Barre City, Vermont

Every now and again we act like tourists in our own town. These are some photos taken around Barre City

Recently, we visited the small museum located at the Vermont Historical Society (they also gave us tickets to visit the Vermont History Museum in Montpelier at no additional fee).

Downtown Barre City, Vermont

Barre, Vermont: Granite Center of the World

My kids (ages 8 and 15)

Civil War artifacts

Room of oddities donated by local residents.

This train was loaded with granite from the Barre quarries.

Trains deliver Barre granite all over the country

Barre Town, Vermont

We spent some time exploring the Websterville and Graniteville areas of Barre Town this weekend. On Saturday we hiked some of the Millstone Trails in Barre Town Forest. It was a really nice hike, but I wish we had printed out a map before setting out. We parked at the Brook Street access, which had a disk golf course along the trail. We don't disk golf, but figured it may be a point of interest to others who may.

East Vista trail.

Sierra relaxing on a chair-shaped boulder at the East Vista.

East Vista

As we were driving out to the Barre Town Forest, I noticed a bike path running alongside the road, so we checked it out on Sunday. It was 1.4 miles one way. We parked at the Barre Town school and walked to the end of the path and back. Here are some photos of our walk:

The path passes Rock of Ages

The following photos were taken when we visited Rock of Ages in 2013:

Rock of Ages granite quarry

Rock of Ages granite quarry

Rock of Ages granite quarry

Bowling on the granite bowling lane outside Rock of Ages

Brookfield, Vermont

Brookfield's main attraction in its floating bridge, which spans Sunset Lake. The original bridge was built in 1820. "It was built this way because the lake is too deep for traditional pilings" (Wikipedia). Due to a failure of the flotation system, the seventh bridge closed in 2008 and the eighth bridge opened just last month. We passed several fisher men/women as we drove over the bridge.

Brookfield Floating Bridge (aka Sunset Lake Floating Bridge)

A wide wooden sidewalk runs along each side
of the bridge where several people conjugated
to fish.

Williamstown, Vermont

We didn't have to venture very far home to visit Williamstown. Actually, I lived in Williamstown for about three months when my daughter was a baby. However, this was my first visit to T-Time Driving Range and Knight's Spider Web Farm.

First was T-Time Driving Range: 

As hard as I tried, I couldn't get any balls past the 100 yard marker.

Tyler had a blast!

The ball machine with a large number of solar panels in the background
(there are many more solar panels than what is pictured here).

The golf clubs Anthony bought me for my last birthday.
I'm slowly learning.

I was happy to find a pink ball basket! :)

Next up was Knight's Spider Web Farm: 

Spiders at Work!

Knight's Spider Web Farm

Entrance to the Spider Web Farm shop.

These are the "canvases" where spiders are hard at work
creating the webs that Will Knight will turn into artwork.

Spider Crossing

Townshend, Vermont

We spent Memorial Day weekend camping at Bald Mountain Campground, a quiet campground located along the West River on State Forest Road in Townshend, Vermont.

Tyler at the entrance to Bald Mountain 
Campground

Sunday was a gorgeous, sunny day and we decided to walk the mile and a half up State Forest Road to check out Scott Bridge. Along our walk, we spotted this little bridge tucked off in the woods on the side of the road. Upon getting home, I did a bit of research and discovered the bridge was built by James Otis Follett. According to Wikipedia, "Follet (May 12, 1842 – February 23, 1911) was a farmer, stonemason, and builder of bridges from Townshend, Vermont... During the 1890s and 1900s, Follett built as many as 40 bridges and culverts; 11 are known to survive. An account of Follett's work in the Bennington Banner in 1977 called his bridges "engineering marvels and parts of the scenic landscape of the region" and noted: 'Follett excelled in hand-crafted stone masonry – now practically a lost art. The bridges have no arch supports and contain little or no mortar. They are held together by the critical placement of a 'keystone', plus the force of the weight of the materials above the arch.'" More information on James Otis Follett can be found on Google Books.

James Otis Follett keystone bridge, located on 
State Forest Road in Townshend, Vermont

The Scott Bridge is the longest covered bridge in the state of Vermont. Unfortunately, it is no longer passable, but it;s still pretty nonetheless.

Scott Bridge sign at the Route 30 side of the bridge

Scott Bridge from the State Forest Road side

Scott Bridge from the State Forest Road side

Scott Bridge from the State Forest Road side

Scott Bridge from the State Forest 
Road side

We stopped to read & photograph a couple of historical markers on the side of Route 30 in West Townshend. Both of these markers are located side-by-side in the parking lot of the West Townshend Country Store (which currently appears to be a thrift shop and post office).

Clarina Howard Nichols historical marker in 
West Townshend, Vermont

Anthony is distantly related to Alphonso Taft and his son, President William Howard Taft. I discovered Alphonso was born in Townshend when researching Anthony's genealogy.

Taft Homestead Site historical marker in 
West Townshend, Vermont