Margaret Loftus zigzags across her front yard along a dead-end dirt road. Two farm tractors are parked in the driveway, and a sap bucket hangs from a tree behind a row of mailboxes. With her labradoodle, Bjornsen, trotting alongside, Loftus ducks past the tractors into a...
Spencer Crispe spends as much time as he can walking or cross-country skiing on Vermont ancient roads. Ancient roads—typically 48-feet wide and often lined with stone walls—can be found across the state. You might also come across tiny cemeteries, old stone chimneys and cellar holes near...
Wilcox Ice Cream was once made in Manchester Village using a handheld motor and ice gathered from Equinox Pond. The Wilcoxes operated the business in the village a century ago before moving it to the family farm a few miles south on Route 7A. "My grandfather and his...
Hotels once crowned some of Vermont’s most iconic peaks—Mount Mansfield, Camel’s Hump, Snake Mountain and Mount Equinox. Mary Skelton spent eight childhood summers atop Mount Mansfield, where her father, Clement Curtis, ran the Mount Mansfield Summit Hotel and served as the vacation getaway's postmaster. “It was magical,”...
Vermont has no shortage of offbeat place names. What is special about Vermont place names is that they come with a story—either a true one or a mix of myth, folklore and fact. Esther Monroe Swift wrote Vermont-Place Names: Footprints in History in 1977. She spent...
Imagine if Stratton lost its status as an official Vermont town. In the 1930s, the Vermont Legislature decided that towns with tiny populations, like Glastenbury and Somerset, would no longer be organized towns. Some wondered if Stratton would face the same fate. At the time, Stratton's...
Cochran's is a small but mighty ski area. The ski area was started in the 1960s by Mickey and Ginny Cochran. With a vertical drop of 350 feet, the ski area includes a t-bar, rope tow and base lodge. It's also where thousands of local children...
Vermont is home to about 185 libraries. Jessamyn West is on a quest to visit every single one. "Vermont is a very make-your-own-fun kind of place," says West, a library technologist from Randolph. She's visited about 68 Vermont libraries so far. "My rule is that you have...
Farmers, nature, the rural landscape and beloved artists are showcased at Vermont museums and galleries this winter. Here are three museums, two art centers and one dog chapel to visit this winter. -The Vermont Female Farmers exhibit at the Fleming Museum of Art at UVM features...
Susan Leader makes pottery in a small shed at her home in Andover. In a field outside her doorstep is a view of Terrible Mountain. Terrible Mountain sits between Andover and Weston. Folklore surrounds the mountain's ominous name, and its mystique was likely heightened by the crash of...
