Roadside Vermont: Episode 2

Episode 2: “Barre, By God” In 1793 a town meeting was held in Wildersburg, Vermont. The only item on the agenda was renaming the young frontier town. Wildersburg was a mouthful. Two passionate contenders offered up the names of their home towns back in Massachusets—but neither would concede to the other. Victory in a brawl gave one of the men the right to name Barre, well, Barre. Librarian and community historian Paul Heller shares this curious incident. 

Series Description: Roadside Vermont is a podcast series about the historical monuments, markers, and plaques that are all too easy to drive by and never stop to read. In each episode host Kelby Greene travels to the far corners of Vermont to talk to local storytellers, historians, and community stewards about the quirky, quizzical, and surprising events of the history hidden down the dirt roads and rural highways of the Green Mountain state. From vampires to missile silos, to pencil mills and famed fiddlers, this season will span all fourteen counties of Vermont. This season is supported in part by a grant from Vermont Humanities, in partnership with the Vermont 250s Commission and Junction arts and Media—JAM. Special thanks to story editor Sophie Crane. 

Bio: Kelby Greene (she/her) is a Norwich, Vermont based journalist and independent radio producer. Her work is about explaining the present through the past—looking for the precedents to seemingly unprecedented times. Rooted in a passion for rural places and their unique histories, she hopes to tell stories worth talking about: in the car, over dinner, and passing by the state's hundreds of roadside markers.