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By PATRICK O’GRADY

CLAREMONT — The story of America’s changing rural landscape, from settlement and growth around industry and farming to decline and a rebirth emphasizing the arts, is on display in a traveling exhibit that opened Monday at River Valley Community...

By CHRISTINA DOLAN

WINDSOR — Famous figures such as Martin Luther King and George Washington Carver are often the faces of Black History celebrations. But in a talk this week in recognition of Black History Month, Joe Major wants to focus on people his audience probably...

By ALEX HANSON

SUNAPEE — Whittier Perkins wasn’t widely known during his lifetime, though he served as a selectman in Wendell, N.H., which was Sunapee’s name until 1850.He moved to Wendell in 1788 from Methuen, Mass., with his father, stepmother, brother and sister....

By ALEX HANSON

Historic markers recognize the Morgan horse all over the Upper Valley, or the Vermont side of it, anyway, where the breed originated in the late 1700s, around the time Vermont was becoming a state. There’s one in Woodstock village, on Central street,...

By LIZ SAUCHELLI and ALEX HANSON

Little is known for certain about the life of Dinah Mason, but a few facts now seem incontestable.A bill of sale from 1783 shows that Dinah, who was Black, was purchased by Windsor resident Stephen Jacob from a Charlestown man named Jotham...

By JONATHAN STABLEFORD

On winter nights before going to bed I feed the wood stove and walk the dog. It’s a ritual I enjoy because whether my walk is starlit or moonlit or darkened with a hood of clouds, I can count on fresh air, a puff of wood smoke and the profound sense...

By DAN MACKIE

For reasons I cannot fully fathom, I have of late developed an interest in the Middle Ages. Not middle age, which I am entirely done with, but Medieval history.Gadzooks and zounds! I can honestly say I never saw it coming.Especially since I paid so...

By SARAH EARLE

The force that keeps many adventurers moving forward is what’s waiting for them at home. But what is home? The answer varies according to the person undertaking the journey. For Sam Brakeley, defining his idea of home was essential to his adventure....

By LARRY COFFIN

The greatest part of the labor upon the farms, and nearly all the whole of the travel and transportation in the state is performed by horses, and large numbers of fine horses are annually sent to market out of state.Zadock Thompson,History of Vermont,...

By LARRY COFFIN

In early New England communities, the initial proprietors set aside land that was not privately owned as “common lands.” In some cases, parcels were designated as cow or ox commons and could be used by all for grazing or for gathering of fuel. As...

By ALEX HANSON

Since boyhood, Frank J. “Jay” Barrett Jr., has collected vintage postcards of Hanover, where he grew up.In the 1990s, he pitched to a publisher the idea of turning his trove of images into a book. They asked if he could guarantee sales of 100,000...

By Sarah Earle

Hanover — For now, the way to the newly expanded and renovated Hood Museum of Art runs through a cafe smelling of french fries and crowded with college students. Around the corner from the cafe, where heads are bowed over textbooks and sandwiches, the...

The Woodstock Inn and Resort wants to expand, but two 19th-century houses on South Street that are part of the town’s historic district stand in the way. The inn claims the two houses, vacant for a while now, must be torn down because they’re beyond...

By EmmaJean Holley

By modern-day standards, 20-year-old Frederick Ransom was dead to begin with.But when someone died of tuberculosis in 1817, one could never be too careful. Before modern medicine shed light on the idea of contagion, even doctors in Woodstock thought...

By Madeline Bodin

Janet Hayward Burnham, of Bethel, was driving to the bank one day when she saw a tree on the side of the road that looked like it was covered in decorative webbing, “cans and cans” of it, as if for Halloween. However, it was June.Burnham is an...

By Susan Shea

When I was growing up, my family rented a vacation home on a mountain in southern Vermont. One night we were awakened by our dogs barking. Soon we heard a persistent gnawing on the outside of the house.My dad went to investigate. His flashlight beam...

By Joe Rankin

When you think about the essential landforms of the Northeast, what comes to mind? The mountains, of course. The lakes. Of course. Rivers? Probably.But there’s another. Stone walls. An estimated 100,000 miles of them. They might not be as impressive...

By Susie Spikol Faber

I have been living with an otter. He’s long and sleek, a graceful swimmer with an insatiable appetite for fish. At first he was just my boy, a chubby little toddler, happy to snuggle and follow his big sister around. But on the first snow fall of his...

Staff Report

Claremont — The 1961 ground-breaking film A Raisin in the Sun will be shown at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Claremont Opera House in recognition of Black History Month.Admission is free, but donations will be accepted on behalf of the Racial Healing Group...

By Carolyn Lorié

I have been keeping a close watch on my birdfeeders. Not only because I love seeing the juncos and goldfinches that arrive in flocks, and the black-capped chickadees that zip around and even the blue jays that tend to scare everyone else away, but...