Vermont Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series) [Paperback]

Robert F. Wilson (Author), Victoria Blewer (Photographer)

Book Description

Series: Curiosities Series | Publication Date: October 14, 2008

A fun, accessible read for travelers and non travelers alike Vermont Curiosities is part zany Vermont guidebook and part Who's Who of unusual and unsung heroes, this compendium of the state's quirks and characters will amuse Vermont residents and visitors alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Bernie Sanders, lone independent in the U.S. Senate, wrote the foreword. Senator Sanders concludes by saying, “This book is a pleasurable compendium for those who want to travel Vermont and see things not found in most guidebooks, and will be a delight to those who enjoy the quirkiness of Vermont’s ‘curiosities.’”As an example of this quirkiness, Wilson points to Vermont’s only professional basketball team, the Frost Heaves. “Any state serious enough of purpose to name an athletic team in honor of indigenous phenomena rather than mammals of prey earns points for originality.”

This user-friendly book is organized geographically, the first chapter dealing with

statewide matters–historical, geological and cultural. The remaining chapters cover the state’s eight regions. Each “curiosity” is pictured and includes clear directions for getting there, accompanied by hours of operation, if applicable, and a phone number for more information.

–Martha Slater

The Herald of Randolph

 

"The new book Vermont Curiosities sets out to find the interesting people, places, and historic quirks that make Vermont unique. They include tidbits like the sale of a counterfeit Norman Rockwell painting, the history of a horse-drqwn garbage service in Bristol, and where to find a covered bridge museum inside a covered bridge. Author Bob Wilson traveled the state to uncover and research the stories collected in his book, but he found one of them in his own backyard. . . ." (From the introduction to an audio review, August 18, 2009.) --Jane Lindholm, Host, "Vermont Edition," Vermont Public Radio

Vermont Curiosities contains dozens of stories from Brattleboro up to the Northeast

Kingdom, and includes an appendix to help travelers who want to experience the places they read about. Wilson’s chapter on southeastern Vermont, for example, includes many well-known tales, but he also uncovers some lesser-known gems, like a story about Brattleboro issuing one of the first postage stamps in the country, and a profile of the last dairy farmer in Rockingham.Wilson traveled the roads of Vermont–following leads, chasing ghosts, and tracking down Vermonters with first-hand memories of some of the state’s most colorful characters. He was especially impressed with Patrick Palmer, who won the bid to pick up garbage in Bristol without telling the Selectboard that his rates were low because he’d use a horse and wagon to pick it up. “Sometimes it panned out and sometimes it didn’t,” Wilson said about his travels around Vermont. You never knew how things would turn out. That was the fun of putting it together.”

–Howard Weiss-Tisman

Brattleboro Reformer

 

From the Back Cover

Your round-trip ticket to the wildest, wackiest, most outrageous people, places, and things the Green Mountain State has to offer!

 

Whether you’re a born-and-raised Vermonter, a recent transplant, or just passing through, Vermont Curiosities will have you laughing out loud as it introduces you to the most fascinating characters in the Green Mountain State, and takes you places you never could have imagined—some of them right around the corner!

 

Among the stimulating sights and spectacles you’ll find inside:

 

• Brattleboro’s annual Strolling of the Heifers
• Indian carvings that may or may not be prehistoric
• America’s only covered bridge museum (itself a covered bridge)
• The architectural wonder of the 32-room Wilson Castle
• The Bread & Puppet Theater, where sourdough follows politics
• The world’s largest marble museum, complete with forty-one carved presidents and an award-winning

   bathroom

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 1st edition (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762746696
• ISBN-13: 978-0762746699
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now I want to go to Vermont, April 18, 2009

By 

Erica Manfred (West Hurley, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vermont Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series) (Paperback)

I live right near Vermont in upstate NY but never bothered to visit because I always thought Vermont was all picturesque little towns with white churches that was only worth visiting when snow was on the ground. Turns out there are lots of things to see and do in Spring and Summer that I'd never have known about if it weren't for this book. I might take in "Strolling of the Heifers" in early June (since I'll never get to Pamplona for running of the bulls) or Curtis Barbeque (I'm a barbeque fanatic and I sure won't get to Texas) and who knew the Bennington Museum had the largest collection of Grandma Moses, one of my favorite folk artists. I might even take in the covered bridge museum because I've always been a huge fan of covered bridges. What I liked best about the book was the author's emphasis on history. Seems Vermont has a lot of it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vermont Curiosities, April 6, 2009

By 

Gene Jaeger (Henry IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vermont Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series) (Paperback)

Last fall I was given a copy of Vermont Curiosities. I thumbed through it.
It looked like a tourist guide, something Wilson did for the State Tourist
Bureau. Interesting, I thought, I'll look it over when I get time. I put it on the table next to my easy chair and there it sat until yesterday. I did the thumb-through again and this time a name caught my eye--Lake Bomoseen. I thought the Lake was featured for its scenery. Wilson is too young to remember the Algonquin Round Tablers' sojourns to Alexander Woollcott's island in Lake Bomoseen. But he did. He had it all down: Dorothy Parker, Harpo Marx, Ethel Barrymore,Irving Berlin, all the heroes of my college days. God, life was easy then.

But there was more.Vermont's history is not entirely about stone quarries, covered bridges and the Green Mountain Boys. It includes stories about Calvin Coolidge, Norman Rockwell, the von Trapps, Robert Todd Lincoln, Rudyard Kipling...and they're all fun to read. I now skip from story to story each time I sit down. And I'm always picking out choice bits to read to my wife.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool Book, June 28, 2009

By 

James N. Hare "mushroom hunter" (New Fairfield, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vermont Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series) (Paperback)

This book is great. My mom and stepdad live in Vermont and although I've visited them numerous times over the years and been to many parts of the state, there are many cool things about Vermont that are in this book that I never would have known about otherwise. Plus there is fascinating information about a lot of places and people that I thought I knew, but it was really just superficial knowledge until now. Robert Wilson is funny and very thorough. A must read for anyone visiting The Green Mountain State.