Despite the influx of businesses and organizations devoted to the arts, the prevalence of good restaurants, and the interesting happenings occurring in the town, White River Junction, Vermont, was first a major railroad center for Northern New England. After the Civil War, when the growing dependence on railroads spurred a rail boom around the nation, White River Junction emerged as an important rail hub. Several rail lines, and rail companies found the town a critical junction for their services. Many of these rail lines extended hundreds of miles in all directions from White River Junction making it a connector to the major cities in the region.… Read More

For most of us, our first exposure to geology in school was the study of the Grand Canyon. Awed by its immense size and varying nature, it seemed improbable that a mere river could cut such a wide, and deep swath through the earth, even with millions of years to get the task completed. At close to 300 miles long, up to 18 miles across, and a mile deep, the Grand Canyon inspires awe, with about 5 million visitors going to see this wonder each year. Even though new evidence suggests part of the canyon formed millions of years before the Colorado River existed, the power of water, and erosion are on display at this American landmark.… Read More

Revels North is a theatre company steeped in tradition, according to their history on their website, revelsnorth.org. “Revels” began in 1957 when John Meredith Langstaff staged the first production of Christmas Revels in New York City, where its traditional songs, dances, mime, and a mummers’ play introduced a new way of celebrating the winter solstice. By 1974, Revels North was founded as a non-profit arts organization providing year-round, multi-generational programming which celebrates the power of traditional song, dance, storytelling, and ritual.

Revels has been a profound positive experience for those in the Upper Valley for over 40 years. Upper Valley local and Quechee resident, Heather Nowlan, and her two children, Monet, 12, and Teelin, 9, had such an incredible experience the first time she saw a performance that she jumped at the chance to be involved.… Read More

You might think that a guy who’s made a career as a firefighter, with a retirement career as a balloon chaser, would be kind of a wild man, but Tom Ritland is soft-spoken and quiet. Perhaps after a lifetime of springing suddenly to full alert, wearing, and carrying at least 60 pounds of equipment into life-threatening situations, and dealing with constantly changing catastrophes, he feels no need to swagger. Here’s a man who has seen a lot of disasters, and done more than his fair share to remedy them. He knows the value of forethought. He prefers prevention to having to fix problems, and he knows that the best explanation is no good if the recipient doesn’t get it.… Read More

Je me souviens… “I remember.” The motto of Canada’s Quebec Province appears on license plates and welcome centers at the border. Penned in 1883, the lines continue, “I remember/ That born under the lily/I grow under the rose.” It’s so true! Quebec City’s 400+ years of history as a settlement began under the fleur-de-lis of France and grew under the rose of Britain. The French language and culture are strong in Quebec, and crossing the border by car, after a short drive up I-91 from Quechee, it’s easy to feel as if you crossed the ocean.

David and Brenda Barrell, and Chet and Debbie Marcus, drove to Quebec (we Americans call it Quebec City) in July of 2017 during the visit of the Tall Ships to this beautiful port city on the St.… Read More

The next time you see Joe O’Donnell around the Quechee Green, you should probably stop and shake his hand. If you know Joe, you were probably going to do that anyway, but this time around you should ask him about his self-published book, Deadly Codes: A Gallagher Novel, and the feature-length film Bent that’s based on his book. Joe’s gregarious and positive nature makes him truly enjoyable to interact with, and his excitement is contagious.

Previous to attending the premiere of a movie based on his own novel, Joe had already worked a highly reputable career in pediatric dentistry. He went to school in his home state of Pennsylvania and then Boston, specializing in pediatric dentistry.… Read More

Graduating Hartford High School senior, Natalie Charron, is known throughout the Quechee area by many different people in various facets. She had grown up running around the Quechee Club. Natalie spent hours swimming and skiing, and at 15 she began working as a hostess there, later becoming a health desk attendant. Most who have spent time at The Club have run across Natalie and, rumor has it, simply adore her.

Her love of music

Natalie is an accomplished musician. She began playing the piano at the age of 7 and stopped when at 10 she picked up the saxophone in the fifth grade.… Read More

A to Z Cakes is an inspiring entrepreneurial tale based right here in Quechee. Abbi and Dan Courtemanche have built a successful cake making company out of what Abbi describes as a “happy accident.” Not quite ten years ago, Abbi and Dan were planning their wedding. For reasons most of us could not fathom, Abbi decided that she could make their wedding cake despite having never attempted such a fete before. The cake was such a success that wedding guests asked for the name of the baker. Abbi was shortly hired to make what would be the second of many cakes to come.… Read More

The Smithsonian Museum is referred to as the nation’s attic. In Hartford, Vermont, the Historical Society performs this same function, though without much in the way of resources; it’s an attic at capacity. The Society’s collection is currently displayed in Garipay House at 1461 Maple Street (near the intersection of Route 14 and Christian Street). The house-museum is open weekday mornings, and the whole project is a labor of love for a few devoted volunteers.

You’d never know it from the well-kept, crisp displays, but Garipay House is bursting with additional objects of interest in storage rooms. Gray storage shelves hold boxes of various sizes and shapes.… Read More

As a Quechee Lakes Landowners’ Association (QLLA) Trustee since 2015, Norman Watts’ impression of the state of QLLA governance is important. His response to my inquiry about it was, “I am very confident that the ship is being sailed well. The skipper is competent and very concerned about the members. It’s a good crew.” This statement is quite an apt analogy from someone who has also been an avid sailor most of his life.

Norman’s initial impression of Quechee Lakes when he moved here in 2000 was not always as positive. One of the reasons why he ran for the trustee position was to “encourage and support the momentum QLLA had demonstrated over the past five to six years, so we don’t drift into a stall like when we first relocated to Quechee Lakes.… Read More