Quechee, Vermont – So Many Neat Things

After Bar Harbor, we spent the night in New Hampshire, then it was off to Vermont. The weather was rainy most of the time we were there, so we had to get creative (and a little wet) to find things to do. With a little bit of research, we found several interesting places to go.

First up was the Quechee Gorge, which is part of the 612-acre Quechee Gorge State Park. The land on which the park is located was originally owned by the A. G. Dewey Company, a major wool processor in the 19th century. Water from the falls and the mill pond just above the gorge were used to power the facility. Dewey began making fine satinets in 1836, and shoddy (reworked used wool) in 1841. Numerous machinery and product inventions were created here, including Sheep’s Grey and Dewey’s Gray which was trademarked in 1875. Both types of wool were known for general excellence throughout the country and became the standard fabric for roller coverings in cotton mills. By 1936 this was the oldest mill in the country making shoddy. Some of the material was used to make baseball uniforms for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, and blankets for the US Army and Navy.

We hiked up to one of the dams in between the raindrops. The rock at the dam area looked like a sheet of granite. The picture at the bottom is the 165 foot deep gorge from the top of the bridge across it.

A few days later we went further up river and found another dam.

These falls were a prelude to one of our future stops, Niagara Falls! At this dam we found some of the old mill buildings. Pretty cool what they are doing here.

These gentlemen were making the glass products that were sold upstairs at the Simon Pearce store. You can see their catalog of products here https://www.simonpearce.com/ .

We also took a trip to Sugarbush Farm, which is a 550 acre hillside farm located in central Vermont. This family farm was the first in Vermont to start packaging cheese in waxed bars so they would travel well without refrigeration. By 1975 the Boston Globe wrote about Sugarbush Farm “At the end of a scenic Vermont road lies a Cheese Lovers paradise.” They were not kidding about the ‘scenic Vermont road’. We had a lot of fun reading the little signs that they had posted along the winding roads we had to take to get there. One of the last signs said ‘Don’t give up now, you are almost there!’

Their cheese is simply amazing. I think we bought almost every flavor they had and have enjoyed many afternoon cheese snacks.

You can find out more about their products here https://sugarbushfarm.com/ and yes, they ship!! The farm is just beautiful as you can see from the pictures below. They also have a nature walk where you can read all about how they harvest the maple syrup from their 9500 maple trees.

The last place that we visited in this area was the King Arthur Baking Company. They have a store, a bakery and a cafe. You can even can take classes there. In the cafe, you can buy sandwiches and other baked goods that they make right there. This was a really cool find, because I use a lot of their products.

Vermont was a lot of fun, but it was time to head to New York.