How many barns are there in Vermont? What kind of condition are they in? Are we losing significant numbers each year? What can be done to preserve these icons of our history and landscape? The goal of the Vermont Barn Census is to carry out, for the first time, a statewide census of Vermont read more (65 words)

When the Rev. David McClure of Dartmouth College ventured down the Connecticut River to the area now known as Bellows Falls in 1789, he was on a scientific mission.

As a natural philosopher, what we might today call a scientist, McClure was interested in stone carvings that he had heard about from a local young man. The carvings, cut into an outcropping on the Vermont side of the river, depicted a series of faces.

"The figures have the appearance of great antiquity," McClure wrote, noting that the British colonists who settled the area a half-century earlier had observed them. The faces were life-sized images, consisting of a simple oval with markings for eyes, nose, mouth and perhaps ears, McClure wrote. Some had lines sticking out of their heads that observers would take to be feathers, horns or rays.

McClure's was apparently the first written account of the carved rocks, which have been described as the oldest pieces of art in Vermont. How old? The answer, like so many others about the carvings, is open to debate. Though experts agree that the carvings were made by American Indians, they are unwilling to ascribe a specific date, or even era, to the petroglyphs, literally "stone carvings." They could be anywhere from 300 to 3,000 years old. read more (571 words)

Marking Time:  How Weathersfielders Kept Track of the Hours, Days, and Seasons

The Rev. Dan Foster House opens on Saturday, June 27 from 1 to 4 p.m. for the summer season.  The summer exhibition will highlight different ways that Weathersfielders marked the passage of time.  Timepieces ticked away the hours and minutes, diaries and letters traced the daily chores and events; and seasonal activities marked the passage of months.  However, other items in our collection also traced periods of time.  This exhibition will feature unusual items in our collection as well as some special loans.

Summer hours are 2 to 5 p.m. several days of week.  Once the summer docents are scheduled, the open days will be posted on the door of the Rev. Dan Foster House, emailed to members, and sent to the papers.

Questions? call Ellen Clattenburg at 263-5505.

Celebrate the return of warmer weather by joining the Weathersfield Historical Society for a pot-luck supper followed by a dessert of traditional New England and French Canadian Maple Syrup Pies. The Society had planned a sugar on snow dinner, but global warming and recent rains have made the snow supply pretty scarce. Bring a main dish or salad to share. The Society will supply the Maple Syrup Pies

By KENDALL WILD The Rutland Herald - Published: April 9, 2009

This year is not only the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's trip down the lake that bears its name. It is the 250th anniversary of something else intimately associated with Lake Champlain — the construction of the Crown Point Road across the territory that later became Vermont.

In 1759 the commanding general of British forces in this region, Jeffrey Amherst, heading the campaign against the French in Canada, had his headquarters at Crown Point. But getting supplies up the Hudson and Lake George and past Ticonderoga was a tedious process. Amherst wanted a more direct connection to ports on the New England coast.

Near what is now Charlestown, N.H., across the Connecticut River from what is now Springfield in Vermont was an established military post, Fort Number Four. Amherst ordered a road to be built that would carry traffic from Fort Number Four directly to Crown Point.

The job of constructing the route fell to Capt. John Stark, later of Bunker Hill and Bennington Battle fame. At the time he was an officer in Rogers Rangers. His crews went to work in the summer of 1759 and had the job completed by the end of 1760.

When you consider that the land was heavily forested and occupied here and there chiefly by Indians, you have to admit that it was quite an accomplishment. From the fort on the Connecticut it went through or near what is now Springfield, Weathersfield, Plymouth, Cavendish, Mount Holly, Shrewsbury, Clarendon, Rutland, Proctor, Pittsford, Sudbury, Whiting and Bridport, ending on the lake shore opposite the fort at Crown Point.

read more (198 words)

To people that DO get SAPA TV on Comcast - Channel 8 (Springfield, Chester & Weathersfield):

"Remembering The Weathersfield Weekly" will premiere this Saturday, Dec. 13 at 8:30 pm and then play again on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 7:30
pm. It is a 2-hour long program.

It will play for several weeks at different times. People can check the website for future plays. www.sapatv.com The schedule listing
changes from Wed. to Wed.

The SAPA-produced DVD of last spring's wonderful "Remembering the Weathersfield Weekly" program, presented by Edith and Will Hunter at Martin Memorial Hall, is now available to view. Edith Hunter has a copy for the Society, and she invites anyone wanting to see it to give her a call and come pick it up. 263-5361.

The Weathersfield Historical Society will host a presentation by Tom Slayton, VPR commentator and former editor of Vermont Life Magazine. It is entitled "Sense of Place: A Native Vermonter's View."
Tom Slayton served as editor-in-chief of Vermont Life for 21 years, and is a past president of the International Regional Magazine Association. Prior to his association with Vermont Life, he was a reporter and editor for Vermont newspapers for 20 years. His book, Searching for Thoreau: On the Trails and Shores of Wild New England, was published in 2007. He is also the author of Sabra Field, the Art of Place, which was published in 1994 and republished in 2002. Other books include The Beauty of Vermont, published in 1998 and Finding Vermont, An Informal Guide to Vermont

From 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 28, there will be an opening reception for the summer exhibition, "From Thirteen to One: How Weathersfield's Schools Closed, Merged, and Morphed into One."

Featuring the new mural, Weatherfield District Schools, the summer exhibition traces the history of the 13 Weathersfield district schools through narrative, photographs, school objects, and student reports. The mural, the product of a Community History Partnership between the Weathersfield Schools and the Weathersfield Historical Society, is an original 6.5 foot by 8 foot painting by Weathersfield's own Canvasworks artist Lisa Curry Mair. Lisa worked with Ginger Wimberg's 4th grade class to come up with a design. In the fall, the mural will go on permanent display at the new Weathersfield School in Ascutney. In addition to the mural there will are 4th grade student projects and compositions, school desks, slates, a teacher, superintendent reports, school books and more.

Hours for the Rev. Dan Foster House are Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday afternoons, from 2 to 5 p.m. Appointments for other visits and library research may be made by calling 263-5505.

PERKINSVILLE — Exactly 61 years after the event, the Weathersfield Historical Society will formally dedicate a Vermont Historic Marker to commemorate the worst aviation disaster in the state's history.

At 2 p.m. on Sunday, on the town green in front of the Perkinsville Community Church, the historical society will dedicate a marker remembering the U.S. Army Air Force B-29 bomber which crashed into the face of Hawks Mountain and left 12 airmen dead.

On June 15, 1947, the B-29 bomber — the same model of plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima — left Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, Ariz., with eight crew members and seven passengers, said Brian Lindner, who has documented 125 military plane crashes in Vermont.
read more (358 words)

Dedication of the Vermont State Historic Marker about the B-29 Crash 
on Hawks Mountain

On Sunday June 15, 2008, at 2:00 pm there will be a dedication ceremony of the newly placed State Historic Marker about the B-29 Crash on Hawks Mountain on June 15, 1947. The ceremony will be at the  Perkinsville, Vermont town "Green" where the marker has been located  along the Route 106 Highway.  A description of the crash and the 12  crewmember's names, ranks, crew assignments and hometowns are listed on the plaque.  This still is considered to be the worst aircraft disaster in the state of Vermont with the greatest loss of life.
     After last year's 60th Anniversary Commemoration Weekend, the Weathersfield Historic Society,  with the help of aviation historian,  Brian Lindner, worked with the Vermont Historic Preservation Commission to gain approval and production of this historic marker to  honor and remember the sacrifice of the U. S. Army Air Force crew  that perished on a stormy night during a Strategic Air Command cross- country training mission.
     The Weathersfield Historic Society worked with the Weathersfield Select Board, the Perkinsville Community Church, the town manager, and the town highway crew to work out all the permits and placement details and are honored to be able to arrange for this 
dedication ceremony.