True Tall Tales of Old Vermont

From the Chapter, The road rollerB or how not to deal with winter snow Getting from place to place in Vermont has always been a problem-- and it still is, at least for much of the year. When the snow falls in Vermont it=s not like down in Massachusetts. When the snow falls in Vermont, it stays put. Not only that, when the snow falls in Vermont, it keeps coming! Before long you've not only got snow, you've got plenty of it! And in Vermont you know that once you've got plenty snow, its going to be there, and its going to be there plenty long! The main post road between Brattleboro and Bennington, Vermont was rather heavily used by the local farmers and by many of the local mills and industries. Keeping the road open and clear of snow was a difficult job. Nowadays we've got fancy machines with powerful engines to help with the snow-- snowplows and snow blowers, and sanders and salters-- and we can put up quite a fight! In fact, nowadays for the most part in wintertime in Vermont you can actually get from place to place-- so long as those places are on one of the main roads. But when Fred was growing up, things were not so easy. When the snow fell it generally stayed there. Moving it off a road meant shovels, or horse power, or simple resignation! Horse drawn plows were slow and not very efficient. But the road needed to be kept open and people needed to get about. Horses can handle more snow than a man can, and horses could pull sleds loaded with goods-- but even horses move slow though heavy snow. Fred did not remember who came up with the idea, but one winter genius struck in southern Vermont . . . .