Waterbury Public Library May programs
May 11, 2022 | By Waterbury Roundabout Counterculture presentation at Friends’ annual tea
Sunday, May 15, 2 p.m.
For the first time since 2019, the Friends of the Waterbury Public Library hold their annual tea in person this Sunday in the Steele Community Room at the municipal complex.
The gathering will feature a presentation sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council titled “The Counterculture's Impact on Vermont and Vermont's Influence on the Counterculture Generation” with speaker and writer Yvonne Daley.
In the late 1960s and '70s, thousands of young migrants, largely from the cities and suburbs of New York and Massachusetts, turned their backs on the establishment and moved to rural Vermont, spawning a revolution that impacted the state's politics, agriculture, education, business practices, and culture. Daley has lived and written on the subject in her books “Going Up the Country” and “Octavia Boulevard.” She visits through the Vermont Humanities Council Speakers Bureau.
Beverages and snacks will be provided.
A view of the Waterbury Reservoir from Waterbury Center. Photo by Gordon Miller
Virtual Tour of the Waterbury Reservoir
Tuesday, May 17, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
The Waterbury Reservoir is a gem among state parks. Six and a half miles long from end-to-end covering 860 acres and surrounded by 37,000 acres of the Mount Mansfield State Forest. The Friends of the Waterbury Reservoir will present a virtual tour of this local natural resource with photos, videos, and narrative covering the history and geology of the area, the varied wildlife found in and around the water, recreational opportunities, and challenges for the future.
Learn how the reservoir was man made, created by the Civilian Conservation Corps with the construction of the Waterbury dam from 1935-1938. The area previously was a settlement of 50 or so families in the Ricker Basin and along Cotton Brook. Today the state-owned reservoir and surrounding parklands serve upwards of 67,000 visitors each year.
Formed in 1994, the friends group has worked to help protect the reservoir’s natural environment and facilitate the return of species including loons, eagles and herons to the area.
Spring food drive
May 23 - June 3: The library will collect food and household staples for the Waterbury Area Food Shelf. Some suggested items: toilet paper, ground coffee or K-cups, pasta sauce, cereal, snack bars, crackers, nuts, condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish). Drop donations at the library.
Working at a side camp in Stowe, members of the Waterbury CCC Company 191 during the winter of 1933-34 built the Bruce Trail on Mt. Mansfield. Photo courtesy Waterbury Public Library
Civilian Conservation Corps historian, author visits to share, collect stories
Wednesday, May 25, 6:30 p.m.
In the 1930s, approximately 30 Vermont towns including Waterbury hosted Civilian Conservation Corps camps launched in March 1933 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” to relieve the poverty and unemployment of the Depression.
Author, historian, and retired teacher Marty Podskoch visits for a presentation on the history of the CCC in Vermont.
CCC camps were run by the U.S. Army and were located in many Vermont towns, state parks and forests. Workers built trails, roads, campsites and dams. They stocked fish, built and maintained fire tower observer cabins and telephone lines, fought fires, and planted trees before disbanding in 1942 due to World War II.
Waterbury had two CCC camps. The first, established on June 9, 1933, was off North Main Street where Anderson Park is today. With approximately 200 members aged 18-25, the company did fire hazard reduction, forest stand improvement, gypsy moth and blister rust control, wildlife conservation and stream development projects. Members set up side camps to do forestry work at Camel's Hump, Mt. Philo, Allis State Park, South Fayston; in Stowe, they did ski projects on Mt. Mansfield.
A second camp established in June 1935 with World War I veterans built the earthen dam on Little River to help prevent flooding of the Winooski River.
A retired teacher from Delhi, New York, Podskoch is the author of 11 books and currently is gathering historical information to write about CCC camps in Vermont and Massachusetts. Anyone with CCC stories, photos, etc. is invited to attend the presentation or contact Podskoch at 860-267-2442 or podscoch@comcast.net.