Remnants of the Past

(Picture by Ryan Tessier)

This site is rich in lots of history. There is a house foundation, an old well that still collects water and a barn foundation that sit throughout the site. There are also old fence posts with barbed wire creating a line that may have been a pasture border at one point. There is also some metal stuck into a couple of trees that are fairly good sized, showing the tree grew up through the metal. There is also a lilac bush remaining that may have been a part of the landscape. Below are a couple pictures of the house foundation. As you can see, the house was not very big. The foundations measured: 13 feet wide x 22 feet long x 5 feet tall, and the house itself was probably 10 feet tall. It looks small, but when measured out, it feels a little bigger.

(Picture by Ryan Tessier)

Our favorite aspect of this site is definitely the historical part of the area. While walking around we continuously found interesting items and it was fun to explore and think about what the site might have looked like with a house and a barn on it.

When Samuel de Champlain first arrived in what is now Vermont 400 years ago, this site didn't look like it does today; we have a few ideas as to what he might have seen as he paddled past. The area was most likely an old growth forest with mixed hard and soft woods. There is the possibility that Native Americans were living in the area due to it's close vicinity to the lake and the protection of the bay.

On the other hand, let's think about what it will look like in 100 years from now in 2111. We have some conflicting ideas as a group as to how it will look. One idea is that Vermont will sell the state park and it will turn into a beautiful housing development with lots of houses and families. The other idea is that it will still remain a forest and will be more mature and slightly more dense. Due to the wetness of the site, it may be composed of more moisture-tolerant species such as red maple, but in any case, it is going to take many years for trees to fully take hold in the moist areas.