The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-05-21
VERMONT AS A SUMMER
RESORT.

Robert 7. Lincoln, of Chicago, son
of Abraham Lincoln, and president of
the Pullman Gar Co., is at Manches-
ter arranging for the building of
residence ON the estate recently pur-
chased by him. This is good news,
for it gives the assurance that the
charms of Vermont as place of
summer residence are appealing m ore
and more to the residents of other
States. A good beginning has already
been made and announcements like
the above are more frequent than
they were few years ago, but as the
movement goes on it will ever in
crease until the Green Mountain State
is the summer playground for almost
countless thousands from the great
cities.
This will come whether Vermont
concerns itself in the matter or not.
1t is in the natural order of things that
it should be so. The State is already
fairly surrounded with land of sum-
mer resorts and country homes of city
people. On the west is the Cham
plain and the Adirondack region in
New York; on the east is New
Hampshire, whose lakes and noun
tains are magnets which draw to the
State the tired thousands from Boston,
New York and even from cities much
further away, and with them come
millions of dollars; on the south is
Massachusetts with her Berkshire
hills dotted with the palatial summer
homes of millionaires, artists, literary
workers, and others who during the
winter months are tied down to city
life. Even along the northern border
of the State the same movement is
extending and the St. Lawrence and
Canadian lake regions are annually
reaping rich rewards from the Ameri-
can summer visitor. For some reason
or other Vermont has not Jared so
we'll in this regard in the past, but of
late there has been movement in
ward from this great summer resort
circle which slowly but surely is
sweeping over the borders of the
State. And there is no reason why
this should not be so and why it
should not continue until the State
becomes as famous in this regard as
is the region around it.
1t must be confessed that in the past
it has been discouraging to see this
great army of summer people sur
rounding the Green Mountain State,
and comparatively few of its members
venturing into the heart of the circle,
but the signs are surely fairer now
and brighter day is dawning.
Perhaps it is better on the whole
that this condition is coming more
slowly than it did in the other States
for any sudden boom of this sort is
quite likely to prove more or less of
fad and fads are short lived. What
ever of this prosperity has come to
Vermont has come without being
urged, which is sure indication that
it is here to stay, and that is what
Vermont wants. Many Vermonters
will remember the mineral springs
boom which came to the State in the
sixties and seventies; how hotels
came into existence with the rapidity
of mushrooms and how Uhrongs of
people came from every part of the
country and even from Europe to test
the healing qualities of the waters
AT that time several Vermont towns
gave promise of becoming veritable
Saratogas, but it was soon found that
the waters didn't heal, then the fad
died and the boom collapsed, and to
this day some of the "spring houses
may be found here and there, standing
as grim monuments to a light that
failed.
There is none of this in the new
movement however. Those who come
to Vermont today do not come TO
drink OF the waters Of health which
have ever proved failure, but they
come to breathe the pure air and
drink in the unsurpassed charms of
the hills and valleys-things that
never fail. The new summer visitors
do not come to find health, but rather
they come to revel in the health and
spirits that are already theirs, and
because this is SO they will continue
to come in ever increasing numbers
until Vermont will reap rich reward
as prize for the natural beauties
with which nature has endowed her.