Forests and Frontiers
Vermont’s extensive old-growth forests drew representatives from the King’s Navy looking for mast trees. What can their map of timber resources tell us about our relationship to the land, how Vermont defined itself, and how history is saved or not?
This Episode’s Featured Object:
Map of Timber Rights surveyed by Timothy Ruggles and Francis Mills
Marjorie Strong: This is a tracing of this gorgeous map showing the timber rights for the king of England along the Connecticut River Valley.
Painting from the VHS collections, “Lake Memphremagog,” artist unknown from c. 1840; it shows lumbering in progress and a slowly industrializing landscape
Photograph of the Leahy Library at the Vermont Historical Society, where we house materials like the manuscript collection where the map was discovered
Photograph of lumbering from the 19th century, showing the ongoing lumber industry
Episode Transcript
David Paganelli: Our forests, relative to the forests that are depicted on this map, which which might have been 200 years old or 300 years old, our forests seldom are that old. Our forests, or, an old forest today in Vermont is 120 years old.
Amanda Gustin: This is Before Your Time, presented by the Vermont Historical Society and Vermont Humanities.
Amanda Gustin: Every episode, we go inside the stacks at the Vermont Historical Society to take a look at an object from their permanent collection that tells us something unique about our state. Then we take a closer look at the people, the events, or the ideas that surround each artifact. The objects that we’re looking at for these episodes are maps. Each one represents a different moment in Vermont, with questions that spiral out and persist to our present day.
Episode Credits
Before Your Time is presented by Vermont Humanities and the Vermont Historical Society. This episode was produced by Amanda K Gustin, Ryan Newswanger, and Noel Clark. Thanks to our guests Kevin Graffagnino, David Paganelli, and Marjorie Strong. Special thanks for the support of this limited series goes to the Lake Champlain Basin Program and their Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership Corridor of Commerce granting program.
Music is by Michael Chapman and the Woodpiles, Joel Hunger, Northwestern, Ben McElroy, and Hemlock.