Category: History

Paula Welden disappears 79 years ago today

December 1, 1946, an 18-year-old college student named Paula Welden vanished while taking a hike on the Long Trail near Glastenbury Mountain. Welden had informed her roommate that she intended to go for a walk, but she never returned. The subsequent search involved hundreds of volunteers, including military personnel, but no concrete evidence was discovered.

Charles F. Orvis, Vermont’s angling visionary

Vermonters have always been an innovative breed, and yet most of the Green Mountain State’s iconic manufacturers built their companies elsewhere. Henry Wells, co-founder of both American Express and Wells Fargo, left Thetford for New York, as did Elisha Graves Otis of Halifax, founder of Otis Elevator. John Deere left Rutland for Moline, Illinois. One Vermonter, however, managed to achieve iconic status without leaving his hometown of Manchester.

Following Lafayette’s footsteps

The Lafayette Trail is an organization (Sponsored by the The William G. Pomeroy Foundation) that commemorates Lafayette’s grand tour. 2024 marked the 200th anniversary of his visit, and over the course of his return, he stopped by a number of locations in Vermont.

Dr. Oscar Peterson and the Vermont Civil Defense Division

Dr. Oscar S. Peterson Jr. believed that nuclear radiation played an important role in the future, in its capacity to extend the lives of his patients, as well as its ability to cause irreparable harm. His work specializing in radiation therapy at the University of Vermont led to an invitation to serve as Vermont’s Radiological Consultant to the Civil Defense Division of the Vermont Department of Public Safety.