Our Vermont Travelblog

Trip 11 - Shelburne And Middlebury

It's quite unusual for Stef (and Cairo) to be home on weekends, but they were today so we decided to do our first 251 jaunt with the new guy.  First we had to stop at the office in Colchester so I could drop off some stuff, then hit Noah's Ark (apt, given the flood watch in effect today) across the street to buy dog kibble and other sundry animal supplies, then we could mosey on down Route 7...

We figured that if the dogs behaved okay together on the trip to Colchester, which they did, we'd head south to Shelburne (history, demographics):

In the 19th Century, a gristmill, a sawmill, a carding and fulling mill and a blacksmith shop sprang up along the rushing LaPlatte River at Shelburne Falls. Sheep raising and fruit orchards became popular methods of farming, with some 17,740 fruit-bearing trees by 1880. After the War of 1812, lake commerce surged. The Champlain Transportation Company established a shipyard at Shelburne Harbor and launched the "General Green," the first of ten proud steamships to call Lake Champlain home between 1825 and 1905, the last two of which can still be found in New England. The "Mount Washington" (still in service on New Hampshire's Lake Winnepesaukee) and the "Ticonderoga", the landlocked centerpiece of the Shelburne Museum, having been brought up from the lake on a specially constructed rail bed.

Shelburne today supports a wide variety of businesses, from manufacturers and retailers to Vermont's largest retirement community, including some of the more popular Vermont attractions: the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, Shelburne Farms and the best historical museum in New England, the Shelburne Museum.

Mexico's first 251 Club trip with us!  Shelburne has a leash law, so we had to put one on Cairo as well--she didn't seem to mind.

Notice how there's no snow on the ground?  The last few days' thaw wiped it out most places, but it's returning tonight with a vengeance.  It was 50 degrees and foggy when we left Colchester, and by the time we got home 4.5 hours later it was 32 and snowing!  We expect up to 10 inches by the end of the storm tomorrow night.

Trip 9 - Granville, Hancock And Sharon

It was my 36th birthday yesterday and I wanted to do a 251 jaunt to celebrate.  After all the hot, sticky weather we've been having, we were blessed with some cooler temps and lower humidity:  gorgeous sunny day as though I'd ordered it up special!

We grabbed some lunch at the Austrian Tea Room at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, then we headed south on Route 100...

Our first official stop was in Granville (history, demographics):

Granville was granted to Reuben King and six other members of his family, and named Kingston in the charter. Unlike the grantees of some other towns, the Kings took part in the settlement of their town. The first proprietors' meeting was held at Windsor in the spring of 1783, at which Reuben King was elected proprietors' clerk. The following year the proprietors offered 100 acres of land to any woman who would make a permanent settlement in Kingston with her family. Mrs. Daniel King was given the first award, and her husband became the proprietors' clerk. Daniel later became the first justice of the peace and built the first sawmill and gristmill, for which he was awarded four more 100-acre lots. Their son, Henry King, was the first child born in town.

Hemenway's Gazetteer (1868) said about Kingston: "This name it retained until 1834 when, for some local prejudice on the part of the inhabitants, it was changed by the legislature to Granville." It seems more probable that it was changed because there weren't enough Kings left for the name to be meaningful any longer. The town's name was changed by the legislature in November 1834; the name of the post office was not changed by postal authorities until a year later.

Moss Glen Falls in Granville.

Trip 4

Just a quick post on Orwell (history, demographics). Apparently not named for George: The date of the grant for Orwell, and what must have been Benning Wentworth's growing uncertainty over his position in the land-granting dispute with New York, give credence to the theory that the town was named for Francis Vernon (1715-83) the first Baron Orwell.

At the Farmer's Market.

More pictures below the fold...

Orwell

We stopped in Orwell, VT, today on our way to Minnesota. Tired. More 251 Club goodness to come. Tomorrow.

ntodd