WONDERFUL WOODSTOCK WELCOMES YOU

Surrounded by plump hills, the serene, riverside village of Woodstock brims with great things to see and do. Settled in the 1760s, Woodstock had become the Shire Town (Windsor County seat) by the time Vermont joined the Union in 1791, and grew during the first half of the 19th century into a bustling, prosperous, largely self-sufficient trading center that even boasted an important medical college. Its architectural showcase of fine Federal houses remains an oustanding attraction.

Still more cosmopolitan than most Vermont towns of its size (3,500), Woodstock bred an unusual number of illustrious public figures, including U.S.Senator Jacob Collamer, a confidante of President Lincoln’s; (Collamer coined the remark, “The good people of Woodstock have less incentive than others to yearn for heaven.”) George Perkins Marsh, U.S.congressman and veteran diplomat, wrote “Man and Nature,” which became the ecologists’ Bible after its publication in 1864. His conservation legacy, linked to that of Frederick Billings (1823-90), builder of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and to Laurance S. and Mary Billings French Rockefeller, is dramatically reflected in the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park (the first in Vermont) and its neighboring Billings Farm & Museum. Other community resources abound: The Norman Williams Public Library, the Dana House Museum of the Woodstock Historical Society, six churches, the Green Mountain Horse Association, and an active arts scene. You might also be interested in The Vermont Institute of Natural Science.

Visitors find top-drawer places to stay, notably the luxurious Woodstock Inn & Resort (golf, tennis, skiing, fitness center), and to shop, such as Gillingham’s, Morgan-Ballou, and a dozen gift, furniture, book, antique shops, art and crafts galleries.