IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY there was a merman named Triton, half man and half sea creature, who lived with his par­ents in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea.

When Mrs. Violet Shankin visualized the summer home that she had and her husband Paul would have some day she saw in her mind's eye the golden palace of Triton. The Shankins compromised with mythology. They settled for a spacious rustic lodge built 60 feet from the shore of the big St. Mary's River in northern Michigan instead of on the bottom some hundred feet down. But their color motif is faithful to the Greek legend. The ex­terior is the richly gleaming gold of cedar half-logs and the interior is the softer gold of unfinished pine, spruce and balsam. The Triton measures 36x36 ft., with sleeping accommodations for 12 in bedrooms and more on cots and couches. The two dining tables, one in the breakfast nook and one in the main room, can seat 16 at a time. The huge fireplace, 10 ft. across, has a fire opening five ft. wide and seems perfectly in proportion in this main 16x30 ft. room.

The lodge was designed and built by John D. Steel on heavily-wooded Sweet's Point overlooking the river. From its broad picture windows can be seen the busy Great Lakes shipping commerce be­tween Lake Superior and the lower Lakes.

The Triton was built mainly with timbers cut and hewn on the site. All visible roof joists, crossbeams, supporting posts and loft floor rafters are of hand-hewn native timbers, peeled and shaped with a draw knife. This was made possible by the type of trees in the area.

Logged over once long ago and then left, the St. Mary's shoreside forests re-developed in thick clusters of balsam, spruce, pine and cedar. In these thick groves the trees grew tall and straight and evenly tapered as their tops vied with one another to reach the sun. The timbers were cut in late autumn, when the sap was down, and seasoned over the winter for spring construction. To avoid checking, the timbers were shaved with a draw knife along a strip that would be on the top side when they were in place. What checking did come developed along this shaved strip, which was out of sight when the joists were in place.

The sense of spaciousness is heightened in the main room by an open overhead which stretches 18 ft. to the ridgepole past two huge crossbeams a foot in diameter. The rear of the lodge is divided into two levels, providing a large loft bedroom area containing four double beds in curtained alcoves.

Construction utilized the gentle slope of the land toward the river for an answer to the problem of a fireplace foundation.

To avoid heaving by frost in the northern Michigan glacial country, where the ground is solid gravel under leaf mold, foundations must either by laid flat on the ground or with a footing that goes below the frost line four feet down.

With a three-foot drop in the ground from rear to front, the fireplace foundation was poured in a solid slab 16 feet wide and three feet deep atop the ground. The fireplace contains more than 30 tons of rock, which was gathered locally.

In the central area of the lodge is a hall which leads to two large bedrooms and the bath. A staircase at the rear of the main room leads to the loft bedroom, and the large area under the staircase is utilized for a broom closet. The staircase landing at the loft level is supported by a wooden dowel tie through one of the main cross­beams and the landing corner post.

The horizontal vista in the main room is increased by a 15 ft. archway opening into the kitchen and the bedroom hall. Side entry is through a hand-crafted three-foot door beside the kitchen ell that opens onto quarter-circle flagstone stoop.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...