Woodstock, VT - New England Because Old England Was Wicked Stupid

We’re in Vermont - first time in an RV but not the first time in our lives. We both remember driving through Vermont for about 2 days but that’s about all. But that was years and years ago. We hiked on Mt Tom yesterday and today we’re going to the Marsh Billings Rockefeller home in Woodstock, VT.

There are actually 2 sections to this farm: a State Park which is an actual working farm with cows and pigs and grain, etc. everything a real farm has. (There are actually cows on the other side of that fence.)

You can pet the cows, watch them milk them and do other farm things. Pretty cool. But, the farm is self-sustaining: it does not deplete the land and can remain here as a profitable farm possibly forever.

However, we were more interesting in the Marsh Billings Rockefeller NHP, right across the street. Here was the beginning of the conservation/sustainability movement - through 3 different owners of the same home. George Perkins Marsh (1801 - 1882) who grew up on this farm, noticed that humans used up the land they had and then moved on. He made an eloquent plea for responsible land stewardship. Frederick Billings (1823 - 1890) who was born in Vermont but moved to San Francisco, bought the land from the Marsh family in 1869. When he returned he noticed barren hillsides, silted rivers and devastated countryside. He began a program of reforesting, rebuilding and trying to get the land back to what it once was. Finally, one of his granddaughters, Mary French, married Laurance Rockefeller and continued this responsible land stewardship. He has also donated thousands of acres of land to our National Parks including this home.
Here’s the view from their front porch.

Here is what the land looked like before these 3 began to return the land to what it had originally looked like.

Here is what it looks like now.

The gardens outside were being kept just as the Rockefellers left them.

He and his wife also donated the art collection contained in their home. And it was spectacular. I was particularly interested in Bierstadts and the Coles from the Hudson River School of Art. Could I take any pictures to put into my blog? Nope, only pictures of the outside of the house. But, believe me, the art was truly breathtaking.

I’ll just put in two that I found online. The first is ‘The Matterhorn’ by Bierstadt.

Here’s ‘Tower of Moonlight’ by Thomas Cole.

Here is ‘On the Nile’ by Charles Frere.

And, finally ‘New York Harbor’ by Edward Moran - my favorite in the mansion.

We met these 3 in the Visitor Center and were they ever proud of all the Junior Ranger pins they had earned. (Isn’t that the cutest hat?

But we loved their t-shirts ‘NEW ENGLAND because Old England was wicked stupid.’

We found this pine cone that had been nibbled to the core like a corn cob by a hungry squirrel.

A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.
                                                        Harvey Mackay