Along a rugged dirt road in the southern Vermont town of Wardsboro is the old Gilfeather farm, where the famous Gilfeather turnip first sprouted in the early 1900s. The turnip, cultivated by farmer John Gilfeather, became the official Vermont State Vegetable in 2016. It’s celebrated every fall...
At the top of Burke Mountain stands a fire tower built in 1939. It's the third fire tower constructed at the summit. Weather-related events destroyed the earlier two. The original one, built in 1912, was the first fire tower ever constructed in Vermont, but it collapsed...
South Mountain in Bristol stands at 2,325 feet. Visible from Main Street, the mountain is known for its rugged terrain and steep cliffs. It was once (and apparently still is) a challenging but desirable location for treasure seekers. Money digging was a popular craze in the...
A collection of abstract sculptures created by internationally renowned artists more than 50 years ago stand along Vermont's highways. You just can't see most of them—at least not yet. Art conservator Bob Hannum of Barre is working to change that. He was hired by the State of...
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—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 these dirt pathways. “They're almost...
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...
