VERMONT

Today is , it is currently in Montpelier, VT

Green mountains, fertile valleys and forests that cover nearly 80% of the state help make Vermont the pastoral beauty that it is. Rolling hillsides are dotted with white farmhouses and herds of dairy cows, and each village and town seems more picture-perfect than the last. The scale is intimate here, and Vermont's many small cities, from Burlington to Brattleboro, St. Johnsbury, Newport and St. Albans, are filled with interesting restaurants, shops and inns. Places like Barre, Bennington, Lyndonville, Rutland, Middlebury and Bellows Falls are treasure troves of 19th and even 18th century architecture. The only landlocked New England state, Vermont is still rich in watery pursuits, thanks to the Connecticut River on its eastern boundary and over 400 lakes, including Lake Champlain, in the west and the glacier-created lakes of the wilderness called the Northeast Kingdom.

Discover Woodstock, VT

The town of Woodstock sits on the hillsides in central Vermont between the Connecticut River and the Green Mountains.

Woodstock was founded in the 1770s by a few individuals from southern New England who were looking for more space for farming. More families came in the 1780s, attracted by fertile farm land and water power for lumber mills. By the early 19th century Woodstock had become what it essentially remains today – an area of dairy farms, crafts people and shop keepers. It has also been a destination for travelers. Over the last 200 years many people have moved here to find vacation and retirement homes.

The “Gazetteer and Business Directory,” published in 1883, includes this description: “The stranger visiting Woodstock will at one be struck by its quiet air of elegance and refinement. The broad, shaded streets are lined with tasty, and in many instances elegant residences . . . near the center of the village is a beautiful public square, comprising several acres of land, handsomely laid out and thickly studded with fine maples. The visitor will also become conscious of the prevalence of a high religious sentiment, evinced by the heavenward pointing spires of the five imposing churches that meet his eye . . . while he will find his temporal wants looked after by a score or so of merchants of different kinds and a good hotel awaiting his arrival.”