Good places to get a smile, a bite to eat in Woodstock

Each time I visit Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park in Woodstock, I come away smiling.

About 90 minutes from Charlotte, the park is a fine destination for a day trip even as the season winds down. Twenty-five miles of walking trails, carriage roads and equestrian trails weave across the 550-acre forest and are open year-round. The Carriage Barn Visitor Center and Mansion are open only from Memorial Day through Oct. 31. Admission is free.

The over-arching theme of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller is conservation and land stewardship. Woodstock native George Perkins Marsh, for whom the Marsh Life Science Building at the University of Vermont is named, was a pioneer environmentalist. Born in the mansion in 1801, he came of age in an era of great destruction on the New England landscape. Forests were being clear-cut for lumber and pasture. Resulting silt runoff polluted streams and rivers and suffocated fish. Sheep devoured grasses and ripped up roots, resulting in loss of the thin soils on hilltops. Marsh represented Vermont in Congress and served the U.S. government overseas, where he witnessed even more destruction on the land.

Courtesy photo.
The beautiful and historical Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park is the only national park in Vermont.
Courtesy photo. The beautiful and historical Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park is the only national park in Vermont.

After more than a decade of public service, Marsh moved back to Woodstock to think and write. In 1864, he published “Man and Nature.” Its thesis is that civilizations decline when populations destroy their environments. The book was widely read and ultimately inspired the conservation movement, the creation of Arbor Day and the establishment of the national forest service.

After Marsh’s death, the mansion was sold to lawyer and railroad magnate Frederick Billings who had been deeply influenced by Marsh’s thinking. Billings established a progressive dairy farm and a professionally managed forest on the property. Because of Marsh, Billings and Rockefeller stewardship, a grove of 400-year-old hemlocks remains.

After Billings’ death, the mansion remained in the family until Frederick’s granddaughter, Mary French, married Laurence Spelman Rockefeller. The Rockefellers sustained Billings’ practices until the latter half of the 20th century when they created the adjacent Billings Farms and Museum and later donated their home and land to the National Park Service.

Tours of the mansion, in season, are limited to 12 participants. Reservations can be made 60 days in advance at recreation.gov. If you would like a quick peak, the first floor of the mansion is open for limited viewings throughout the season. Admission to the park is always free and pets are allowed on a leash. A treasure trove of information and history.

Billings Farm and Museum is an operating dairy farm and living museum of Vermont’s rural past. Billings Farm and the National Park share public parking and visitor information space. At its visitor center, the farm shows a 30-minute orientation film, “A Place in the Land,” which introduces guests to the people and history of this shared estate.

Since you have driven this far, consider a side trip to Eshqua Bog Natural Area in Hartland. It is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy and the Native Plant Trust.

“Eshqua Bog is a botanical wonderland of cold-climate holdovers, small packets of bog and a 2-acre fen from the post-glacial era 10,000 years ago,” The Nature Conservancy says.

Eshqua is about a 15-minute drive from the national park. The 40-acre sanctuary preserves bog plants like Labrador tea, cotton grass and pitcher plants. A number of orchids grow at Eshqua, including showy lady’s slippers blooming around June 20, yellow lady’s slippers blooming about two weeks prior to the showys, Northern bog orchids and green orchids.

Eshqua is definitely worth a detour, if not the journey, when hundreds of showys are in bloom. A 460-foot accessible boardwalk was recently added to the property. Good information as well as driving directions.

Before you head back to Charlotte, have a bite to eat. I’m a fan of Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock and its sibling Worthy Burger in South Royalton. Both source ingredients locally, as their website frames it, from “friends, families, neighbors, local farms and local breweries.” Their food is delicious. Trust me on this. Both Worthys are closed Monday through Wednesday.