Vermont Curiosities

A fun, accessible read for travelers and non travelers alike Vermont Curiosities is part zany Vermont guidebook and part Who's Who of unusual and unsung heroes, this compendium of the state's quirks and characters will amuse Vermont residents and visitors alike.

Contents

 

Foreword

 

Acknowledgments

 

Introduction

 

 

Southeast

 

Southwest

 

East-Central

 

West-Central

 

Northeast Kingdom

Champlain Valley

 

 

Index

 

About the Author

Bernie Sanders, lone independent in the U.S. Senate, wrote the foreword. Senator Sanders concludes by saying, This book is a pleasurable compendium for those who want to travel Vermont and see things not found in most guidebooks, and will be a delight to those who enjoy the quirkiness of Vermont’s curiosities.’”As an example of this quirkiness, Wilson points to Vermont’s only professional basketball team, the Frost Heaves. Any state serious enough of purpose to name an athletic team in honor of indigenous phenomena rather than mammals of prey earns points for originality.”

This user-friendly book is organized geographically, the first chapter dealing with

statewide mattershistorical, geological and cultural. The remaining chapters cover the state’s eight regions. Each curiosity” is pictured and includes clear directions for getting there, accompanied by hours of operation, if applicable, and a phone number for more information.

Martha Slater

The Herald of Randolph

 

"The new book Vermont Curiosities sets out to find the interesting people, places, and historic quirks that make Vermont unique. They include tidbits like the sale of a counterfeit Norman Rockwell painting, the history of a horse-drqwn garbage service in Bristol, and where to find a covered bridge museum inside a covered bridge. Author Bob Wilson traveled the state to uncover and research the stories collected in his book, but he found one of them in his own backyard. . . ." (From the introduction to an audio review, August 18, 2009.) --Jane Lindholm, Host, "Vermont Edition," Vermont Public Radio

Vermont Curiosities contains dozens of stories from Brattleboro up to the Northeast

Kingdom, and includes an appendix to help travelers who want to experience the places they read about. Wilson’s chapter on southeastern Vermont, for example, includes many well-known tales, but he also uncovers some lesser-known gems, like a story about Brattleboro issuing one of the first postage stamps in the country, and a profile of the last dairy farmer in Rockingham.Wilson traveled the roads of Vermontfollowing leads, chasing ghosts, and tracking down Vermonters with first-hand memories of some of the state’s most colorful characters. He was especially impressed with Patrick Palmer, who won the bid to pick up garbage in Bristol without telling the Selectboard that his rates were low because he’d use a horse and wagon to pick it up. Sometimes it panned out and sometimes it didn’t,” Wilson said about his travels around Vermont. You never knew how things would turn out. That was the fun of putting it together.”

Howard Weiss-Tisman

Brattleboro Reformer

 

Robert F.Wilson has worked as a promotion writer for Reader’s Digest; and as an editor for McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, Macmillan, Scholastic, and the sadly swallowed Silver Burdett. He has written twelve books.  

 

Wilson makes the following offer: Bring a copy of this book to his home in Saxtons River and he will not only sign it, but provide milk and cookies. Finally, as a public service, Wilson has sworn to never again refer to himself in the third person, beginning . . . now.

 

Victoria Blewer left the chaos and the clutter of New York City in 1986 to devote herself full time to fine art photography in the hills of Vermont. She works entirely in black-and-white, and then hand-colors the images. Her work has been featured in full-length photo essays in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Vermont Life, and Vermont Magazine.

The Strolling of the Heifers

Brattleboro

You’ve heard of the Running of the Bulls, in Pamplona? On eight consecutive days every July at 8:00 a.m., a rocket alerts this entire Spanish town to the knowledge that two dozen cranky, 1300-pound bulls have been released on a closed, half-mile-long public street. Their goal: To vent their fury and frustration on the abysmally slower and foolhardy two-legged creatures who for their own reasons are trying to outrun them.

But what Brattleboro’s annual June Strolling of the Heifers” festival lacks in melodrama and derring-do (people have been killed during the masochistic spectacle held a month later and 3,500 miles away), it more than compensates with its pure celebration of a rural way of life, and an expression of gratitude to the farmers who drive it.

The highlight, of course, is the iconic parade: 100 flower-laden Holstein and Jersey cowsand occasionally a Guernsey or twomaking their way down Main Street to a cheering crowd, followed by draft horses, tractors, jugglers, clowns, fire eaters, and Turkey Hill Dairy employees giving away thousands of cups of ice cream. But it wouldn’t be a dairy festival without a milking contest, music by the Heifer Brass Quartet (and at least a dozen other jazz and classical groups), a Dairy Princess Pageant, and a Royal Farmers Feast and Farm Tour. Many festival-goers are sure to be in town the night before the parade, when local farm families are honored for the decades of work they’ve done to keep southern Vermont’s agricultural tradition alive.

So the Strolling of the Heifers not only kicks off National Dairy Month each June, but is a way to protect and promote Vermont’s agricultural heritage in residents’ daily lives. It has raised more than $100,000 for educational programs for more than 80 schools in Windham County, including a scholarship program that will fund farmers and agricultural students. Related factoid[1]: The 162,000 cows living on Vermont farms are said to produce more than 2.6 billion pounds of milk a yearor more than 16,000 pounds per cow.  We’ll do the math: That’s 44 pounds per cow per day.

[1] According to Common Errors in English Usage, factoid” was once an ironic term indicating that the fact” being offered was not actually factual. It adds that a number of sources have taken to using the term to mean trivial but true fact.’ As a result, the definition of factoid’ is hopelessly confused and it’s probably better to avoid using the term altogether.” 

In Vermont Curiosities, factoid” is used but sparingly, and only to denote a trivial but true fact. We regret the hopeless confusion that may follow.

Your round-trip ticket to the wildest, wackiest, most outrageous people, places, and things the Green Mountain State has to offer!

 

Whether you’re a born-and-raised Vermonter, a recent transplant, or just passing through, Vermont Curiosities will have you laughing out loud as it introduces you to the most fascinating characters in the Green Mountain State, and takes you places you never could have imaginedsome of them right around the corner!

 

Among the stimulating sights and spectacles you’ll find inside:

 

 Brattleboro’s annual Strolling of the Heifers
 Indian carvings that may or may not be prehistoric
 America’s only covered bridge museum (itself a covered bridge)
 The architectural wonder of the 32-room Wilson Castle
 The Bread & Puppet Theater, where sourdough follows politics
 The world’s largest marble museum, complete with forty-one carved presidents and an award-winning

   bathroom

Publisher: Globe Pequot
Distributor: The Globe Pequot Press
Publication Date: 10-14-2008
Pages: 240
Measurements: 9.00in X 6.00in