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Gilles and Carmen talk about all things Mount Mansfield Community. Special guests, community events.
Talk-of-the-town_Snowflake-Bentley_Part1_mixdown
[00:00:00] Welcome to Talk of the Town with Gilles and Carmen. We're your go to voices for everything happening right here in the heart of our community. That's right. From local news to the stories that matter to you, we're here to bring you the conversations that keep you informed and connected. Whether it's events, interviews with local leaders, or just those behind the scenes insights, we're bringing the pulse of the town straight to your ears.
So sit back, relax, and let's dive into what's happening around town today. You're in good company with Talk of the Town. Hello and welcome to Talk of the Town with Gilles and Carmen. I am Gilles. And I am Carmen. Yes, and today we are kicking off a special two part series as we dive into one of the most fascinating pieces of our local history.[00:01:00]
We're talking about Jericho's own snowflake Bentley. Yes, and so we spoke with Sue Richardson at the Jericho Historical Society, where the snowflake Bentley exhibit is, is, you know, located. And she talks a lot about him and, uh, his, just his history and how he takes Vermont and brings it to a new level of beauty with his snow crystal photography.
Um, and we have another piece of information that we'll let the podcast share with you about Sue herself. Yeah. Yeah. It's very exciting. It's very neat to have somebody of her. Lineage royalty with spoiled it.
But yeah, we're excited, um, to, to have got Sue Richardson to join us [00:02:00] and to talk about snowflake Bentley and just what the local treasure, I say he's a local treasure, but really he's a national treasure. We're just lucky to have them locally. Well, it's not even national. I mean, if you think about it, snow happens worldwide.
And he was the first to photograph, to, you know, photograph snowflakes. And so, um, he's a legend across the world and he is right from here in Jericho, Vermont. He is. So we've got some amazing stories and insights we want to share with you over these next two episodes about the history of Jericho and snowflake Bentley himself.
Yes. So we will start with, um, the snowflake Bentley. and his story. Thank you, Sue Richardson, for joining us today. My pleasure. We, uh, we know that you're from the Jericho Historical Society. [00:03:00] That's correct. And representing them along with Snowflake, the Snowflake Bentley exhibit. Yes. So thank you for joining us here.
It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Yeah, well, we're excited to have you and I can't wait to talk to you about the Historical Society and your connection to Snowflake Bentley. But we always have some, some silly questions that we start with to, uh, to let lighten the mood. Okay. And so our first question that we ask people is what is your most regrettable fashion choice?
I don't think I have any. I, I don't usually make fashion faux pas, so I can't, I can't particularly, uh, It would have to have been in the 80s. Okay. The big hair, polyester era. I remember those. Yeah, absolutely. My mom would make the polyester pants. Oh yeah. Bell bottoms. Oh yeah, that was a scary [00:04:00] decade for fashion.
Okay, that's cool. That's a good answer. It is. We haven't had that one yet on this, polyester. Um, alright, so if you could be in a movie, which one would it be? Huh, that's a good question.
I don't really know. Nothing that I've Particularly comes to mind, except maybe Gone With The Wind. That was pretty epic. That's one of my favorite, all time favorite movies, or Casablanca. I love the old movies. The classics. Classic. Oh yeah. Yeah, a lot of the stuff they're making today is just kinda out there.
Yep. I agree. I understand. Yep. I like the classics still. Yeah, so I'd want to you to be Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz or Scarlet in Gone with the Wind. I could see that. Yeah, I have red [00:05:00] shoes. I could make this work. Do you? I do. I like your fashion style.
So this next question is going to open up I think a can of worms for us. Because it's why we've got you here And most people after this it we can segue into why they're really here, but for you This is why you're here. We want to know what is the funny or the craziest thing that you've done and Just in talking to you.
I know that you've got a lot of wild stories probably repelling out of a helicopter On a rope Off the other side of a hovering helicopter. When I, I lived in Virginia for a number of years before coming back here to Vermont. And it, I did search and rescue with a group down there with the Airborne Air Mobile Unit.
So, I learned to rappel [00:06:00] on the Navy SEALs training tower at Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia. And then, uh, the first time rappelling out of a helicopter was definitely quite a, quite an adrenaline rush. Wow. That would scare me. I'm amazed, um, that's, that's pretty wild. I mean, you're pretty up there.
Yeah. Like how many? Usually a hundred feet, no more than a hundred feet or so. They're hovering at, we, we did mountain rescue and, and rough terrain rescues, um, along with. Urban searches, a little bit of everything. We're a pretty diverse unit, but propelling out of a helicopter onto the side of a mountain to rescue a hiker that's fallen down a ravine was definitely one of the The wildest experiences of my lifetime.
Wow. This wasn't just like one time. Hey, I'm going to one time. I'm going to jump up, rappel out of the side of a [00:07:00] helicopter. This was like a career choice. Well, it was a volunteer. Yeah. Even better. Yeah. Wow. I mean, that is even better because it takes courage for a volunteer to do risky things. Yeah, I mean really it's one thing to have a passion and do it for a work right another thing say yeah as a volunteer I'm gonna go risk my life Courage or crazy.
I'm not sure which I would say a healthy combination of both probably so Yeah, wow, that's amazing. It is And I don't know that that's crazy. Thank you for doing that because we need people like that to say yes Right. Um But it's crazy. Yeah, not everybody's signing up for that mission. No, no, not not too many.
It was awesome. It really was. It was it was an amazing experience working with that organization. Really cool. It's very cool. Yeah. [00:08:00] Not for me, but it's cool. You don't have a follow up to that one, do you? No, I'm trying to think, how do I segway? You're the one that mentioned segways, so what did you come up with?
What are we doing here? Well How is that segwaying? It segways because, I mean, that's only one of the crazy stories of who Sue is. And, uh, you know, just talking to her a little bit ago, she's telling us how all of her travels, and all of the places that she's been, and I was like Hit the record button, because it sounds like this is gold.
We'll put that in somewhere. Yeah, we'll definitely, but why don't you, because I know that that's maybe one of the craziest things, but it sounds like you've got some stories and, and you are Jericho royalty. Well, I've been told that I've been referred to that way a time or two, but I don't necessarily see it that way.
Well, when I saw your credentials, I was like, all right, yeah, this is, this is about as close to [00:09:00] royalties you're going to get here in Jericho. So then why don't you tell us then who you are, what's the connection and that's good right there. I guess. Okay. Um. My family has, on both my mother and father's side, have been in Jericho for seven generations, back to the late 1700s.
My most recognizable connection that I, um, has led me to here is that Snowflake Bentley, who many, many people all over the world know about, was my great, great uncle. And, um, That is how I connected to the Jericho Historical Society. My family's been involved with the Historical Society since its founding in 1972.
I think it was actually incorporated in 1971, but became active in 72. So my family has been involved with the Historical [00:10:00] Society for many, many years. And my fun retirement job is managing the old Red Mill craft shop, then the Snowflake Bentley exhibit in the mill. And it's, it's an awesome retirement job because I get to meet people from all over the world and continue the family legacy.
I mean, I'm already blown away and I haven't even started asking the questions. This is what we live for in Talk of the Town, is finding people, discovering who they are and the stories that come from them and sharing it with people. Oh, about this area specifically, um, but as you know, an old Vermonter, I love just Vermont stories.
So, yeah, Jericho is an amazing town. It really is. As I said, I grew up here on my grandparents dairy farm over on the, the other side of town about halfway between Barber Farm and Nashville [00:11:00] Road. My grandmother was Amy Bentley Hunt, who was Wilson Bentley, Snowflake Bentley's favorite niece. Growing up on the farm, my grandmother was also kind of the family historian.
She was very proud of her ancestry and, and particular, um, uncle Willie, as Wilson Bentley was referred to in the family. So I grew up surrounded by the cameras and the equipment that he used to photograph snowflakes. Snow crystals, to be more accurate. And by all her wonderful stories. But our farm was a gathering place for the family, too.
And, uh, so I just developed a very deep appreciation for older people, and their stories, and just the history of this town. I remember when that road, what they call Brown's Trace now, at the time it was called Richmond Road when I was a kid, I remember when that wasn't even paved. I [00:12:00] remember the year they paved that.
That summer, I think it was, it was either 61 or 62. I remember them paving that road that summer. The things we remember. Yeah. But Jericho is just a remarkable town, and in those days, everybody knew everybody. It was all family dairy farms. You had the three villages, Jericho Center, Jericho Corners, and Riverside.
But everything else was family dairy farms, and everybody knew everybody. And got along, and and growing up in a farm family, you really saw that neighbor helping neighbor. If, if a farmer got hurt or was sick, the others would pitch in whether it was milking the cows, hay, helping get in the hay, whatever it needed to be, just everybody supported everybody.
And it was a wonderful place to grow up. So you, you mentioned that you're, um, Preserving the grist mill. Mm hmm. What, what is the historical connection [00:13:00] does that serve for Jericho? Well, that, the Chittenden Mill, the old red mill as it's known, um, dates back to some pretty early times in this town. That site originally, about 1815, there was a building there that housed a small grist mill.
It became, it was a starch mill. It was a cabinet shop under different owners and different evolutions throughout the years. And then in the mid 1850s, a fellow by the name of Hutchinson, uh, who was from Jericho, had gone west and made his fortune in the California gold rush. The story is that he didn't find gold.
He sold, sold horses and mules to the miners. He worked smarter, not harder. Um, but he came back to Jericho and he bought that and he turned it into a pretty large gristmill operation. using the big grinding stones. And, and not only did he do custom millwork for local farmers, he also imported corn and wheat from the Midwest [00:14:00] by rail.
And so it was quite a large operation for the time here in Jericho. And then in the mid 1850s, I'm sorry, mid 1880s, Um, a fellow named Lucian Howe owned it and his son Frank joined him in the business and they decided to expand it because at that, up until that point, the building was only two stories high, stone, and basically what's now the, the ground level was the top story on that building.
So they decided to modernize using the newest technology of the day, which was called roller mills. And the understanding is that this was the first mill in New England to incorporate this type of technology. But in order to do it, they had to do some major changes. They had to add, expand the mill. They added the upper stories, added onto the back, and there's no way that a water wheel could power that kind of [00:15:00] equipment.
So they had to install four turbines in the wheelhouse, and blast. using dynamite to deepen the river channel and dynamite was pretty new in 1885. So they brought up an expert from Massachusetts to deepen the channel so there'd be a bigger drop, a bigger head of water coming over to power this equipment.
So it was a, it's a fascinating story, the construction methods that they used. But this mill has been a part of this town for a very, very long time. The Browns River has seven There were seven mill sites on that river. And this was site number two. And it was a, it was a huge operation. It really was for a town of this size.
Um, there were sawmills, there was a fabric, I think a fabric mill down below or a woolen mill. And there was um, a cabinet shop, furniture shop. And [00:16:00] another one that made wooden pumps and water pipe. Um, A lot of these were owned by the, um, by the Field family who were also my ancestors on my dad's side of the family.
Um, they owned, I think four of the seven water privileges on the Browns River at the time. Um, but the, the old red mill is the one that's still standing. And, uh, it's so well known. It operated, um, as a grist mill until 1904. Um, at which time it was sold and it eventually became a feed mill, grinding feed for cows and horses, which by that time agriculture had evolved from sheep farming, which it was in the early years, to dairy and of course we were still kind of pre mechanized era so people were still using horses.
So this was a feed mill grinding feed for horses and cattle [00:17:00] and operated that way until after World War II. And that's when it shut down, but it's such an amazing structure. You, it's one of the most photographed landmarks in New England. People have literally come from all over the country and all over the world to photograph this mill because it's such a unique, uh, structure.
I remember in 1987, I was out on the West coast, uh, with my oldest brother and we were in a truck stop. Huge truck stop out there and you know, that's back when they had racks of postcards. They were postcards of the old red mill at a truck stop in Oregon. It was just, it was such a beautiful structure.
It's on the town seal. And it's been a part, kind of the gateway to Jericho for a very, very long time. So what happened after it shut down? You know, like when the, the. Right, they were making feed for the horses and [00:18:00] cows and it closed. Right. What happened in between there and I'm leading up to then how did the Jericho Historical Society get started?
It was sold and the folks that owned it at that time, uh, George White and Floyd White, um, built a service station. Where the, the beverage store, the, the little convenience store is now, they built a service station there. It was actually a Lincoln dealership for a couple of years, and then a service station, and they operated that until 1954 when Alonzo Bennett, known as, he was known as Skip, bought the property, and he had a, he, uh, bought the, the mill, the millhouse, and, and that And he had a business partner in the service station, Harold Rose, who lived over in Jericho Center.
And they used the mill as a welding shop, [00:19:00] body shop, paint shop for their service, their auto repair business. And I can remember being in that building when I was four years old. And if you've been in the mill in recent years, it's really pretty. And it's all nice and clean and painted white inside. And it certainly wasn't when it was a body shop and welding shop.
My tricycle seat broke when I was a little kid. I, like I said, I was four, they were a steel post with a metal seat. And my brother who was a year older, his had broken a wall before. So my grandfather took them and dropped them off to get them welded. And when he went back to pick him up, my brother and I went along and he made us go in to get him.
And I can remember my little four year old self walking in through the double doors into this huge, dark, cavernous space. And I think I just watched The Wizard of Oz and it's like, where's the flying monkeys? [00:20:00] But I can remember standing there and looking around this space. Whoa! But that was, uh, a very long time ago, over 60 years ago, but, you know, that has just been a part of this town for so very long.
Like I said, it's on the town seal, it's just, it's the gateway to this town, it's what people see when they're coming into town on Route 15 from Essex, and it's just so well known, it's literally, we get visitors literally from all over the world. A lot of them do come to see the snowflake Bentley exhibit, but a lot of people come to see the mill itself because it's such a beautiful structure.
And that's where the historical society came into being when Harold and Skip decided to retire. The folks in town were concerned what was going to happen to the [00:21:00] mill, to their beloved old red mill. So the town bought it. And that's when the Historical Society formed with the mission of preserving and conserving this old mill.
And initially they raised money, uh, Blair Williams was the founder of the Historical Society. Blair was an extraordinary woman, she really was. Um, she was a teacher, a professor at UVM. But she had just an energy and a passion, when she took on a project, you know it was going to get done. And Blair started the Historical Society.
She did the work herself. She knew how to recruit people, how to raise money, and once the Historical Society proved that they could do this, that they could restore and preserve this mill, the town signed it over to the Historical Society. And that continues to be the mission of the Historical Society, is the preservation of this extraordinary town.
piece of our history.[00:22:00]
Now, you mentioned buildings. Mm hmm. Okay, you mentioned a house, the mill, the store up front, whatever roles they played. Mm hmm. What is now part of that? Because there's a really unique house there. Yeah. And there's also like a building across the street that's at a lower level behind the house. So what is all part of that now?
Or like, yeah, what is, what's happening now with the property? Okay. Um, the, the beverage store, the little store, which is where Chittenden Mills service station used to sit, that it was, was sold. That was sold by, um, Skip Bennett. And when he decided to move out of Jericho in the late 1970s, the mill house.
Which is that beautiful house. It's right [00:23:00] across the driveway. It's a one of the last examples of carpenter gothic architecture here in this area The Historical Society bought it from him and That house was built in 1859 By the owner of the mill and that's where the owner lived all those years the owner the various owners As the mill was, went through many changes of ownership over the years, that was where the owner lived.
And the last resident during the mill operation was Ken Buxton, who was the last head miller there at the, at the, uh, mill before it shut down. So, the Historical Society owns the mill house. There. back together and the little building that is across the parking lot down behind the millhouse which just was a garage of some sort and that's been [00:24:00] converted there's a small office that we we rent out but that houses the the archives of the historical society and then on the hill just behind the millhouse is a barn garage which was actually an old ice house and that serves as a as a barn and storage So all of that property and the property out behind along the river belongs to the Historical Society.
Some years ago we also made an arrangement with the, um, Winooski Valley Parks District. So there's a walking trail about a mile out there along the river, and that's maintained by the Park District. So, that brings a lot of people, they go out and walk their dogs, they just go out. It's a beautiful walk out through there along the river, and there's a bench overlooking the river.
Yeah, it is. I've been up. Have you been hiking there? And it's, the water level out there, people are always, on hot days, that, there's people in the river. They go out there with their, their folding chairs and park them right [00:25:00] in the river and sit there, because, so on, on busy, on hot days, it's kind of hard to get, even get near there.
Yeah. But it's a wonderful property there, and, uh So who lives in the house? I mean It's been divided into two apartments, an upstairs and downstairs, about 30 years ago. Um, so, and it's rented. And the income, the rent, rental income from that helps pay for the maintenance of the house. Because that is, you know, part of the property that, that the historical society, of course, has to maintain.
And that's an old house, so that takes a lot of maintenance and a lot of expense to maintain as well. So would you say that's why the historical society bought it? Is because it is like the last Gothic and it's part of history? It's part of the mill history. that. Yeah. But not necessarily to make money to help with the society.
Right, no, it's uh, whatever revenue we, that's generated from rental on that goes right back into the, to the preservation [00:26:00] of that house. We, um. We'd also had, we'd for many years had an issue with water in the basement, and the lower level apartment wasn't really good for living because of the, the dampness, so two years ago, we um, decided we needed to do something about the basement, and the, the, the supports were basic, the lolly columns were rusted out, so we brought in um, The all things basement guys there and they did a, uh, replaced all the, the supports, the jacks, uh, they put in a jack system, uh, drainage system and, and sump pump and all of the, everything that needed to be done so that we now have a dry basement.
Uh, and that was almost 30, 000. And so there's a, and there's always, the house needs to be painted, there's some work that needs to be done exterior and there's. With any older building, there's always maintenance [00:27:00] costs. Yeah. I don't think there's any homeowner right now that's like wondering what you're doing with the money.
Right, . Yeah. Especially if you own an older house. 150 year old house. Yeah. Yeah. So do you have to, at times, raise money to help take care of the house? Um, it comes if it, if we don't have enough from the rental and then it comes out of our general operating budget. Yeah. We haven't done any specific fundraisers for the millhouse.
Is that the only property that the Jericho Historical Society oversees? Yeah. The, the mill, the millhouse and the archive building. Yep. That's it. And you say people come from all over the world to go see that site. Yeah. What else would you say that they should do while they're in Jericho? Is there anything else from the historical society that they should see or do?
Um, not necessarily [00:28:00] because the, the town offices, of course, that's a historic building, the community center in Jericho center. That was the old high school, the library in Jericho center on the backside of the park. That was the old academy. That was a school. Many, many years ago. And it used to sit right on the corner.
As that building's actually been moved from its original location to behind the park there, uh, and maintained as a library. But there's just so much to see and do here in Vermont. Um, we always, uh, have visitors that come down from, from Canada and from again, all over the world, but there's not really, um, Um, a lot as far as historic sites.
In Jericho other than the mill, there's a lot of history here, but not that are historic sites. As far as from a perspective of visitors. We send people to the, she through the round church in Richmond, the Shelburn Museum, if they're looking for covered bridges, there's one here [00:29:00] in Underhill and a lot of 'em are all over the state.
Um, so there's lots of things for people to see and do. The Ethan Allen homestead, but for in Jericho, um, the, the mill is the historic site. Yeah, and we do send people up to drink so they can drive by the Bentley house Yes, people always want to know where that is, too. Well, there you go. There's another site.
We got the in on that And we went don't buy it. I mean, it's amazing. It's a beautiful. It is beautiful and then you see little Snowflake on the top in the peak. That's just the stamp of a stamp. So where's this Nashville Road? It's, uh, two miles, when you turn on to Nashville Road off of, off of Brown's Trace, it's two miles up on the right hand side, and there's this, that big triangular window in the peak, and that snuff lake that's up there has been there since at least the 1920s.
And that was put up there when Willie was still alive by his [00:30:00] nephew, Albrecht. Yeah, I know when we drove by and looked at it and tried to put ourselves back in the day, it was like, it's too bad that you couldn't buy the house and turn it into its own museum. Yeah. So it's, I, cause apparently it's still just, well, not just, but it's, it's owned privately.
That's correct. Once, when he, after Willie passed away in 1931, um, his eldest nephew Alrick had been working on the, sharing the farm with him, and it was just too much for him to handle on his own, so the house was, the farm was sold out of the family, and for many years, uh, Jericho artist Diane Schulenberger owned that, that house, and she had her studio So, uh, yeah.
Um, in the area where Willie actually worked, and she sold it, I think, coming up on three years [00:31:00] ago, I believe, um, but it's, it's on the National Historic Register, just like the mill is, and it's just a beautiful, beautiful old property.
I think now's a good time to talk about the actual, the Snowflake Bentley, and, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, just one, one thing I'd like to add, though, about the mill and the, excuse me, the historical society and the mill. Um, four and a half years ago, during, on Halloween, there was a, a pretty major storm here and a lot of people are aware that, that the riverbank right there in front of the mill was washed out.
And we get a lot of questions, a lot of people that come in. Are looking for an answer about what happened. What's going on with this? Why hasn't this been repaired? And I just want to you know [00:32:00] Address that because it is a question that comes up a lot the Initial Project because it's a riverbank. We don't have control over it Jericho Historical Society has no control over the riverbank restoration itself the town You Um, is the point on that and there was federal funding and all of this because it was a disaster declaration and grant funding to repair that project.
But what happened was when they, when they initially put it out for bid, there were no bidders. Everybody was afraid of it because the washout goes right up to the retaining wall around the, at the foundation. So the project was redesigned, redeveloped, um, and there was one bid. And it was ECI working with, um, uh, another company, Dubois and King were involved with that a little bit too, but it's ECI primarily.[00:33:00]
And when they came in to start the restoration project, what they did not realize for some reason was that there was a, there's a crack in the foundation of the mill that's been there for decades. Because when the mill was expanded back in the mid 1880s, there was a crack in the foundation. There was a doorway made in that stone foundation, probably to get the, the equipment into that lower level that they needed.
And it was never properly supported. So this crack developed over the decades. And um, so they, they weren't able to do the restoration because the vibration would have worsened the crack or possibly sent the corner of the mill into the river. So they, they brought in a geologist, engineer. Who, um, had a theory on, on, felt one of the, the main things that needed to happen was to remove five large boulders that over the years had fallen [00:34:00] down into the channel and were backing up the water and raising the water level.
So they brought in a crane three years ago, I want to say, and removed a couple of them. And then the crane was needed elsewhere, so it left. And then last year, the week, the day after Christmas, I pulled into the parking lot and there was a crane in the parking lot. Huge crane! And they were going to try to move the remaining boulders, and of course it rained the entire week after Christmas.
So that couldn't happen, so they left again. And I'm not sure when they're coming back, but it's been an ongoing Struggle because there's been so many floods and disasters here in Vermont that this equipment is just tied up on more Essential Things so they haven't been able to get back here and we're currently um The historical society is currently working with preservation trust of vermont.
We reached out [00:35:00] to them about a year and a half ago Because we wanted a really a, a detailed top to bottom assessment of the building because we wanted to know what projects needed to take priority. We know we need to, at some point we're going to have to paint the mill again. Uh, we wanted to know how the roof was doing and, and the windows and all these different things.
Things that are just part of maintaining a building of this age, um, so they connected us with a, um, one of the best known preservationists, historic preservationists here in this part of the country, who did a full assessment for us, and, and of course, the foundation was found to be the thing that has to be addressed.
So we're kind of taking that, trying to take that off the plate of the town and deal with that issue ourselves. So we're working with an engineer whose specialty area is exactly this kind of construction. So, and then Preservation Trust is going to be helping us with grants [00:36:00] and grant funding to be able to do that part of the project ourselves.
We're basically, um, um, going to take that off the plate because the town's got a lot on their plate to begin with. So if we can do this, that will, once that's done, then they will be able to come in and complete that restoration. But it's been an ongoing process. It'll be five years, Halloween. And it's been an incredibly frustrating for the historical society because we've not had really any, the, any control over that piece of it.
But we also understand why it's taking so long, because as I said, with the floods and all the road washouts and all of the things, That have gone on all over the last couple of years, trying to get the crane out there to do that piece of it so they can even move forward is, has been incredibly challenging, but, uh, so we're working with the town as we have, you know, the town and the, and the historical society work hand in hand on a lot of these [00:37:00] types of situations, but, um, so we're, uh, for anybody who's wondering why the, Shrubbery has grown up, you know, the weeds have grown up because the riverbank isn't stable.
We can't get there to cut all of that stuff down, but we are working on it. We are making some progress. We're heading in the right direction, but it's a huge ongoing project. Well, that's it. You heard it here first, right? That's a talk of the town exclusive. It's like right in there. And that's, it's, um, , a lot of time we don't think of these things, you know?
Yeah. When we, when we, um, learn about the town and just what it takes to. Keep some things running or keep it so we can have pleasure You know when your kids they just they think that there's a fairy that comes behind them and cleans up their toys and their mess Right their socks and all that. So in my mind, there's a mill [00:38:00] fairy That just takes care of the, I go by, I see it, it's there, it doesn't take money, it's just there.
It's there, and the mill fairy cleans up and takes care of it, and right, yeah. Yeah, and it's, the reality, the harsh reality is fairies don't exist. Money doesn't grow on trees. And that's my, my pronouncement for the day.
Welcome back. Welcome back. Now, wasn't that exciting? Oh man, that was such a fun conversation. It was. I was constantly fascinated. Yeah, what a remarkable figure. It's not like Bentley was. Yeah, it's um, I'm just amazed at how the sacrifice he did, you know, he was constantly sacrificing the cold with the cold weather and uh, [00:39:00] you know, getting out there.
There was a lot of sacrifice in his story. There was his legacy. It lives on and his passion. He put Jericho on the map, right? He did. Every third grader knows about him. But just think if you didn't have a passion about something, how it doesn't carry on. His passion just led him. He couldn't help himself.
And he just had to find out and it led to bigger things. And then it led to what we know today, which is amazing. So curiosity doesn't always kill cats. Right. Sometimes it discovers snow crystals. Right. And they are beautiful. They sure are. So we'll find show notes. Of how to get [00:40:00] to the Jericho Historical Society to view the exhibit and, uh, and the artifacts that belong to him and the wonderful pictures that he's taken.
So check the show notes. And if we were interested in hearing what you have to say about Snowflake Bentley and anything related, you know, if you happen to know some of the family or. If what impact it had with you on you, and if you learned it in school, whatnot, whatever, um, let us know, email us at talk of the town VT podcast, uh, at gmail.
com, or you can call us and leave a message eight zero two eight five, eight, five, five, three, four. Yeah. So once again, thank you, Sue, for joining us and thank you guys for listening, everyone, we hope you enjoyed this episode of talk to the town. We can't wait to come back with more stories and to [00:41:00] continue this conversation until next time.
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