(Host) Most people who visit Little River State Park come for boating or
swimming at the Waterbury Reservoir. But there’s also a lot of Vermont
history in the hills above the lake. Long-time Vermont journalist and
commentator Tom Slayton went there recently – with two families and a
park interpreter.
(Slayton) The trail up Hedgehog Hill in
Waterbury used to be a road – the road to Gideon Ricker’s farm. A
century ago, it climbed through open fields, but this evening we are
climbing through mature forest, filled with rustling trees and birdsong.
And this trail is steep! Leaving the campsites of Little River
State Park, it drives relentlessly uphill for about a mile. It’s hard to
imagine negotiating this steep climb in a horse-drawn wagon, but that’s
the way the Rickers – and the other farmers on this hill – got home a
century and more ago.
Gideon Ricker came to this hill in 1839
and gradually he and his family built up a farm of almost 300 acres.
Maple sugar – not syrup, sugar – was their main cash crop, and many
wagon loads of sugar went down this steep road to trade in Waterbury.
Four
generations of the family lived on this hill, and there were several
other farms as well. Today, the forest has reclaimed the hill, and all
that remains of the little community are cellar holes, stone walls, and
graveyards.
We are climbing up to visit one of those graveyards
this evening. Brian Aust, interpreter for Little River State Park, is
our guide, and he’s leading us on one of one of the State Park’s evening
programs – a "ghost walk."
It’s actually an introduction to the
place, the forest, and its rich history, with a couple of spooky
stories thrown in for good measure. But the two families who have joined
the evening hike are enjoying it. There are nine of us, counting Brian
and myself – five adults and four kids, and we’re all puffing and
panting as we climb.
It’s getting dusky as we reach the top of
the hill. We pass several stone walls and step down into the big cellar
hole where the Rickers’ farmhouse once was. Brian shows us photographs
of the place in its heyday, and in one portrait, a dozen members of the
family stand in their Sunday best clothes. At the center of the picture
is a tiny baby in a white dress: it’s a christening!
Then we
march on to the little cemetery where several Rickers, young and old,
are buried. In short order, our two accompanying families are nestled
together, seated amidst the tombstones of an earlier family, as Brian
reads them a couple of ghost stories from a book.
It’s all a
part of what this state park does. – in addition to providing campsites,
beaches and boating on Waterbury reservoir, the park keeps the hiking
trails open and maintains the remnants of the older community as a sort
of living museum and a way of honoring those earlier Vermonters.
It’s a nice mini-adventure. There may not be ghosts here, but there are plenty of memories. And for me, that’s good enough.