diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGateway.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGateway.java
index 59f9b5c67b5..fcce3642298 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGateway.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/gateway/local/LocalGateway.java
@@ -77,6 +77,8 @@ public class LocalGateway extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<Gateway> implements
 
     private volatile LocalGatewayState currentState;
 
+    private volatile boolean initialized = false;
+
     @Inject public LocalGateway(Settings settings, ClusterService clusterService, MetaDataCreateIndexService createIndexService,
                                 NodeEnvironment nodeEnv, TransportNodesListGatewayState listGatewayState) {
         super(settings);
@@ -91,28 +93,12 @@ public class LocalGateway extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<Gateway> implements
     }
 
     public LocalGatewayState currentState() {
+        lazyInitialize();
         return this.currentState;
     }
 
     @Override protected void doStart() throws ElasticSearchException {
-        // if this is not a possible master node or data node, bail, we won't save anything here...
-        if (!clusterService.state().nodes().localNode().masterNode() || !clusterService.state().nodes().localNode().dataNode()) {
-            location = null;
-            return;
-        }
-        // create the location where the state will be stored
-        this.location = new File(nodeEnv.nodeLocation(), "_state");
-        this.location.mkdirs();
-
-        try {
-            long version = findLatestStateVersion();
-            if (version != -1) {
-                this.currentState = readState(Streams.copyToByteArray(new FileInputStream(new File(location, "state-" + version))));
-            }
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            logger.warn("failed to read local state", e);
-        }
-
+        lazyInitialize();
         clusterService.add(this);
     }
 
@@ -283,6 +269,37 @@ public class LocalGateway extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<Gateway> implements
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * We do here lazy initialization on not only on start(), since we might be called before start by another node (really will
+     * happen in term of timing in testing, but still), and we want to return the cluster state when we can.
+     *
+     * It is synchronized since we want to wait for it to be loaded if called concurrently. There should really be a nicer
+     * solution here, but for now, its good enough.
+     */
+    private synchronized void lazyInitialize() {
+        if (initialized) {
+            return;
+        }
+        initialized = true;
+
+        // if this is not a possible master node or data node, bail, we won't save anything here...
+        if (!clusterService.state().nodes().localNode().masterNode() || !clusterService.state().nodes().localNode().dataNode()) {
+            location = null;
+        } else {
+            // create the location where the state will be stored
+            this.location = new File(nodeEnv.nodeLocation(), "_state");
+            this.location.mkdirs();
+            try {
+                long version = findLatestStateVersion();
+                if (version != -1) {
+                    this.currentState = readState(Streams.copyToByteArray(new FileInputStream(new File(location, "state-" + version))));
+                }
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                logger.warn("failed to read local state", e);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     private long findLatestStateVersion() throws IOException {
         long index = -1;
         for (File stateFile : location.listFiles()) {
diff --git a/modules/test/integration/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/gateway/local/SimpleRecoveryLocalGatewayTests.java b/modules/test/integration/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/gateway/local/SimpleRecoveryLocalGatewayTests.java
index 6eae0f0df70..bbf01e27077 100644
--- a/modules/test/integration/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/gateway/local/SimpleRecoveryLocalGatewayTests.java
+++ b/modules/test/integration/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/gateway/local/SimpleRecoveryLocalGatewayTests.java
@@ -40,18 +40,20 @@ import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*;
  */
 public class SimpleRecoveryLocalGatewayTests extends AbstractNodesTests {
 
-    @AfterMethod public void closeNodes() throws Exception {
-        node("node1").stop();
-        // since we store (by default) the index snapshot under the gateway, resetting it will reset the index data as well
-        ((InternalNode) node("node1")).injector().getInstance(Gateway.class).reset();
+    @AfterMethod public void cleanAndCloseNodes() throws Exception {
+        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
+            if (node("node" + i) != null) {
+                node("node" + i).stop();
+                // since we store (by default) the index snapshot under the gateway, resetting it will reset the index data as well
+                ((InternalNode) node("node" + i)).injector().getInstance(Gateway.class).reset();
+            }
+        }
         closeAllNodes();
     }
 
     @Test public void testSingleNode() throws Exception {
         buildNode("node1", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").build());
-        // since we store (by default) the index snapshot under the gateway, resetting it will reset the index data as well
-        ((InternalNode) node("node1")).injector().getInstance(Gateway.class).reset();
-        closeAllNodes();
+        cleanAndCloseNodes();
 
         Node node1 = startNode("node1", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").put("index.number_of_shards", 1).build());
         node1.client().prepareIndex("test", "type1", "1").setSource(jsonBuilder().startObject().field("field", "value1").endObject()).execute().actionGet();
@@ -72,4 +74,40 @@ public class SimpleRecoveryLocalGatewayTests extends AbstractNodesTests {
 
         assertThat(node1.client().prepareCount().setQuery(matchAllQuery()).execute().actionGet().count(), equalTo(2l));
     }
+
+    @Test public void testTwoNodeFirstNodeCleared() throws Exception {
+        // clean two nodes
+        buildNode("node1", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").build());
+        buildNode("node2", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").build());
+        cleanAndCloseNodes();
+
+        Node node1 = startNode("node1", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").put("index.number_of_shards", 1).build());
+        Node node2 = startNode("node2", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").put("index.number_of_shards", 1).build());
+
+        node1.client().prepareIndex("test", "type1", "1").setSource(jsonBuilder().startObject().field("field", "value1").endObject()).execute().actionGet();
+        node1.client().admin().indices().prepareFlush().execute().actionGet();
+        node1.client().prepareIndex("test", "type1", "2").setSource(jsonBuilder().startObject().field("field", "value2").endObject()).execute().actionGet();
+        node1.client().admin().indices().prepareRefresh().execute().actionGet();
+
+        assertThat(node1.client().prepareCount().setQuery(matchAllQuery()).execute().actionGet().count(), equalTo(2l));
+
+        logger.info("--> closing nodes");
+        closeNode("node1");
+        closeNode("node2");
+
+        logger.info("--> cleaning node1 gateway");
+        buildNode("node1", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").build());
+        cleanAndCloseNodes();
+
+        node1 = startNode("node1", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").put("gateway.recover_after_nodes", 2).build());
+        node2 = startNode("node2", settingsBuilder().put("gateway.type", "local").put("gateway.recover_after_nodes", 2).build());
+
+        logger.info("Running Cluster Health (wait for the shards to startup)");
+        ClusterHealthResponse clusterHealth = client("node1").admin().cluster().health(clusterHealthRequest().waitForGreenStatus().waitForActiveShards(2)).actionGet();
+        logger.info("Done Cluster Health, status " + clusterHealth.status());
+        assertThat(clusterHealth.timedOut(), equalTo(false));
+        assertThat(clusterHealth.status(), equalTo(ClusterHealthStatus.GREEN));
+
+        assertThat(node1.client().prepareCount().setQuery(matchAllQuery()).execute().actionGet().count(), equalTo(2l));
+    }
 }