Monday, November 11, 2019

A glimpse of Bethlehem in Bennington

Today I had a fun local history moment at the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont.  It involved this map. 

Look close, closer, even closer

Yup there it is, lower left corner

Renslearwick!

And just below that Normans Kill.  OK, it actually says Normans River.  That's Bethlehem's northern boundary.  Of course we weren't a town yet when this map was drawn, but still pretty cool.


The map, A map of the province of New York, by Simon Metcalf circa 1772, shows what was to become Vermont from a New York perspective.  At the time New York and New Hampshire were wrestling over the ownership of the territory. Hop over here for the full description.

https://bennington.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/A06EB1FE-FB29-4440-8F0C-673890026858

My other fun history fact of the day was how Vermont got its name - just never thought about it before.  Apparently, Frenchman Samuel de Champlain put down Verd Mont on his 1647 map - green mountains - verd mont - Vermont.

The Bennington Museum is a great place - I enjoyed the schoolhouse, "Visible in Vermont: Our Stories our Voices"  and Asa Cheffetz's Vermont engravings.  And not to be terrible, but I can take or leave Grandma Moses.  Lunch at Madison Brewing.  And then a stop at the Big Moose Deli & Country Store because, oh my, why wouldn't you?  It has every kind of "Vermont" item you could possibly want.  What tickles my funny bone is that it is actually in New York!

Below is a picture from their website. Above is from Google. https://bigmoosegifts.com/


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