Most Upper Valley residents are familiar with Quechee Gorge, a majestic natural wonder carved out by the Ottauquechee River, and at 165 feet, the deepest natural gorge in the state. Ottauquechee means “swift mountain stream,” a name likely bestowed by the Abenaki people who first settled along the river.
The village of Quechee is one of five in the town of Hartford, but it has become an attractive tourist destination, not only because of the gorge and the state park, but for attractions like the restored covered bridge leading into the village, popular restaurants, diverse shops, and many outdoor recreation activities.
The gorge is also home to the Quechee Gorge Visitor Center and the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce, operating in partnership with Vermont State Parks, which operates the nearby Quechee State Park, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the 612-acre park and the building that houses the visitor center. Buzzing with activity seven days a week, the visitor center is a popular stop for tourists and locals who want to hike down to the dramatic gorge or view it from the adjacent bridge. According to the Vermont Tourism Office, the Quechee Gorge Visitor Center receives about 100,000 visitors each year.

The center in the fall.

The staff at the visitor center are already serving visitors from around the world, according to Nikki Bacon, the newest staff member at the center. “Already this year we’ve had visitors from 49 countries — the Congo, Austria, Pakistan, and people from countries all over Europe.” Most visitors who come through speak English, so the staff is able to share information and communicate effectively about the opportunities and attractions in the area. Among the most common questions the staff receives are “Where is the gorge?” and “How do we get to the gorge?” “Do we have to hike or can we use the bridge walkway?” The staff encourages visitors to cross the bridge for the best photo opportunities, but the hiking trail to the bottom of the gorge is accessible to all ages and abilities, including people with strollers and wheelchairs. “The state park staff does a tremendous job of maintaining the trail with hard pack surfacing and clear signage,” said Nikki.
The visitor center has numerous displays, including historical maps and displays of the Quechee Gorge over the years, and stories of the early mill days in Quechee showcasing the grain, lumber, cider, and textile mills that made uniforms for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, among many other products. Conservation efforts are also on display at the center, as well as photographs of the impact of hurricane Irene. Last year, the center began exhibiting artwork by Vermont artists along with handicrafts, Vermont-made food products, light refreshments, and sparkling clean public restrooms.

The visitor center receives about 100,000 visitors each year.

Overseeing the visitor center is Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce Director Havah Armstrong Walter, who was hired by the Chamber Board of Directors nearly three years ago. Originally from rural Maryland, Havah attended a summer language course at Middlebury College and was intrigued by the similarities between Vermont’s landscape and her grandparents’ farm in Maryland. “It was a really nice farming community where everyone helped each other out, and I had that same experience in Vermont with people helping me find a place to get flowers to decorate my room and taking me to special places like Texas Falls and Mozart in the Park. It was an incredible summer,” she said.
Havah returned to University of Pittsburgh where she was studying and shared her excitement with her fiance, and they made the move to Vermont, where she went on to earn a master’s degree in globalization at Dartmouth. Fully intending to work for international organizations like USAID, UNICEF, her path shifted as she realized she was fully immersed in her life in Hartford. “We felt very rooted in Vermont, and attached to our friends, neighbors, and the Sunrise Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program,” she said. “We knew farmers, artists, restaurant owners, and felt very integrated into the community.” Havah revised her plans and decided to “be of good use” locally instead of globally, and she and her husband elected to stay in Vermont and raise a family.

Patrons visiting the Quechee Gorge Visitor Center

Having lived in four out of the five villages in Hartford over her 26 years in the Upper Valley, Havah has held many leadership roles, including girl scout leader, cub scout den leader, and lacrosse club involvement to support her children. She also has been engaged in local and state communities by serving on the school board, a diversity and equity committee, the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, and providing nonprofit consulting services. “I enjoy helping very passionate organizations develop their expertise in friendraising and fundraising and expanding their impact,” she said.
Leading her own nonprofit, Start Change, connected Havah with a diverse array of leaders in the Hartford community, including area Chambers of Commerce with whom she partnered on marketing, stewardship, and networking to support her nonprofit consulting clients. In 2023 Havah was invited to apply for the Hartford Area Chamber Executive Director position, and was hired for the job.

Quechee Gorge Visitor Center Entrance Sign

Havah has overseen several initiatives that have had a positive impact on the Quechee Gorge Visitor Center. “We started with transitioning operations to a digital platform including banking, record keeping, and ticket sales for the Quechee Balloon Fest, which resulted in higher revenues.” In addition, shifting from volunteers at the visitor center to 100% paid staff has helped the center adjust to post-COVID staff coverage challenges. Training staff in professional tourism management skills has seen visitorship in the foliage season increase 15-20%. “Our staff has always excelled at customer service, and we have amazing volunteers,” she said. “I joke that one of the things I did here at the center is that ‘I girled it up a little bit’. We have our second artist in residence here this year exhibiting their work in the visitor center. M. Julian Isaacson of Stone Revival Gallery features stone carvings, and last year nature focused block printer Landa Townsend filled the role.”
The Quechee Gorge Visitor Center and the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce are evolving with the times and expanding their reach within the context of the ancient geology and ecology of Quechee Gorge by continuing to prioritize partnerships and collaborations. Said Havah, “We love to support small businesses and small business owners in our community in the way that they need through membership or simply representation.” And with that, let the summer begin! n

Did you know that community science nights happen every month at the Ottauquechee school? Activities are geared to elementary students to promote curiosity and interest in science.
These activities are organized and led by Dartmouth graduate students who are part of the SPARK @ Dartmouth outreach organization. This group is “passionate about expanding youth access to STEM education in the Upper Valley at an interactive and age-appropriate level. [They] collaborate with area elementary and middle schools to bring STEM to students, particularly for girls and under-represented and minority students.”

Students learned about biochemist Marie Daley’s discovery of the relationship between high cholesterol and heart disease by making Blood Slime.

In February, activities highlighted some black scientists in honor of Black History Month. Among the many activities provided, students learned about biochemist Marie Daley’s discovery of the relationship between high cholesterol and heart disease by making “blood slime.” They also learned about ophthalmologist Patricia Bath by navigating a laser image and modeling how eyes work. And, learning about the work of naval civil engineer Raye Montague, the students performed several experiments demonstrating the relationship between density and buoyancy.
Ottauquechee students who regularly attend the SPARK program were invited to a special event on February 3, at Dartmouth College, where they heard two former astronauts speak on “Launch to the NEXT Frontier.”

A SPARK @ Dartmouth graduate student with an educational display about ophthalmologist Patricia Bath, MD.

Mae Jemison and Jay Buckey spoke of their past NASA missions and what future exploration might hold. Jemison, a physician and engineer, was the first woman of color in space. She now leads 100 Year Starship, a nonprofit initiative seed-funded by DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Jay Buckey is a professor of medicine at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, where he leads the Space Medicine Innovations Laboratory.
Given the fickle temperatures of March, Community Science Night appropriately tackled the topic of weather. Students made weathervanes and wind chimes and studied the turbulence of thunderstorms.

Students learn about the work of naval civil engineer Raye Montague.

The Ottauquechee community is grateful to the Dartmouth graduate students who organize and create such engaging, hands-on activities to inspire, not only curiosity, but also love of science and mathematics.
Special thanks to Dartmouth graduate students
Engie Mostafa
Megan Doty
Camilla Bobrowicz
Adrianna Milton
Bess Jones
Amanda Cruz Rivera n

Winter was not a time of hibernation for the Quechee DEI Council. Several events kept the Quechee community awake, aware, and informed.

Mobocracy and Abolitionism in New Hampshire and Vermont

On January 28, the Council hosted Dan Billin, a New Hampshire historian and former news reporter, who spoke on “Mobocracy and Abolitionism in New Hampshire and Vermont.” Billin began his talk by reminding the audience how important it is “to keep DEI going in these times.”
Billin enumerated how racism was not a “Southern” issue, because slavery divided northerners from each other, as well. There was, he said, a wave of lawlessness in the 1830s throughout the country, and violence erupted against Catholics, Irish, and other minorities, but especially against Blacks. Lynchings were rampant, and there was a huge backlash against any abolitionist movements. The Upper Valley was hardly spared the violence. Woodstock, in fact, witnessed much racist violence. Abolitionist and Baptist minister Orson Murray was so threatened by racist mobs that he was unable to deliver a speech there.

More than 90 people attended the production of Letters from Anne and Martin.

Perhaps one of the most unfathomable events of the 1830s racism was the movement of an entire school of higher learning. In 1835, abolitionists founded Noyes Academy in Canaan, New Hampshire, as a racially integrated school that also admitted women. The school opened in March of 1835, with seventeen African American students and twenty-eight white students. While the white students were from the local area, the Black students traveled far to attend. Several future and renowned abolitionists, such as Henry Highland Garnet, Julia Williams, and Alexander Crummell were among its first— and last — class. On July 4, 1835, only months after its inception, the townspeople of Canaan plotted the removal of Noyes Academy. On August 10, 1835, hundreds of white people, with hundreds of oxen, destroyed the school as they dragged it to the town common. Students had fled the night before.
In 1838, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, and issued “a stark rebuke to the to the dangers of mob violence and an enduring defense of the rule of law.” In that speech, Lincoln warned against “outrages committed by mobs … from New England to Louisiana.” Lincoln’s urgent response to the violence of “this mobocratic spirit” was for “every lover of liberty” to revive the laws of the nation.

Letters from Anne and Martin

Undeterred by winter, on February 22, 2026, the DEI Council hosted another free event for the community: Letters from Anne and Martin, a production of the Anne Frank Center, USA. Actors Julie Sandler as Anne Frank and Andrew Tejada as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with moderator Deb Radloff, brought together dual monologues reflecting on confinement and injustice. Integrating excerpts from MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail with Anne Frank’s diary, the performers brought to life both writers’ impassioned pleas for hope, resistance, and justice.
In the after talk with the audience (ninety attended in person and twelve remote), the actors shared their own reactions to this profound re-enactment of the written words. Julie Sandler said, “Anne didn’t know what her end would be … activism is important even if we might not know where it will go … her diary ends with her thinking people want to be good.” Andrew Tejada reminded the audience that MLK and Anne Frank believed that “more people want to love than hate.”
Perhaps we can all reflect on Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s words to keep us keeping on: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only Love can do that.”

DE&I Council members at the Mobocracy and Abolitionism event.

Courageous Conversations

The DEI’s Courageous Conversations continued its book discussions for anyone interested, in person or remotely.
March and April discussions focused on the recently published book How Equality Wins: A New Vision for an Inclusive America by Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow. A book to be read by both the “DEI orthodox” and the “DEI non-believers,” the authors create bridges of communication to stem the flood of polarization. They look, for example, to Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress who allows for “imperfect allies.” Her pragmatic point is to get support where possible for “basic nondiscrimination protections” and for access to “medically necessary care.” Supporters needed for these measures “may oppose trans-people in participating in sports.” Be that as it may, McBride does not “dismiss them as bigots or remove them from our coalition.”
The authors urge equality advocates to make space for dialog with allies and doubters in order to hear their concerns. They agree with human rights advocate Suzanne Nossel who writes in her book, Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All, “concerns of diversity and inclusion can — and must — be reconciled with robust protections for speech.” While those concerned for diversity and inclusion worry about how speech can harm members of marginalized groups, those whose concerns are about free speech worry about stifling of “authentic self-expression.” Yet Nossel’s point (and the authors’) is that speech and equality most often work together. Speaking inclusively can make it possible for everyone to be heard. Yoshino and Glasgow assert the “marriage between equality and free speech needs to become a rallying cry for the new era of equality work.” The attorney authors remind us that changing unjust laws can be a long process. Thurgood Marshall led the way in how to pragmatically overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision that said segregated schools were separate but equal. He did this little by little, with stepping stone cases that showed how wrong this decision was.
There is no room for cynicism in the path toward justice. Yoshino and Glasgow exhort us not to collapse into fatalism but to follow Dr King’s words: “accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”

Upcoming Activities

Abenaki Garden
Earl Hatley, who has been a major creator of the Abenaki Garden, reports there was a successful community fundraiser last fall, which will help defray the cost of maintaining the garden. There will be new plantings of pawpaw and butternut trees, wild plum, ground nuts, service berries, and guild plants. There are also plans for more varieties of the “three sisters” (corn, beans, and squash), sunflowers, ground cherries, sunchokes, and bush beans. “Provided the woodchuck stays out of the way, we should have a plentiful harvest to feed our needy Abenaki families, and continue building our stock of seeds for future giveaways. … This is a community effort to help Abenaki feed Abenaki while teaching our agricultural and cultural practices and history,” said Hatley.
For more information and/or to sign up for work day announcements and updates go to AbenakiGarden.org.

Annual Frederick Douglass Fourth of July speech
On July 4, 2026, the DEI Council, in partnership with the Quechee Library, will present its annual reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” at the gazebo on the Quechee Green. Kent and Amy Hikida attended this even last year, and Kent noted how moving the reading was. The reading on the Green led Kent to bring the production of Letters from Anne and Martin to Quechee!
This year’s event will include the presentation of a $1,000 scholarship to the winner of the Declaration of Interdependence Essay contest. Sponsored by the Quechee DEI Council and the Quechee Library, the scholarship competition invites Hartford High School juniors and seniors to reflect on what freedom, responsibility, and civic life mean today. Students are asked to create their own Declaration of Interdependence “that shows how your voice, talents, and actions can help shape the future of democracy.”

When spring arrives in Quechee and the snow finally melts, I can walk my dog up the steep hill behind my house on High Street to the Hilltop Cemetery. The majestic trees, naked without their leaves, allow a view of Quechee Village and the Ottauquechee River below.
I can see past the covered bridge and the Meeting House cupola to the passing traffic on Route 4. I can see the waterfall that once powered the textile mill. I can see the barber shop where Ann welcomes one and all, and I can see my neighbor Rob as he chops and stacks firewood. I wave and shout out a greeting, but he’s focused on his chores, and the rush of the river drowns out the words.

Chris Denton

Standing in the cemetery with this storybook view, I think about the past buried with each headstone, family names and stories married to the soft earth. These are the roots of the Quechee community in physical form. I am interested in other people’s roots, likely because I have struggled with my own. Until now I’ve stayed on the move, chasing new assignments and new adventures. But geographic cures don’t work, the old timers say — “wherever you go, there you are.” Hilltop Cemetery invites this sort of thinking. My dog tilts her head at me, and we head back down the hill.
I came to the Upper Valley to be closer to my partner’s family. He had put up with my distant duty-stations and long hours, and it was time to reciprocate. From our small house on High Street, I set out to find places with deep roots in the community, and in short order discovered nearby spots including a coffee shop, barber shop, historic restaurant, and local bookstore.
All these places seemed to be frequented by common sense locals and outgoing visitors, and the conversations in the barber’s chair or at the restaurant bar all moved to the beat of the inevitable seasons, which served as a kind of metronome for the community. I learned a lot about how to properly tap a sugar-maple, for example, and the utility of the wood stove (necessary, not decorative).
The Prince and Pauper restaurant in Woodstock was the sort of place where, each time I visited, I was certain it would be the last. It reminded me of a charming coastal restaurant that dodges hurricanes year after year while storm clouds loom. The fleeting intimacy heightened the experience. My first time at the restaurant, I sat alone at the bar, and it didn’t take long for Clemens, the long-time bartender, to coax me into conversation with the regulars as he stood behind the cozy nook of a bar and shook martinis. I listened as a couple described coming to Woodstock every winter, and how each visit to the restaurant was celebrated like an anniversary, as they were married in the small dining room.

The Prince and the Pauper in Woodstock closed on March 14 after 51 years in business.

A block down the street is a 90-year-old bookstore where I found a Vermont-inspired cookbook with an ice cider pork chop recipe. Before living in Quechee, my culinary expertise began and ended with the takeout menu. But our local farmers market carries the specific cider and beautiful pork chops, and now that cider has been a mainstay in our house since its discovery. At my local barber shop, Ann patiently describes the process of sugaring and other Vermont chores and traditions. It was in that barber chair where I would learn that Chef Brad had moved on from his food truck to explore the National Parks (before they disappeared, he told me). I recognized that Quechee was tied to the seasons in a way that seemed foreign to me as a Floridian.
You see, in Florida we tame the environment, cooling the air for comfort and dredging up sand to “nourish” the beaches. In Quechee, on the other hand, there’s more of a gritty coexistence with the natural environment. Accepting the seasons as they come brings a kind of resilience, and a connection to the land and each other.

Hilltop Cemetery

Back on High Street, I am growing into my own feeling of rootedness. I can hear the nearby waterfall, reminding me that the river and the seasons keep flowing, so maybe I don’t need to move as much. I look forward to new local restaurants and cafes, the next conversation that yields a nugget of wisdom, and the discovery of more quintessential Vermont recipes.. As the sun sets at the Hilltop Cemetery, I wonder, can it be that my wandering days are over?