Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller
National Historical Park
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller
National Historical Park
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is the only national park to focus on conservation history and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America. Opened in June 1998, Vermont's first national park preserves and interprets the historic Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller property in Woodstock, VT.
The Park is named for George Perkins Marsh, one of the nation's first global environmental thinkers, who grew up on the property, and for Frederick Billings, an early conservationist who established a progressive dairy farm and professionally managed forest on the former Marsh farm. Frederick Billings's granddaughter, Mary French Rockefeller, and her husband, conservationist Laurance S. Rockefeller, sustained Billings's mindful practices in forestry and farming on the property over the latter half of the 20th century. In 1983, they established the Billings Farm & Museum to continue the farm's working dairy and to interpret rural Vermont life and agricultural history. The Billings Farm & Museum is operated as a private nonprofit educational institution by The Woodstock Foundation, Inc.
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park was created in 1992, when the Rockefellers gifted the estate's residential and forest lands to the people of the United States. Today, the Park interprets the history of conservation with tours of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion and the surrounding 550-acre forest. The mansion contains an extensive art collection with American landscape paintings by such renowned artists as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, John Frederick Kensett, and Asher B. Durand. This collection illustrates the influence of art and artists on the developing conservation movement in the mid to late 1800's and changing popular perceptions of the environment. The adjoining forest has been actively managed for wood products, public recreation, aesthetics, education, and ecological values for more than a century, making it one of the oldest planned and continuously managed woodlands in America.
Working in partnership, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and the Billings Farm & Museum present historic and contemporary examples of conservation stewardship and explain the lives and contributions of George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Billings and his descendants, and Mary and Laurance S. Rockefeller.
From Boston and points East, take I-93 North to I-89 North. Follow I-89 through Lebanon, NH into Vermont; take Exit 1/Route 4 West through Quechee and Taftsville to Woodstock (10 miles from Exit 1).
From Burlington and points North, take I-89 South to Exit 1/Route 4 West and continue through Quechee and Taftsville to Woodstock (10 miles from Exit 1).
Programs/Activities: Visitors to Marsh-Billing-Rockefeller National Historical Park can explore an extensive network of carriage roads and trails through one of the nation's oldest continuously managed forests, established by Frederick Billings in the 1880s on the deforested flanks of Mount Tom. Guided tours and public programs are offered on the history of the forest and larger estate landscape with a special focus on conservation history and the stewardship of working landscapes and countryside. Hiking, nature study, and cross-country skiing are recreational activities available to forest visitors.
Guided tours of the 19th century Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion feature landscape paintings by Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt and Asher B. Durand, as well as artists and photographers who in their day helped to shape popular perceptions of the environment. Guided tours of the mansion's gardens and grounds traverse nearly a century of garden history and explore the influence of forest conservation on the Billings estate landscape. Guided tours of the Mount Tom forest follow historic carriage roads through some of the oldest planned forest stands in North America, tracing the early evolution of forest stewardship.
The Billings Farm & Museum is a museum of rural
Vermont life featuring a working dairy farm where visitors can learn about
the science of modern dairying, as well as the achievements of Frederick
Billings 19th century farm operation. Extensive farm life exhibits use
artifacts, oral histories, and photographs to depict the seasonal round of
activities that shaped the lives and culture of rural Vermonters. The 1890
Farm House, restored and furnished to its 19th century heydey, served as the
hub of the farm and forestry operation a century ago and features the farm
office, family living quarters, creamery, and ice house.
Address:
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller
National Historical Park
P. O. Box 178
54 Elm Street
Woodstock, VT 05091
Billings Farm & Museum
P.O. Box 489
River Road
Woodstock, VT 05091
Last Updated: Wednesday, 14-January-99
http://www.nps.gov/mabi/