Podcast
A Short History of Groton State Forest
Podcast Experience
I downloaded the recording application, Audacity, from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and the conversion (to mp3) software from http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/ I created a script from a history pamphlet I found on the state forest website and was able to edit it down to be more manageable. I found Audacity easy to use for the basic recording and the challenge is to obtain silence for a recording session. I rerecorded once to eliminate a major misread. I created an account on podomatic.com on which I could store the recording. I found the Podomatic interface not straightforward to use. I had done a trial recording and posting to Podomatic which I was finally able to delete. Podomatic did generate embedding code for the podcast which I was able to use in my ePortfolio. The URL for the podcast is http://logpile.podomatic.com .
I downloaded the recording application, Audacity, from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and the conversion (to mp3) software from http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/ I created a script from a history pamphlet I found on the state forest website and was able to edit it down to be more manageable. I found Audacity easy to use for the basic recording and the challenge is to obtain silence for a recording session. I rerecorded once to eliminate a major misread. I created an account on podomatic.com on which I could store the recording. I found the Podomatic interface not straightforward to use. I had done a trial recording and posting to Podomatic which I was finally able to delete. Podomatic did generate embedding code for the podcast which I was able to use in my ePortfolio. The URL for the podcast is http://logpile.podomatic.com .
Podcast Script
This podcast is a short history of Groton State Forest of the time before the CCC camps of the nineteen thirties. The material consists of excerpts from a pamphlet entitled GROTON STATE FOREST HISTORY GUIDE which was written by Laura Hollowell and Dave Synderman for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
There were no permanent settlers in Groton until after the American Revolution. Veterans of the war, along with many ambitious youths from lower New England, moved north to Vermont. These pioneers sought water and trails for transportation, land suitable for farming and available resources for building. Groton was settled early, being accessible to the Connecticut and Wells Rivers.
Captain Edmund Morse, one of the first settlers in Groton, arrived in 1783. Morse built the town’s first saw and grist mill on the outlet of what is now called Ricker Pond. A sawmill was in operation on this same site until the early 1960’s. Captain Morse also built the first frame house and was the town’s first blacksmith and military captain.
The land outside the village was left as “wild land,” being too rocky to farm. This region was heavily forested with spruce, hemlock, beech, birch, maple and white pine. Local farmers cut the tree-covered hillsides for fuel, lumber and the making of potash.
Through the years, the main industry was logging and sawmills operated at about twelve different sites in the town of Groton. Most of these sites are now included in the State forest.
The Montpelier and Wells River Railroad, completed in November of 1873, gave Groton’s sawmills easy access to a wood-hungry market. Within a few years, new mills sprang up and old ones were enlarged to meet the demand for lumber. The railroad, a connection between the Central Vermont Railroad and the Boston and Maine system, was for many years the only access to the ponds.
The railroad opened the area to another kind of settler – the seasonal camper. The earliest camps along the shores of Groton Pond date to 1894. Within the next ten years it was an established practice for local Vermonters to spend July 4 to Labor Day by the pond. Camps were opened again in late fall for hunting. Disembarking at either Lakeside Station or the Rocky Point Flag Stop, the campers would take a boat to their cabins on distant shores. Then, as now, swimming, boating, hiking, fishing and berry-picking were the main forms of recreation.
That concludes my short history. The Groton Forest history pamphlet in its entirety can be found at http://www.vtstateparks.com/pdfs/grotonforesthistory.pdf
There were no permanent settlers in Groton until after the American Revolution. Veterans of the war, along with many ambitious youths from lower New England, moved north to Vermont. These pioneers sought water and trails for transportation, land suitable for farming and available resources for building. Groton was settled early, being accessible to the Connecticut and Wells Rivers.
Captain Edmund Morse, one of the first settlers in Groton, arrived in 1783. Morse built the town’s first saw and grist mill on the outlet of what is now called Ricker Pond. A sawmill was in operation on this same site until the early 1960’s. Captain Morse also built the first frame house and was the town’s first blacksmith and military captain.
The land outside the village was left as “wild land,” being too rocky to farm. This region was heavily forested with spruce, hemlock, beech, birch, maple and white pine. Local farmers cut the tree-covered hillsides for fuel, lumber and the making of potash.
Through the years, the main industry was logging and sawmills operated at about twelve different sites in the town of Groton. Most of these sites are now included in the State forest.
The Montpelier and Wells River Railroad, completed in November of 1873, gave Groton’s sawmills easy access to a wood-hungry market. Within a few years, new mills sprang up and old ones were enlarged to meet the demand for lumber. The railroad, a connection between the Central Vermont Railroad and the Boston and Maine system, was for many years the only access to the ponds.
The railroad opened the area to another kind of settler – the seasonal camper. The earliest camps along the shores of Groton Pond date to 1894. Within the next ten years it was an established practice for local Vermonters to spend July 4 to Labor Day by the pond. Camps were opened again in late fall for hunting. Disembarking at either Lakeside Station or the Rocky Point Flag Stop, the campers would take a boat to their cabins on distant shores. Then, as now, swimming, boating, hiking, fishing and berry-picking were the main forms of recreation.
That concludes my short history. The Groton Forest history pamphlet in its entirety can be found at http://www.vtstateparks.com/pdfs/grotonforesthistory.pdf