The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-06-15
eATTELL FOREST LANDS
Mountain Park viii Be an Enduring
Benefit to the State

Mountain Park Will Be an Enduring
Benefit to the State
1t is seldom that the will of Yer
mont man has had as far reaching an
influence as that Of the late Col.
Joseph Battell of Middlebury For
many years he had been collecting
wild lands, much as school boy col
lects postage stamps, and like some
stamps collected only from senti-
ment, many of these tracts have be-
come very valuable owing to the
growing scarcity of timber. These
large holdings have now been divided
through gift and Request among Mid
dlebury College, the State of Yer
mont and the United States Govern
ment.
Some three or four years ago Col.
Battell gave to the State tract COM
prising about 1920 acres on Camel's
Hump, including the summit which
has an elevation of over 1000 feet.
The western slope of this mountain,
contained in the gift, is covered with
splendid spruce timber, and its pres
ervation by the State will assure the
continuance of the mountain as a
point of interest. Even now the
camp kept at the top by the Gamers
Hump Club of Waterbury, is annual
~ visited by fully 1000 people. The
eastern slope of the mountain, situat-
ed mostly in the town of Duxbury,
was badly burned over in 1903 short
ly after numbering. There is here
one of the largest tracts of waste
land in the state. Two years ago the
State Forestry Department planted
few acres of this brush land with
spruce and pine. The success Of the
experiment has been so encouraging
that the work has been continued
this year, and 10000 Norway spruce
have been planted on this area dur
ing the past few weeks. A crew Of
twenty-five men were camped about
half way up the mountain in tents
furnished by the State Militia. These
together with the trees had to be TAX
en- up by OK teams, as the wood roads
are too rough for horses. During the
summer man will be kept on the
mountain looking out for fires, i'm
proving the trail, etc.
That the lands left to Middlebury
College are also to be conserved is
we'll shown by the beginnings al
ready made by the Executors of the
Estate; Pres. John NJ. Thomas and
Mr.. Boyce In a large holding of 20
GOO acres there are naturally many
small openings unfit for agriculture.
With the advice of the State Fores-
try Department the Executors have
adopted the policy of reforestlng
such areas and have just completed
the planting of about $4,000 trees,
both pine and spruce, raised under
The direction of Prof. Lambert of
Middlebury College. Plans are also
under way for the better protection
OF the mountain lands from fire by.
the construction of telephone lines
and the employment of patrolmen in
cooperation with the State Forester,
The lands left by Col. Dattell to
the United States Government in
clude Lincoln Mountain, or Ellen
Mountain, as he called 1t because of
his admiration for Ellen's Isle in
Scotland. This is one of the finest
mountains of the State and one
which well deserves more visits
than 1t receives. The State Fores-
try Department will shortly make an
examination Of these lands at the re-
quest of the United States Forest
Service. A report will be made to
the Government as to the exact loca-
ton of the lands, the character of the
timber upon them, their accessibility
by roads, etc. Upon this report the
Government will probably base It's
policy Of management.