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Mischief in the Mountains
s/t: Strange Tales of Vermont & Vermonters. From deep within the Green Mountains: 13 incredible true tales of mystery, criminality, hardship & humor from Vermont Life Magazine.
Prologue, L.G. Blochman
The man who wouldn't be bored, S. Greene & W. Hard, Jr
Where did the sailor die? R.N. Hill
Fall of the House of Hayden, L.A. Lamoreux
The deep frozen folk of Farmer Morse, W.S. Griswold
The sad fate of John O'Neil, G.G. Connelly
The vampire's heart, R. Stephens
Money, injustice & Bristol Bill, S. Greene
Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death, S.L. Vigilante
The Boorn mystery, R.S. Allen
The strange wedding of the Widow Ward, N.C. Stevenson & M. Hoyt
The money diggers, S. Green
Odd men out, L.C. Moore
Case of the rejected hero, A.H. Blackington
Epilogue, C.T. Morrisey
The writers
Further notes
Prologue, L.G. Blochman
The man who wouldn't be bored, S. Greene & W. Hard, Jr
Where did the sailor die? R.N. Hill
Fall of the House of Hayden, L.A. Lamoreux
The deep frozen folk of Farmer Morse, W.S. Griswold
The sad fate of John O'Neil, G.G. Connelly
The vampire's heart, R. Stephens
Money, injustice & Bristol Bill, S. Greene
Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death, S.L. Vigilante
The Boorn mystery, R.S. Allen
The strange wedding of the Widow Ward, N.C. Stevenson & M. Hoyt
The money diggers, S. Green
Odd men out, L.C. Moore
Case of the rejected hero, A.H. Blackington
Epilogue, C.T. Morrisey
The writers
Further notes
- GenresFiction
174 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
27 people want to read
About the author
Walter R. Hard Jr.
4 booksEditor of Vermont Life (1950-1972), Walter Hard Jr., defined and established the magazine as a nationally recognized voice for Vermont. He was the son of long-established Vermont poets Walter R. Hard and Margaret Hard.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 3, 2016
This is a nice idea for a book. Mischief in the Mountains (1971) is a set of mysterious or just odd historical stories about Vermont (where we live). These aren't horror stories necessarily, although several are nicely creepy. They are more... odd. Unusual, for a state that's normally hard-headed and not too interested in the fantastic.
For example, there's the famous story of a vampire in Woodstock, whose heart was exhumed and ritually destroyed. "The deep frozen folk of Farmer Morse" relates a legend about a local practice of putting old folks in suspended animation (by freezing them) at the start of winter, then reviving them (with warm water) come springtime. The authors are skeptical, but write with appreciation.
Some of the chapters are more folkloric or urban legend in flavor. "Where did the sailor die?" explores what seems now to have been a hoax, an artifact claiming to be from a European sailor who reached Vermont decades prior to Samuel de Champlain, the first non-native visitor, who arrived in 1609. "The money diggers" lays out a good buried treasure yarn... then finds copies and iterations of the tale in what it claims to be 10% of Vermont towns. "Fall of the House of Hayden" deliberately echoes Poe's Usher in its description of a family supposedly (and, if so, effectively) cursed, suffering and dwindling over generations. It's interesting to see these stories work as legends, hoaxes, patterns for other stories. In 2016 these feel like historical meme traces.
Several chapters in Mischief in the Mountains are very realistic, but have unusual outcomes. There's a Revolutionary War hero who traded fame for becoming a land speculator, yet ended up spending decades in prison over really insignificant causes (and maybe he enjoyed the experience). One tale concerns a New York state-based liquor seller, whom a Vermont town sentences to 75 years in prison during the temperance movement's heyday. The Russell Colvin case involved a confessed murderer sentenced to hang, when the supposedly dead man appeared in person. "Chester's gentleman burglar" begins with a string of fiendishly clever robberies, turns sideways when an even more fiendish trick reveals the robber to be the town's leading man, then ends up in the open wild with the possibility that the burglar faked his death and escaped (with the possibility of surviving a bad embalming process).
One story sheds light on the development of Vermont, and is possibly the scariest story of the lot. It concerns 1816, a year when summer was blotted out by winter-like levels of cold. Agriculture failed. Many animals died, and people barely survived on stores and fish. The latter is why it was sometimes called "Mackerel Summer"; others know it as the year "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death". Several summers before and after were weak, although not so bad. As a result many Vermonters fled the state for less dire areas, depopulating Vermont when the rest of the country saw rising population. Homesteading here on top of the Green Mountains has brought home to me just how horrific such an event would be.
"Odd men out" won me over, and is worth a star on its own. It's simply a collection of anecdotes about eccentric Vermonters, like the man who couldn't bear to touch anything someone else had touched, and therefore carried a pail full of money at the end of a stick when shopping. Another man hoarded his sheeps' wool so fiercely that the US government seized it all in 1918, for the war effort - but did pay him lavishly, and he had more wool stashed away. It's a fine chapter for lovers of eccentric folk.
There's a little conclusion to the book, presumably written by the editor, Walter Hard Jr., and it has some gems.
One page later is this dizzying glimpse into nearly Lovecraftian fantasy or horror:
Each chapter is authored by a different person, and styles therefore vary from the arch to the academic to journalistic.
There are many black and white illustrations by Jane Clark Brown, including the cover, which are very good: brooding, dark, often energized by force.
This is fun stuff, very rewarding for folks in New England. It may also be rewarding for people interested in folklore, or looking for story ideas.
For example, there's the famous story of a vampire in Woodstock, whose heart was exhumed and ritually destroyed. "The deep frozen folk of Farmer Morse" relates a legend about a local practice of putting old folks in suspended animation (by freezing them) at the start of winter, then reviving them (with warm water) come springtime. The authors are skeptical, but write with appreciation.
Some of the chapters are more folkloric or urban legend in flavor. "Where did the sailor die?" explores what seems now to have been a hoax, an artifact claiming to be from a European sailor who reached Vermont decades prior to Samuel de Champlain, the first non-native visitor, who arrived in 1609. "The money diggers" lays out a good buried treasure yarn... then finds copies and iterations of the tale in what it claims to be 10% of Vermont towns. "Fall of the House of Hayden" deliberately echoes Poe's Usher in its description of a family supposedly (and, if so, effectively) cursed, suffering and dwindling over generations. It's interesting to see these stories work as legends, hoaxes, patterns for other stories. In 2016 these feel like historical meme traces.
Several chapters in Mischief in the Mountains are very realistic, but have unusual outcomes. There's a Revolutionary War hero who traded fame for becoming a land speculator, yet ended up spending decades in prison over really insignificant causes (and maybe he enjoyed the experience). One tale concerns a New York state-based liquor seller, whom a Vermont town sentences to 75 years in prison during the temperance movement's heyday. The Russell Colvin case involved a confessed murderer sentenced to hang, when the supposedly dead man appeared in person. "Chester's gentleman burglar" begins with a string of fiendishly clever robberies, turns sideways when an even more fiendish trick reveals the robber to be the town's leading man, then ends up in the open wild with the possibility that the burglar faked his death and escaped (with the possibility of surviving a bad embalming process).
One story sheds light on the development of Vermont, and is possibly the scariest story of the lot. It concerns 1816, a year when summer was blotted out by winter-like levels of cold. Agriculture failed. Many animals died, and people barely survived on stores and fish. The latter is why it was sometimes called "Mackerel Summer"; others know it as the year "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death". Several summers before and after were weak, although not so bad. As a result many Vermonters fled the state for less dire areas, depopulating Vermont when the rest of the country saw rising population. Homesteading here on top of the Green Mountains has brought home to me just how horrific such an event would be.
"Odd men out" won me over, and is worth a star on its own. It's simply a collection of anecdotes about eccentric Vermonters, like the man who couldn't bear to touch anything someone else had touched, and therefore carried a pail full of money at the end of a stick when shopping. Another man hoarded his sheeps' wool so fiercely that the US government seized it all in 1918, for the war effort - but did pay him lavishly, and he had more wool stashed away. It's a fine chapter for lovers of eccentric folk.
There's a little conclusion to the book, presumably written by the editor, Walter Hard Jr., and it has some gems.
[T]here are Vermonters who refuse to disbelieve the human footprints found many years ago and still evident on the side of a rock ledge at the foot of Cranberry Meadow Pond in the town of Calais. (168)(One more source on this)
One page later is this dizzying glimpse into nearly Lovecraftian fantasy or horror:
Rowland Wells Robbins... has done xtensive research into the enigma of the many underground beehive structures which are prevalent in parts of New England, including Vermont, and which some believe were built by pre-Columbian Celtic monks. (169)Why Celtic? But awesome.
Each chapter is authored by a different person, and styles therefore vary from the arch to the academic to journalistic.
There are many black and white illustrations by Jane Clark Brown, including the cover, which are very good: brooding, dark, often energized by force.
This is fun stuff, very rewarding for folks in New England. It may also be rewarding for people interested in folklore, or looking for story ideas.
September 14, 2023
This is a collection of tales about extraordinary goings-on in the Green Mountain State. Written some time ago, with even more remote characters inhabiting the collection, it is unsurprising that little of import actually occurred in fact. Of interest to a quite limited audience.
September 6, 2018
At times a bit sry and boring, still this had fascinating spooky stories.
November 9, 2025
This is overall a fun collection of stories. Set in Vermont in the 19th and early 20th centuries, you get to learn a lot of the folklore and history in well-written, short stories
May 7, 2020
VT is cute, VT writers are cute, and this is a cute compilation of oldschool VT folk stories. Not super thrilling, but a good chill read.
September 14, 2011
When visiting Walter and Karen in Springfield, Vermont I'm often given reading suggestions. Books by Vermonters and about Vermont are favored.
October 28, 2014
Being a native Vermonter I couldn't help enjoy this book. It's something to read in an old creaky Vermont farmhouse in a comfy chair by a blazing fire place in the middle of winter.
February 14, 2016
I liked most of these. They were all true and dealt with a good bunch of Vermont history that I love to read about. I had to push through some of the tales though. Worth it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews