

More permanent than tents, less permanent than treehouses, backyard forts and shelters can be built in a day (once you’ve gathered the materials, that is) and taken down in an hour. Mention these facts to your grownups, and they will be forced to say OK to your plans … and maybe they’ll even lend a hand, too.

As you’ll see, many of these forts require tree branches and evergreen boughs. Are we suggesting that you take an axe to the trees in your yard and neighborhood? We are not! You might need to wait until your family, or another family in the neighborhood, is having a tree trimmed or cut down; or you can collect fallen branches after a storm.

The point of building a shelter is staying warm and dry; and the point of building a fort is defending it from invaders. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before you begin construction:

• In what direction does the wind usually blow? Which way should your shelter’s entrance face?

• Where in the yard should you build? Will you need to use a fence, tree, garage wall, or some other backyard feature as part of your structure?

• How many friends do you want to fit inside?

• How can you prevent your enemies from spying on you? Do you have an escape route planned?

Answer these questions, then get building.

Build a lean-to

Illustrations by Mister Reusch
(Illustrations by Mister Reusch)

1. Collect a straight, sturdy pole, or a piece of lumber, or a tree branch (with twigs trimmed off) to use as your ridge-pole—it should be at least six feet long. Also collect a pile of poles, boards (without nails), hockey sticks, branches with the twigs still on, and any other objects that could be used to construct a sloping roof/wall. (Several of these objects must be as long as the lean-to is going to be tall—so you’ll need some five- or six-foot long objects.) Finally, collect either a pile of evergreen boughs or a couple of large waterproof tarps.

2a. Lash the uppermost end of the ridge-pole to something solid—a classic example is a tree branch or tree fork that’s a bit higher up than the head of the tallest person who’ll be using the lean-to. You can also lash the uppermost end of the ridge-pole five or six feet up a tree trunk. Don’t lean the pole against anything whose surface you wouldn’t want to scratch; and don’t lean the pole against something to which you can’t fasten it. For added stability, bury the bottom end of the ridge-pole in the ground.

PS: Vikings and Maori decorated their ridge-poles—go ahead, give it a try!

2b. Or else drive two sturdy, six-foot-tall Y-shaped tree limbs about a foot deep into the ground, about six feet apart from each other; make sure their forks are the same distance above the ground, or else your roof will be crooked. (If you’re lucky, you’ll find two trees growing five or six feet apart, and you can use them instead.) Place a ridge-pole between the two forked ends. Lash if necessary.

3. Build the sloping roof/main wall by leaning poles and branches and other things against the uppermost part of the ridge-pole; if you’re using tree limbs, the thicker ends should be on the ground. For added stability, lash the objects’ top ends to the ridge-pole and/or bury their bottom ends an inch deep in the ground. You could stop here, but why not keep going?

4. Fortify the roof/wall, to keep the sun and rain off your heads. One old-school method involves laying evergreen boughs over the roof/wall—place them side by side, beginning at the bottom and working your way up. Make sure the part of the bough that was attached to the tree is pointing up; each new row of boughs should slightly overlap the one beneath. You might want to tie the boughs down, but it’s not 100 percent necessary. If you don’t have evergreen boughs, you can block up gaps in the roof/wall with leaves, grass, and other material—and you can also try weaving thin, bendy branches between the long poles.

5. If you want side walls on your lean-to, they should not be sloping but vertical. So sharpen the ends of some sticks and drive them into the ground in parallel rows, then fill the gap between the rows in with other sticks, grass, etc.

Build a tarp shelter


1. Set up a ridge-pole using one of the methods described above. Because the tarp is light, you can use a rope for a ridge-pole; if you’re just trying to stay warm and dry while you’re sleeping in the woods, you can use a fallen tree.

2. Throw a tarp over the ridge-pole, then fasten the top end to the ridge-pole (with string, if the tarp has holes for that purpose; or with clothespins).

3. Fasten the bottom end to the ground (with tent pegs or sharpened sticks if the tarp has strings, loops, or holes for that purpose; if it doesn’t, use large rocks to weigh it down). If you have a large enough tarp, you can peg it to the ground on both sides. The structure you’ve just built is also called a “wedge tent.”

Build a tipi

A tipi (Lakota Sioux for “house”) is a portable, durable tent associated with nomadic Native Americans of the Great Plains.

1. Gather the same materials that you would for a lean-to; except you’ll need three ridge-poles, and you might want to use poles that are longer than six feet.

2. Lash the tops of three long branches, poles, or pieces of lumber together; make sure the thicker ends of the branches, if that’s what you’re using, are on the bottom. Attach a tarp to the top of one of the poles.

3. Raise the lashed-together poles in the air and separate them—now you’ve got a tripod. Wrap the tarp around the tripod, and fasten it from as high as you can reach to about three feet off the ground—and figure out a door.

Fun fact: The tripod (Greek for “three feet”) is geometrically the stablest structure around, because when you push down on one side, the pressure is distributed to all three sides, which actually increases the structure’s tensile strength.

4. Instead of using a tarp, you could also lash branches, poles, and other stuff to the tripod (leaving room for a door), then insulate the walls.

Tip: Don’t confuse a wigwam with a tipi. A tipi is a tripod, while a wigwam is either six- or eight-sided. Also, a wigwam—associated with Native Americans from the Northeast—is formed from a framework of arched poles, so its roof is domed, not conical.

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