Many Hands

Last week a group of teenagers from the Burlington area started their summer vacation by getting dirty. The church-organized peace collective Ripple officially started the pre-building stage of our project. We not only laid out the building's foot print with lines and stakes, but saw to one of the most important responsibilities of the project.



The Ethan Allen Homestead and much of the Intervale was once the site of a Native American community where, not surprisingly, they were farming and building. Because the land is protected by the Historic Conservation Act we needed to find a consultant who could provide evidence that the project would not be in violation of the recommendations made in the HCA.



Vermont State Archeologist Scott Dillon volunteered his time and expertise to our undertaking. He screened and cataloged two test pits - each hand dug with a square shovel twenty-centimeters deep, and concluded that we would not disturb any historically-significant previously occupied lands.




His time and sweat was a significant gift - a service which would have doubled the cost of our project had a consultant been compensated for the same analysis.



Why haven't you helped?