It Happened in Vermont


Book Description

From a cross-border Confederate attack to the underdressed men from Maple Corner, It Happened in Vermont looks at intriguing people and episodes from the history of the Green Mountain State. Learn why a militia sent to defuse a dangerous mob of striking miners ended up handing out their own rations. Read about the shocking “ball of light” that descended upon early twentieth-century Burlington, exploded—knocking a horse senseless—and then rapidly shot back up into the sky. Follow two of America’s founding fathers as they traveled through the state, revelling over the region’s flora and fauna and recording their impressions of its residents. Discover what caused “the year without a summer,” when trees turned black and crops fell victim to intermittent hard frosts and snowstorms interrupted by short intervals of intense heat and drought Relive the terrible flood of 1927 that wreaked havoc in communities along the Winooski River and its tributaries, killing eighty-two people and washing away homes, bridges, and railroad tracks Mark Bushnell worked for a dozen years as an editor for Vermont newspapers, then turned to freelance writing in 2002. He is the author of Hidden History of Vermont and Discover Vermont! The Vermont Life Guide to Exploring Our Rural Landscape, and lives in Middlesex, Vermont, with his wife and son.




It Happened in Vermont


Book Description

From the French and Indian War to the exposure of Maple Corner, thirty-two events that shaped the Green Mountain State




Hidden History of Vermont


Book Description

Vermont's history is marked by fierce independence, generosity of spirit and the saga of human life along its steep slopes and fertile valleys. Meet the widow who outwitted Tories and may have spied for the Green Mountain Boys. Encounter the family who gained a national following by summoning spirits. Discover why one governor opposed women's suffrage and how that may have involved spirits of another sort. Visit an island retreat where Harpo Marx cheated at croquet and satirist Dorothy Parker wore nothing but a garden hat. Historian Mark Bushnell offers a glimpse of the Green Mountain State rarely seen.







Death/Innocence


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Forgotten Tales of Vermont


Book Description

There's more to Vermont than maple syrup and covered bridges. A book about Vermont's history will likely bring to mind such topics as Abenaki Indians, the Green Mountain Boys and the state's famed covered bridges, but Forgotten Tales of Vermont takes readers far beyond traditional histories to uncover little-known stories from Vermont's quirky past. Who knew that students from Castleton Medical School moonlighted as grave robbers until they were caught hiding Mrs. Churchill's head in a haystack? Or that an Egyptian mummy once turned up in Middlebury and is now buried at the local cemetery alongside the town's founders? Stories such as the Willoughby Lake "monster" and "Slipperyskin," the bear that terrorized Lemington, are sure to bemuse, baffle and surprise even Vermonters who think they've heard it all. Culled from newspapers, books and journals, William M. Alexander's fascinating tales will entertain and inform readers for generations to come!




The History of Vermont


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The Story of Vermont


Book Description

"Landscape history or natural history without humans is incomplete history," write authors Christopher McGrory Klyza and Stephen C. Trombulak. In their very readable portrayal of geological, biological, and cultural forces that produced the Vermont of today, they use interconnectedness as a lens to view the changing landscape. Sections such as "From Forestland to Farmland to Funland" describe reciprocal influences of ecosystems, humans, and topography over time. Sections on specific bioregions explain unique interactions of climate and the living world. Whether writing about the emergence of mountain ranges millennia ago, building interstate highways, encounters of indigenous cultures with Europeans, or Act 250's environmental impact, they make it clear that this is not a typical nature guide. They describe the pre-human evolution of the area and its development into distinct biophysical regions, and then show how pre-Columbian inhabitants engaged and altered the landscape. They trace both the enormous effects of European settlement, as well as how the ecosystem influenced human habitation and activity. Finally, they examine Vermont's three natural communities: forest, open terrestrial, and aquatic. Throughout, they impart much specific knowledge about Vermont, speculate on its future, and foster an appreciation of the complex synergy of forces that produced this region.