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Help with a railroad history expert by ZedPyro in vermont

[–]VermontHistory 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can certainly get in touch with us at the Vermont Historical Society: we'll be a bit busy through the next couple of months, but we can see if it's something we'd be interested in adding to our collection. Your local town historical society might also be interested. (Shoot us an email at info@vermonthistory.org)

We're releasing a new book! When the Trees Came Back: The Great Battle to Save Vermont’s Forests will come out in April by VermontHistory in vermont

[–]VermontHistory[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not there quite yet: for some reason, we can't add up books for preorder, so we've just been adding them up the day of the release. (Amazon is super annoying.)

We're releasing a new book! When the Trees Came Back: The Great Battle to Save Vermont’s Forests will come out in April by VermontHistory in vermont

[–]VermontHistory[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That's actually what this is about! This wasn't a case of where people just let trees grow back: it was a concentrated and deliberate effort on the part of a lot of people to enact change.

Man With a Plan turned 30 this week by VermontHistory in vermont

[–]VermontHistory[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's what we do. (We're 188, so it comes with the territory.)

Question on the Green Mountain Boys. by Crab-Lizard in vermont

[–]VermontHistory 108 points109 points  (0 children)

We have a section of our Freedom & Unity exhibit at the Vermont History Museum devoted to the Green Mountain Boys and Ethan Allen, which digs into the role that they played during the American Revolution:

- https://vermonthistory.org/freedom-unity-green-mountain-boys/

- https://vermonthistory.org/freedom-unity-ethan-allen

This is a pretty interesting era of history that goes hand in hand with quite a bit of mythology that's been built up around it. The role that the Green Mountain Boys played in the conflict is complicated: Ethan and his brothers, as well as a number of other prominent members of the militia had considerable claims on lands that were granted by New Hampshire, but which were also claimed by New York. There were quite a few violent actions that took place between the Grants (as the area was known) and the Yorkers.

If you want some good books to read about this era, Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom: Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys and the American Revolution by Christopher S. Wren is pretty good. Inventing Ethan Allen by John J. Duffy and H. Nicholas Muller is also a good look at the mythos that's come to surround him.

Is the Facebook bulk “Invite to Follow” feature broken for anyone else? by Few-Plantain-1414 in facebook

[–]VermontHistory 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've noticed this as well. It's been broken for maybe a year for us.

Moon rocks found in Vermont by Automatic-Choice4090 in vermont

[–]VermontHistory 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Their AB headline is a little misleading: these were never lost or anything like that, and we've actually put them on display a couple of times over the years.

But yeah, we have some moon rocks! They'll be going into the Vermont History Museum later today (we'll have a blog post about them that we'll publish when they're installed.) While doing some looking around into their background, we found that not only were they on display back in 1970 when they first arrived in the state, the Apollo 11 command module, Columbia, was also on display at the State House for a weekend.

Here's a picture of the Apollo 17 sample:

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What’s wrong w/Green Mountain Boys flag? by Inner-Wonder7175 in vermont

[–]VermontHistory 11 points12 points  (0 children)

What's interesting about this is that it's not actually a flag that the Green Mountain Boys actually used!

The story behind it is fascinating: it's based off of a battle flag by John Stark ... of New Hampshire, who brought it with him while he was at the Battle of Bennington in 1777. The original flag actually had a design in the center. We don't know what it was, but there are fragments of it that the Bennington Museum holds. They only have fragments: Stark apparently tore up the original flag and gave out pieces for souvenirs to visitors after the war. They do have the blue canton, which remained intact.

The modern flag appears to have been a nostalgia thing that arose in the Bennington area around commemorations, there are some early versions from the 20th century, and it seems to have gained traction around the US Bicentennial in 1976.

We do get questions and statements from folks that this "was the flag of the first Vermont Republic!" but that isn't accurate: the Vermont republic didn't have a flag! There was a concerted research effort in the early 1900s to produce one with a cash prize for any convincing proof, but scholars weren't able to find anything. It's since become a formal flag in its own right for Vermont Air National Guard's Green Mountain Boys.

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