When we think of Vermont, most people will bring to mind green mountains and maple syrup. Here are a few stops you can make that have nothing to do with Vermont’s natural appeal, and everything to do with its social, literary and artistic heritage.
• Take a 1 minute and 14 second ride up the elevator in the 306 feet Bennington Monument. This landmark is the most visited in Vermont, built in the 1800s to commemorate the Battle of Bennington which took place on August 16, 1777. The views from the top are amazing.
• Also in Bennington you can visit the grave site of America’s most beloved poet, Robert Frost. At the Old First Church, the first church in the US “dedicated to the separation of Church and State.” The congregation was established in 1762, and its building erected in 1806. Frost was born in 1874 and died in 1963, and is buried alongside many members of his family.
• The Bennington Museum is the home to the largest collection of Grandma Moses paintings in the world. Anna Mary Robertson Moses was born the same year that Abraham Lincoln was killed and died the year that John Kennedy was assassinated. She was a self-taught painter who didn’t pick up the brush until she was 78 years old. A great lesson that it is never too late to follow your dreams.
