THE COMMUNITIES OF THE SHIRES
Photo by Lorianna Weathers Photography
EAST DORSET
Otter Creek rises in East Dorset and flows into crystal clear Emerald Lake, home to a state park, before running north into Lake Champlain.
Ramble up Mad Tom Road in late July and early August to pick blueberries at Wildwood Berry Farm and in early October to pick apples at Mad Tom Orchard.
East Dorset is the home of the Bill Wilson House, where the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous grew up and where the 12 Steps was born.
In July and August, the Vermont Summer Festival at the Harold Beebe farm off Route 7 is a major attraction, highlighted by the Vermont Festival Horse Show.
GLASTENBURY
The town, all 44.4 mostly mountainous square miles of it, had a population of 8 at last count, all in the ghost town of Fayville at the western base of the mountain.
Vermont’ s Long Trail( part of the AT) runs along the Green Mountain ridgeline and over the 3,748-ft. summit of Glastenbury Mountain.
The pop. went all the way up to 241 during the logging boom of the 1880s, when Glastenbury’ s vast stands of timber were felled to make boards and burned to make charcoal for the iron industry – until scarcely a tree was left.
Ripley’ s Believe It or Not profiled Glastenbury in 1936(“ The Mattison Family is the whole town of Glastenbury, Vt. Ira Mattison and his wife and mother hold every town office”).
The Vermont legislature disincorporated the town and adjacent Somerset in 1937. Then came the disappearances. Middie Rivers never emerged from Bickford Hollow in 1945. Bennington College student Paula Welden went hiking in 1946 and was never seen again. Three large stone cairns lie near the summit of the mountain. Who made them and why? No wonder Glastenbury has acquired a certain reputation in paranormal circles. Google“ The Bennington Triangle,” for starters.
COME EXPLORETHESHIRES. COM 26 FOR INFO CALL 802.447.2456