Sights in Vermont
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Shelburne Museum
On a 45-acre estate, 7 miles south of Burlington in Shelburne, the Shelburne Museum boasts a stellar collection of American folk art, New England architecture and, well, just about everything. The wildly eclectic collection ranges from an early American sawmill to the Lake Champlain side-wheeler steamship Ticonderoga. How's that for lawn decor?
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Fairbanks Museum of Natural Science
In 1891, when Franklin Fairbanks’ collection of stuffed animals and cultural artifacts from across the globe grew too large for his home, he built the Fairbanks Museum of Natural Science. This massive stone building with a 30ft-high barrel-vaulted ceiling still displays more than half of Franklin’s original collection. Over 3000 preserved animals in glass cases can be seen, including a 1200lb moose shot in Nova Scotia in 1898, an American bison from 1902 and a Bengal tiger. There are planetarium shows at 1:30pm ($3 per person), and also in July and August at 11am.
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ECHO Lake Aquarium & Science Center
- Burlington, USA
- Sights › Zoo
The ECHO Lake Aquarium & Science Center, on the waterfront, will delight youngsters with its aquatic habitats wriggling with creatures and hands-on interactive exhibits illuminating Lake Champlain's ecological wonders.
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Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory
Get the inside scoop at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, where tours and a moo-vie about the hippie founders are topped off with a taste tease of the latest flavor.
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Coolidge Homestead
The 30th president of the USA was born in Plymouth, Vermont, and attended Amherst College in Massachusetts. He opened a law practice in 1898, in Northampton, Maine, and then ran for local office. Following election, Coolidge served as state senator, lieutenant governor and governor of Massachusetts. Elected vice-president on the Warren Harding ticket in 1920, he assumed the presidency upon Harding’s death in 1923. Vice-president Coolidge was visiting his boyhood home in Plymouth when word came of Harding’s death. His father, the local justice of the peace, administered the presidential oath of office by kerosene lamp at 2:47am on August 3, 1923. Known for his simple, fort…
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Bread & Puppet Museum
Rolling though the Northeast Kingdom, it’s easy to become jaded at the sight of yet another barn. One in Glover definitely warrants a detour – not for its livestock but for the cosmological universe of the Bread & Puppet Museum, lurking within. Formed in New York City by German artist Peter Shumann in 1963, the Bread & Puppet Theater is a collective-in-training that presents carnivalesque pageants, circuses, and battles of Good and Evil with gaudy masks and life-size (even gigantic) puppets. The street theater of its early performances gave voice to local rent strikes and anti–Vietnam War protests as well as an epic parade down Fifth Ave in the early eighties to prote…
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North Hartland Lake
Getting to the middle of nowhere is easy in Vermont. While the rumpled green countryside offers endless miles of solitude, just about any blob of blue on the map will serve as an escape hatch as well - though few as perfectly as North Hartland Lake . Within minutes of Quechee Village, you can scoot your boat off the North Hartland Lake Recreation Area ramp.
Trees and meadows swallow virtually every shred of evidence of the existence of anyone beyond you and whoever else is plying these tranquil waters.
You head into the various nooks and rivulets of the 215-acre lake, and just beyond sight of the beach, a noisy great-blue heron rookery occupies the tops of the pines on the…
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Rock of Ages Quarries
The world’s largest granite quarries, 4 miles southeast of Barre off I-89 exit 6, cover 50 acres. The granite vein that’s mined here is a whopping 6 miles long, 4 miles wide and 10 miles deep. The beautiful, durable, granular stone, formed more than 330 million years ago, is used for tombstones, building facades, monuments, curbstones and tabletops. From the onsite Rock of Ages Visitor Center there's a quarry tour which includes a short video and historical exhibits. This 35-minute guided minibus tour of an active quarry heads off-site. At the onsite Rock of Ages Manufacturing Division, you can watch granite products being made – some with an accuracy that approaches …
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St Johnsbury Athenaeum
Home to the country’s oldest art gallery still in its original form, the Athenaeum was founded in 1871 when Horace Fairbanks gave the town a library. Comprising some 9000 finely bound books of classic world literature, the library was soon complemented by the gallery, built around its crown jewel, Albert Bierstadt’s 10ft-by-15ft painting, Domes of the Yosemite. The rest of the collection consists of works by such Hudson River School painters as Asher B Durand, Worthington Whittredge and Jasper Crospey as well as dozens of copies of old masters. Bierstadt is said to have returned to the gallery every summer until his death to touch up his masterpiece.
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Mt Equinox
To reach 3816ft Mt Equinox, follow VT 7A south out of Manchester and look for Skyline Dr. From Manchester to the summit is just 5 miles via this private toll road that winds seemingly up to the top of the world. It’s believed that the mountain’s name is a corrupted Native American phrase meaning ‘place where the very top is.’ Rather than drive, you could undertake the five-plus-hour hike (2918ft elevation gain) on Burr and Burton, and Lookout Rock Trails, which will take you to the summit and back. Hiking information is available at the Equinox hotel and resort, where the trail begins.
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Vermont Ski Museum
Located in an 1818 meeting house that was rolled to its present spot by oxen in the 1860s, this museum is an inspired tribute to skiing history. It holds much more than an evolution of equipment (including 75 years of Vermont ski lifts) and a chance to chuckle at what was high slope-side fashion in the ‘70s. A huge screen shows ski footage so crazy that you can hardly keep your footing. The most moving exhibit tells the tale of the famous 10th Mountain Division of skiing troops from WWII – it inspires wonder at how they held out with the (then cutting-edge) canvas- and leather-based gear.
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Shelburne Farms
- Burlington, USA
- Sights › Tour
You can get a taste of Vermont farm life at Shelburne Farms, a classic 1400-acre farm laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, America's premier 19th- century landscape architect. Try your hand at milking a cow, feed the chickens, or hike the extensive nature trails through pastures and along Lake Champlain. Also vacation like a millionaire at this lakefront manor-house-turned-inn at Shelburne Farms. On the National Register of Historic Places, this former summer residence of the Vanderbilts has 24 antique-filled bedrooms and the air of a bygone era.
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Ethan Allen Homestead
American Revolution hero Ethan Allen, often referred to as ‘Vermont’s godfather, ’ lived in this 18th-century Colonial homestead. Be sure to take the guided tour (included in entrance fee; tour times vary) of the historic house. The center features multimedia exhibits documenting the exploits of Allen’s Green Mountain Boys and also has walking trails behind the house. To reach the homestead, take the North Ave Beaches exit and follow the signs. It’s 1 mile north of Burlington on VT 127.
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Covered Bridges
Vermont is rife with these classic beauties, but you generally don't get two (and almost three) for the price of one. From Montpelier, take VT 12 southwest to Northfield Falls to the intersection of Cox Brook Rd, where two covered bridges straddle a river within walking distance of each other. Station Bridge and Newell Bridge both span a section of the river that's about 100ft across.
Upper Bridge is a bit further up Cox Brook Rd. Fittingly, a general store marks the intersection where these timeless icons remain as sentinels.
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Hope Cemetery
Where do old granite carvers go when they die? In Barre, they end up in Hope Cemetery. To granite carvers, tombstones aren't dreary reminders of mortality but artful celebrations of the carver's life. And what celebrations! A carver and his wife sit up in bed holding hands, smiling for eternity; a granite cube balances precariously on one corner. Other gravestones reproduce the deceased's favorite soccer ball or even a small airplane. If a cemetery can ever be amusing, this one is. It's open to the living all the time.
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Southern Vermont Natural History Museum
Marlboro is a short distance off the Molly Stark Trail (VT 9), a road named for the wife of General Stark, the hero of the American Revolution's Battle of Bennington. The VT 9 brings you to the top of Hogback Mountain (2410ft), where you’ll find the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum, an interesting little place that features mounted specimens of more than 600 New England birds and mammals as well as a small center devoted to live raptors.
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Vermont Institute of Natural Science
Learn all about raptors and other birds of prey at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, just before you reach Quechee coming from Woodstock. It houses two dozen species of raptors, ranging from the tiny, 3oz saw-whet owl to the mighty bald eagle. The birds that end up here have sustained permanent injuries that do not allow them to return to life in the wild. The three self-guided nature trails are delightful for hikes in summer or for snowshoeing in winter.
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Robb Family Farm
- Brattleboro, USA
- Sights › Farm
The 400-acre Robb Family Farm has been run by the same family for about a century. Maple-sugaring demonstrations take place from late February to early April. There are fun hay or sleigh rides ($7/5 per adult/child, $30 minimum spend required, reservations essential), which usually end with a marshmallow roast. The farm is located west of I-91 on VT 9; take a left on Greenleaf St (which becomes Ames Hill Rd), head 3 miles and look to the right.
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Southern Vermont Arts Center
- Manchester, USA
- Sights › Art
In addition to excellent outdoor sculpture gardens, the Southern Vermont Arts Center has a full program of concerts from June through August. Its 10 galleries of classic and contemporary art feature touring shows of sculpture, paintings, prints and photography. Lectures and jazz concerts are held in the 430-seat Arkell Pavilion. After enjoying the museum and surrounding trails, consider staying for a light lunch at its Garden Cafe.
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Waterfront
A five-minute walk from the center of town, the Waterfront is refreshingly unencumbered by the souvenir stands and chain stores that crowd the more developed waterfronts of most American cities. Instead, it's a low-key promenade with a 7.5 mile bike path, a pier for boat trips on Lake Champlain, the ECHO aquarium (p000) and the Discovery Landing, a modern observatory with a small café that's great for watching the sun set over the lake.
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TW Wood Art Gallery
This gallery, at E State St on the Vermont College campus, was founded in 1895 by Thomas Waterman Wood (1823–1903), a native of Montpelier, who gained a regional reputation for his portraits and genre paintings. The museum has a large collection of Wood’s art as well as Depression-era paintings. Changing exhibits, especially of arts created in Vermont, fill the main gallery.
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Rock of Ages Visitor Center
Visit the onsite Rock of Ages Visitor Center. The quarry tour includes a short video and historical exhibits. This 35-minute guided minibus tour of an active quarry heads off-site. At the onsite Rock of Ages Manufacturing Division, you can watch granite products being made – some with an accuracy that approaches 25-millionths of an inch.
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Danby Marble Company
If your interest in marble is piqued, stop in at the Danby Marble Company, on the VT 7 north of Danby. The town is the site of what’s billed as ‘the largest underground marble quarry in the world.’ Perhaps you’re in need of some marble cut to your specifications? They make everything here from bookends to chessboards to vases.
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Maple Grove Farms
Actually a factory, the farms about half a mile east of St Johnsbury have been making maple candy for almost a century and are the world’s largest producers of the saccharine stuff. Stop by to see how the molding process works and satisfy your sweet tooth – the popularity of the Santa Claus–shaped candies transcends all seasons.
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Sugarbush Farm
To get the scoop on traditional maple sugaring and cheese-making, and sample both, head to the family-run Sugarbush Farm. The sugaring season is from March to April, but you can tour the sugarhouse year-round. To get there take US 4 to Taftsville, 3.5 miles east of Woodstock, cross the Taftsville covered bridge and follow the signs.
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