NewsINK Issue 8

Issue 8Cover Photo by Eric Blaisdell

All aboard!Passumpsic Railroad - P. 14

Route 5 long ago - P. 3Get away at Milarepa - P. 8

Ride for free - P. 11Bring the past to life - P. 21

NewsINK is a publication of the Vermont Center for Community Journalism at Lyndon State College. Find us online at Issuu.com/newsink.Address queries to: NewsINK, Department of Electronic Journalism Arts, Lyndon State College, P.O. Box 919, Lyndonville, Vt. 05849.

NewsINK Staff: Eric Blaisdell Morgan Forester Erin MilneSamantha Knight Samantha VanSchoick Adviser: Dan Williams

Cover photo: Northeast Kingdom towns are represented on the Passumpsic Railroad, a life-sized train set in Barnet.

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Keeping History AliveWhen Route 5 was finallypaved to Lyndon in the1930s, the town celebratedwith a parade. Peoplecalled it the Hard Road andthe Cement Road. The entire roadway, designateda U.S. highway, ran from Connecticut to theCanadian border. It stilldoes, but its importance asa transportation corridorfell sharply when Interstate91 was built. NewsINKlooks at Route 5 in Vermont’s Northeast King-dom through the eyes ofthe people who use it everyday.

Photo By Erin Milne

Amateur historian Dwayne Garfield holds a County Gazetteer, one of many artifacts about local history in his collection.

Dwayne Garfield has a passion for history. “When I was a little boy, I used to hang around with

old folks, so I heard a lot of stories,” Garfield says as helooks out over the pile of Lyndon memorabilia on hiskitchen table at his home on Lily Pond Road in Lyndon.Now nearly 73, Garfield has amassed an impressive col-lection of photos, books, and documents all pertaining tothe history of the town. Most of all, though, he has sto-ries.

“I donʼt know if Capone and themcame here, but Iʼve heard some awfulstories,” Garfield says of Lyndonʼs wildprohibition days. He adds that many ofthe townʼs people, including his own fa-ther, were involved in bootlegging thenbecause the area was poor and it was agood way to make money.

Born in Burke Hollow in 1939,Garfield grew up there and in LyndonCorner. In Lyndon Corner, he lived in ahouse on the sharp bend of Route 5 at York Street. Thehouse is still there. Though Route 5 was asphalted whenhe lived there, he says that it was originally paved withconcrete in the 1930s, and the seams in the cement canstill be felt today in the form of bumps under the asphalt.

According to Garfield, Lyndon Corner was “the origi-nal Lyndonville,” back when the current downtown areawas just fields. The center of town started moving northwhen the St. Johnsbury railroad shops burned and were

rebuilt where the Lyndon Freight House now stands.Garfield says each part of the town had a different nameback then: Lyndon Corner was known as “Happytown,”the area along Route 5 where McDonaldʼs now standswas called “Hadleyville,” and East Lyndon was called“Swaggerham.”

Garfield also remembers the dogsled races that tookplace on Main Street in Lyndonville, saying the musherswould throw orange peels in front of their dogs to make

them run. The races eventually wereended because they forced traffic tobe detoured.

Garfield is not the only one keep-ing the memories of Lyndonʼs earlierdays alive. Many of the townʼs olderresidents have plenty of their own sto-ries to tell. One such person is RussellWilson, now nearly 92 years old and alife-long resident of Lyndon. He toogrew up in Lyndon Corner and remem-

bers when a sign reading “Sound Your Claxon” stood onRoute 5ʼs sharp bend. “Claxon” referred to a type of now-antique car horn, and the idea was to blow your horn sodrivers on the other side of the turn would know you werecoming. Wilson also recalls when Route 5 was paved inthe 1930s; at 10 years old, he couldnʼt understand why.

“I always thought that road was kept in prettygood shape as a dirt road,” Wilson says. The pavingdidnʼt change life very much for his family, though he did

“I donʼt know ifCapone and them

came here, but Iʼveheard some awful

stories”--Dwayne Garfield


Story byErin Milne

Another piece of Garfield’scollection: a survey map of Lyn-

don dating from the 1870s.Photo by Erin Milne


Left: The Lyndonville Military Band poses for aphoto in 1946. Russell Wilson, who has livedin Lyndon most of his 92 years, is the drum-mer pictured on the far right.

Below: McDonald’s and Dollar Generalwould be visible if this photo were takentoday. It shows the Lyndon area once calledHadleyville. The Passumpsic River is in thebackground.

Photos Courtesy of Dwayne Garfield


Above: Dwayne Garfield lived in anapartment in this building in LyndonCorner on Route 5 at York Street.Right: An ornate Victorian house, oneof 11 dwellings that were moved tomake way for I-91, according toGarfield. Below: The Stern Block onthe corner of Depot and BroadStreets (Route 5) burned down in1924.

Photos Courtesy of Dwayne Garfield

grounds. Wheeler, a retired teacher who graduated fromLyndon State College in 1959, marshaled the races atthe fairgrounds and says she was disappointed whenthe track was seeded with grass.

Wheeler also recalls the changes to Main Street it-self. “I remember Main Street when it was really, reallynice. The houses were beautiful,” Wheeler says. Thatwas before the Dutch Elm Disease, which destroyedmany of the trees that lined Main Street. Today, Wheelersays the street lacks its old splendor. “Itʼs not kept upnow. Itʼs not like it used to be,” Wheeler says.

One change involved Wheelerʼs own family. In1939, her father opened Blakeʼs Garage, an auto serv-ice center and car dealership, where the China MoonBuffet now stands on Broad Street. The business wasvery successful for many years but failed in the 1950safter an employee embezzled $10,000. Wheelerʼs fatherwent to work at a gas station to pay back the resultingdebts.


note that it made it a bit easier to get around inmud season.

Wilson also remembers when the center of Lyn-donville along Route 5 was very undeveloped. A largeswamp once existed near where Kinney Drugs nowstands, and Wilson says it was known as “The Wil-lows” and he recalls seeing it on a postcard. In thespring time, the sound of frogs peeping there wasdeafening. “You wouldnʼt know frogs ever lived in theplace, hardly,” Wilson says of how the area haschanged.

Deanna Wheeler also knows how the town haschanged. One of her favorite memories is of the trot-ting horse races that used to take place on Main Streeteach Saturday during the winter. This meant traffic hadto be rerouted, and the townspeople began to com-plain, so the races became restricted to just Presi-dentʼs Day. “I remember that as a kid, standing on thesnow banks, watching the races,” Wheeler says. In the1950s, the races moved off Main Street entirely andwere held instead at the Caledonia County Fair-

Photo Courtesy of Dwayne Garfield

Blake’s Garage on Broad Street in Lyndonville. China Moon now stands on the spot..


Up a steep, narrow road off Route 5 inBarnet sits a quiet farmhouse. It is thehome to Milarepa, the Buddhist retreat.

Story and Photosby Morgan Forester

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The center has been heresince 1981, offering a quiet placefor anyone to come for reflectionand peace.

The Venerable Amy Miller, aBuddhist nun, is the director of thecenter. She also teaches medita-tion classes and plans pilgrimagesto Nepal. She came to this se-questered spot three and a halfyears ago following the death of agreat Buddha master she attendedin India.

“I spent some time runningcenters out in California. As a Bud-dhist nun I looked for places thatneed help and this centerwas in need of a director.”

Another pull was beingclose to her family who liveon the East Coast.

Milerepa is a smallcenter but has a lot tooffer. There are many re-treats throughout the yearas well as programs andclasses in between the re-treats. Cabins can berented out by anyone whoneeds to get away.

“Weʼve had yoga in-structors, writers, teachers,

and even a mother who justneeded some time away from herkids for the weekend,” says Miller.

The center also offers a work-study program for those interestedin a deeper study of Buddhism.

“We have people who comefrom all over the world to do workstudy-with us.”

The students work thirty hoursaround the center to pay for roomand board while they stay.

“People find us on the websiteand they have their normal jobsbut want something more mean-ingful, a new spiritual path, so

they come here.”The center isnʼt just for

Buddhists or those seek-ing to learn more aboutBuddhism. Miller calls it anopen space where every-one is welcome.

“You donʼt have to beBuddhist to come here. Iknow a lot of people getintimidated. They see ourhill and they get a littlenervous but once they getup here they see itʼs anice farmhouse and every-one is really nice.”


Photo Courtesy of milarepacenter.org

The Venerable Amy Miller, Milarepa director


Clockwise from top: Prayer wheels adorn a fenceat the Milarepa Buddhist Center; a drum in themeditation room at the retreat; a statue of Mi-larepa, one of Tibet’s most famous mystics, watchesover guests; small Buddha statues form mini-shrines that climb the Buddhist center’s stupa, a re-ligious monument that overlooks Route 5.


Tales from theNEK’s

MagicBus

Christine E. Maddox gets off the Jay-Lyn bus at Lyndon State College.

Story and Photos by Erin Milne

Bob Patton has seen and heard his share of inter-esting things on the bus.

One was a paranoid passenger with a mistakenview of property rights.

Patton recalls her words: “These foreigners,theyʼre buying park land in America. What if they wantto start a war? They can drop paratroopers on theirland and we canʼt do a thing about it because itʼs theirland!” Other passengers aboard Rural CommunityTransportation bus are quieter but equally interest-ing—such as the 85-year-old man who Patton sayssometimes rides all day just for fun. And then there arethe drivers. Patton says each has a distinct personalityand most are very helpful, though some are moreadamant about sticking to the schedule than others.

Patton is not alone in his experiences. Accordingto Sandy Thorpe, RCT transit director, about 100 peo-ple ride the Jay-Lyn route along Route 5 between Lyn-donville and St. Johnsbury each day, and they comefrom all walks of life. “There can be very low-income,and we have people making $60,000 to $70,000 ayear who ride the bus between St. Johnsbury andMontpelier. It really crosses the gamut. Employed, un-employed, children, college students, people going tomedical appointments,” Thorpe says.

This broad spectrum of riders includes retirees

such as Patton, who takes classes at Lyndon State Col-lege, and Christine E. Maddox, who uses the bus for shop-ping, recreation, and visits to the LSC library, as well as tolink to other transit systems to get to Montreal and Boston.“Itʼs nice to talk to people on the bus,” Maddox says. “Youmeet a variety of people on the bus. Some people take itjust so they can talk to someone.” One of her favorite busmemories is the time she met a retired hockey player fromBoston. “You hear bits and pieces of other peoplesʼ lives,”Maddox says.

Ridership also includes car-less LSC students likeYolanda Liang and Amanda Bernard. Liang is a studentfrom China and says she takes the bus to St. Johnsbury tovisit friends about once a month; Bernard does not have alicense and usually rides the bus on Wednesdays and Fri-days to get to stores and doctorsʼ appointments. Still otherpeople take the bus to work.

The RCT bus route began in 1991 as a system for get-ting Medicaid patients and disabled people to their medicalappointments. While the bus still organizes trips for thispopulation, it has since expanded its services to the gen-eral public. In addition to the weekday Jay-Lyn route, RCToperates a daily route between Newport and Derby as wellas several monthly or bi-monthly shopping routes in north-ern Vermont. There is also a route known as the U.S. 2Commuter that runs weekdays from the St. Johnsbury

Amanda Bernard andDon Schiflett are justtwo of the Jay-Lynroute’s regular riders.



Welcome Center to Montpelier and links to otherbuses in the Green Mountain Transportation Authoritysystem. Patton said he recently used this route to getto Burlington.

“I was basically able to make the whole trip usingpublic transportation,” Patton says, adding that hehitchhiked a brief part of the way. The U.S. 2 Com-muter costs $1 for a one-way ride, $8 for a ten-ridepass, or $33.50 for a monthly pass. People ages 6-17and over 60 can get a 50 percent discount on thisroute, and all other routes are free for everyone.

RCT operates through a combination of federaland state funding. RCT must also match every dollar itgets from state or federal government, and it does thislargely through appropriations from the towns that itserves, Thorpe says. She added that RCT is hoping toincrease its funding so that it can offer weekend serv-ice on its Jay-Lyn route in the future. RCT has 24 fulland part-time staff and drivers as well as many volun-

teer drivers who receive no money other than gas reim-bursement. The average RCT bus gets about 10 miles pergallon. Thorpe says that the bus routes are deviated, so allRCT drivers will stop anywhere that is safe and within onequarter of a mile from the standard bus route. This was nottrue for Patton on occasion, though; he says one driverwho was very concerned about sticking to the schedulewas loathe to let him off at the Freight House to pick upraw milk.

“All the drivers would let me stop there, except thisone driver, who was very punctual,” Patton says.

Thorpe also noted that, while ridership tends to go upwhen gas prices rise, it does not go back down when theyfall. “Once they start riding and find out how nice it is,” theytend to stay, Thorpe says. For many of these riders, ridingthe bus isnʼt just about getting from point A to be point B—itʼs about being part of a community. For many RCT riders,itʼs the unusual sights, sounds, and experiences that maketheir trip more than just a daily commute.

The Jay-Lyn bus headsto its next stop.


The PassumpsicRailroad

A Real Life Train SetStory and Photos by Eric BlaisdellEast Barnet – Larry Scott trades in his farmerʼs overalls for a wrench every Sunday and repairs oldtrains.

It is something fun to do on the weekends to “get away from the farm for a few minutes and thinkabout something else besides the back end of a cow.”

Scott is one of several train buffs who devote one day a week to the Passumpsic Railroad, a life-sized railroad set in Barnet that was started by Dr. Marvin Kendall 25 years ago. The train yard is fullof old boxcars and engines, some which are on tracks that run only a couple of feet from a duplex. Itcovers a large field and spills over into the adjacent woods.


The Passumpsic Railroad hassome pieces that are the last of theirkind in the country, if not the world. Italso has the only operating steam lo-comotive in Vermont.

Scott owns and operates a farmin Newbury that raises beef, pork andemus. His farm sits right next to a setof train tracks, so Scott says he hasalways had a love of trains andwishes he were born 50 years ago sohe could have really enjoyed them.

He drove by the PassumpsicRailroad for over two decades won-dering what was going on. ThenScott met up with someone who vol-unteered at the train yard six yearsago. They brought him over and hehas been coming back ever since.

Marvin Kendall, a former family

medical doctor who now works forVeterans Affairs as a practitioner,started what he calls a railroad mu-seum for the purpose of preservingrailroad culture.

“(In the past) the countrychanged from an agrarian society toa mechanical society,” he said.“When it did, the railroads made itpossible. They changed the wholeworld.”

Most of the items were donated,but some had to be bartered for.

“If I find one of a kind relics I gotalk to (the owner). Sometimes ittakes years for us to get into somesort of agreement. For one of thecars, we took some large bouldersout of a manʼs field (in trade),” hesaid.

Marvinʼs son Jim Kendall, a me-chanical and electrical engineer, isthe fourth generation Kendall to bepassionate about trains. He enjoysrestoring old things and likes the en-gineering challenges that rebuildingtrains can bring. He has a vision touse the train yard as more than amuseum; he wants to turn it into arailroad theme park. He sees it as away for people to connect with a by-gone era.

“We have a real hands-on com-ponent that most preservation placesdonʼt have,” Jim Kendall said in aphone interview about what he wantsto turn the Passumpsic Railroad into.“Families can come and not just betourists. You can roll up your sleevesand move around rails, drive railroadspikes and operate railroad equip-ment of all kinds.”

Story continued on page 18

Clockwise from top left: Dave Traczyk giving a tour of the inside of a caboose; LarryScott next to a train engine that he has been working on; Marvin Kendall started thePassumpsic Railroad 25 years ago.


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Cont. from page 15He is already preparing the sixth

generation of his family to work onthe trains as he brings his six-year-old son to the train yard to help.

There is no timetable for havingthe park up and running becausethere are so few volunteers and theyonly work one day a week. The im-mediate plans involve finishing offthe mile long track, including a bridgein the woods, so that it is a completeloop for the trains to run on, but eventhat is a year or two off. The track isbuilt by hand and involves movingrails that weigh between 1200 and1500 pounds each. To move one railtakes between eight to twelve peopleusing special tongs.

Dave Traczyk worked at a trolleymuseum in Connecticut before mov-ing to Vermont, so he has some fa-miliarity with the mechanics of thejob. He now works at a scale com-

pany and has been volunteering atthe Passumpsic Railroad for about12 years.

“Itʼs just something different andunusual. Everyone has different hob-bies and interests. To save some ofthis stuff is kind of nice,” saidTraczyk.

There is so much restoration andmanual labor to do that the men haveto prioritize what needs to be done.Some of the men have even re-signed themselves to the fact thatsome projects will not get done intheir lifetime. Traczyk says that itcomes down to time, energy andmoney.

“You are split up between thethree. You only have so much time,especially since you only work oneday a week on things. You are limitedto people coming and going andmoney is the other factor. You haveto pick your priorities,” he said.

Angie Nelson lives in the duplexapartment building on the propertywith her husband and five children.She enjoys living so close to the trainyard.

“I love to hear the sound of it as itis going around,” she said. “Thehouse shakes like an earthquake,which is what I like.”

The Kendalls use to run a Christ-mas train in December for the publicand would give the donations fromthe passengers to a Romanian or-phanage. That has fallen through thepast couple of years because ofother responsibilities and just beingtoo busy, but they do plan on bring-ing it back.

The Passumpsic Railroad is nota theme park yet and visitors areasked to receive permission beforethey arrive.



2012 WorldMaple Festival

Every year St. Johnsbury’s Railroad Street(Route 5) is shut down to traffic for one week-end, and maple festivities run wild.

It is here that the best maple syrup in theworld is judged and named king. This year,Moser’s Maple Products of Beaver Falls, N.Y.,took the crown with its “Fancy” grade submis-sion. Photos by Samantha VanSchoick


Mt. Pleasant Cemetery:

Home To St. Johnsbury’sP a s t

Story and Photos by Morgan Forester


It is the final resting place for thefamed Fairbanks family, and at lastcount holds more than 13,000 re-mains.

St. Johnsburyʼs Mt. PleasantCemetery stretches over a hillside,its twisting and winding walkwayslined with gravestones leading downto Route 5, where the few remainingplots in the newer section await theirremains.

“Around 1850, they were buildingthe courthouse and there was a bur-ial ground so they removed those

graves and brought them over to Mt.Pleasant,” says Les Blodgett.

Blodgett has been the caretakerof this old cemetery for the past eightyears. He spends his time managingburials and the sales of grave plotsbut his main focus is running the cre-matorium, which opened in 1966, thefirst in Vermont.

“They were the only ones in thestate for three or four years,” saysBlodgett.

Standing next to the crematoriumis a small chapel built by the Fair-banks family in the 1870s. It is thefirst thing you see when you pull intothe driveway. Originally it was anopen pavilion where horses and wag-ons could pull right through to unloadbodies into the underground vaultused for storing remains during thewinter months when burials cannottake place.

Mt. Pleasant covers about 50acres and, according to Blodgett, isthe resting place to many locally fa-mous people.

“We have a good portion of the

Fairbanks family; the founder of St.Johnsbury, Jonathan Arnold; the ar-chitect who designed the Athenaeumand the North Church, LambertPackard.”

With so many notables it is nowonder Peggy Pearl, head of the St.Johnsbury Cemetery Association,has an annual Ghost Walk. Pearl isalso the head of the History and Her-itage Association and has a longstanding relationship with Mt. Pleas-ant. Her father was the previouscaretaker of the cemetery. Pearl likesto say, “I was raised in a cemetery.”

Pearl uses all of her historicalknowledge of the cemetery andthose who rest there to pick out inter-esting people for locals to act as dur-ing the Ghost Walk. Crowds walkthrough Mt. Pleasant to meet andtalk with the ʻghosts.ʼ

The cemetery is always openduring the day so even if you missthe Ghost Walk you can always stopjust to walk around. According toBlodgett, “people wander around thecemetery all of the time.”


A variety of gravestones dot Mt. Pleasant; marble, slate and granite.Some are old and weathered and some are painfully new.

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NewsINK Issue 8