, towers, and holes in the ground; it deals with Bedouin tents, tin-and-thatch houses in Togo, and sod iglus – shelters built with every conceivable material to deal with every conceivable environment. Chapters include barns, timber dwellings, nomadic shelters, domes, and issues of energy, water, food, and waste. This book is a visual treat, a source for inspiration and invention.
 Torvald Faegre, Tents: Architecture of the Nomads (New York NY: Anchor Press, 1978), ISBN 0-385-11656-X. This book discusses just about every type of tent constructed by nomadic peoples – Bedouin, Berber, Tibetan, Kurd, Beluchi, and Turkish black tents, Middle Eastern mat-skin tents, Mongolian yurts, Plains Indian tipis, and Siberian, Lapp, and Inuit tents. Each tent type is illustrated with drawings and measurements; the author is a practicing carpenter, and has an eye for important structural details. The book explains the history, distinctive construction details, and cultural context of each type of tent – in other words, how culture and environment have interacted to produce just this sort of shelter.
 Paul King, The Complete Yurt Handbook (Bath UK: Eco-Logic Books, 2002), ISBN 1899233083. The author, a professional yurt builder for ten years who has traveled extensively in Mongolia, here provides complete instructions on how to build your own yurt. The book begins with the history of the yurt, how it works, and the principles behind its construction. Just as the Laubins do with their book on tipis, discussed below, the author explains life today in the Mongolian ger and the culture and etiquette of ger living. The book then gives full detailed instructions on how to make several types and sizes of yurt.
 Reginald Laubin, et al., The Indian Tipi: Its History, Construction, and Use (Norman OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989), ISBN 0-80612-236-6. Reginald and Gladys Laubin were dancers, whose interest in Native American culture began with dance and ended with them being so thoroughly immersed in Plains Indian culture that they lived as fully accepted members of the Sioux people. This is their definitive work on the Plains Indian tipi, although it goes beyond materials and construction to describe the tipi as an essential element in a way of life. The Plains tipi is in many ways an ideal shelter for its environment. It can be pitched by one person. It is roomy, well ventilated, cool in summer, well lighted, proof against high winds and heavy downpours, and can be kept warm in the severest winter weather. The book not only describes in detail how tipis are designed, constructed, and transported, but also talks about how people live in tipis, their daily lives and ceremonies, their furnishings and decorations, storage and cooking, clothes and childraising – even tipi etiquette.
 B. Allan MacKie, The Owner-Built Log House: Living in Harmony with Your Environment (Westport CT: Firefly Books, 2001), ISBN 1-55297-548-7. In this profusely illustrated book, the author takes the reader step-by-step through the process of building a log house. Chapters cover making a set of plans, selecting the land, purchasing and preparing the logs, selecting and sharpening the tools, making notches of all kinds, cutting, lifting, and fitting the logs, putting up the roof, installing windows, doors, and stairs, and finishing the interior – all placed in the context of the author’s own current building project on a 100-acre wilderness site. The book discusses how long the project will take and how much it will cost, and – perhaps most important – the way an owner-built log house is a statement of independence and self-reliance.
 Len McDougall, The Log Cabin: An Adventure in Self-Reliance, Individualism, and Cabin Building (Guilford CT L Lyons Press, 2003), ISBN 1-58574-459-X. Sure, you can build a log cabin, but then what? Len McDougall, outdoor writer and professional photographer , packed a grubstake and a couple of loads of handtools, and went deep into the North Woods. Using only the materials available on site and what he could carry in on foot, he pitched a tent to tide him over until the roof was up. Then he cut a few trees, built his own cabin, dug his own well, and lived in the cabin, alone, for a year. In part this is a how-to manual and a reference for building a log cabin of your own. But it is also a memoir of heavy labor, biting insects, injuries, loneliness, animal encounters, awe at the beauties of nature, self-reflection, and freedom.
 Peter Nabokov, et al., Native American Architecture (New York NY: Oxford University Press, 1990) ISBN 0-19506-665-0. This book is a collaboration between an anthropologist and an architect, studying the buildings and settlements created by American Indians from prehistoric times to the present, and filled with photographs, drawings, and paintings. Chapters cover the construction of the wigwam, longhouse, chickee, earthlodge, tipi, pit house, iglu, tent, plank house, hogan, ki, and ramada. More than that, the authors show how these structures are part of both culture and place. The book thus also speaks about the social customs, economic ways of life, and technological skills of each tribe, emphasizing the major role played by cosmological concepts and ritual life in their architectural systems. While this book can be used as a guide to constructing wilderness shelters from local materials in every sort of North American climate, what it teaches is how shelter and culture fit together in a natural environment.
 David Pearson, Circle Houses: Yurts, Tipis and Benders (White River Junction VT: Chelsea Green, 2001), ISBN 1-890132-86-1. This book is a collection of discussions and color photographs of eighteen different structures in different parts of the world, offering detailed instructions on how to build yurts, tipis, and benders or bent-pole shelters – all dwellings that consist of a collapsible, lightweight frame covered with cloth, and ranging from simple temporary designs to sturdier structures appropriate for year-round use. The author, an architect and the author of several books on natural design, provides lists of resources and further reading.
 Calvin Rutstrum, The Wilderness Cabin (New York NY: Macmillan, 1961). Cal Rutstrum was born in 1895 in Indiana, and he died in 1982 in Wisconsin. In between, he lived an unconventional life in the wilderness of northern Minnesota and Ontario and was, from the 1920s through the 1950s, one of North America’s most important wilderness writers. Four of his classic books – Paradise Below Zero, The Wilderness Route Finder, North American Canoe Country, and The New Way of the Wilderness – have been republished by the University of Minnesota Press. But not, unfortunately, this one. It is long out of print – it does not even have an ISBN that I can locate – but try to find a copy any way you can. It is, in my opinion, one of the single best sources for building rustic cabins of all sorts, log or frame, including the use of tools such as chainsaws, and the installation of fireplaces.
 Tom Walker, Building the Alaska Log Home (Portland OR: Graphic Arts Center, 1998), ISBN 0-88240-511-X. The author of this book is a photographer who has lived and worked in Alaska for more than thirty years, and who lives in a log cabin he built himself. His book gives drawings and descriptions of the important details of traditional hand-hewn log construction, beginning with tools and site selection, to foundation work, to bush cabin etiquette. Outstanding color photos – as you would expect – demonstrate building and finishing techniques, as well as finished homes that will fill you with envy.
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