BENNINGTON — It’s the tallest structure in Vermont, 100,000 tons of limestone towering 30 stories into the sky.
So why are more and more tourists focused instead on their cellphones?
Welcome to the Bennington Monument, a 306-foot testament to the American Revolution that’s fighting a growing swarm of 3½-inch touchscreens.
Back this month in 1777, local rebels defeated British troops seeking to raid the area’s military supply depot in a “Battle of Bennington” that actually unfolded a few miles northwest in Waloomsac, New York.
A century later, Bennington resident Hiland Hall — a former Vermont governor, Supreme Court justice and congressman — convinced the state to erect a memorial at the site of the Continental Army storehouse. Workers laid the cornerstone Aug. 16, 1887, and stacked block upon block — there’s no other internal framing — until reaching the capstone in 1889 and opening the result in 1891.
Spiral up the monument’s 417 steps and you’ll see New York state to the west, Massachusetts to the south and “everything else beautiful, gorgeous Vermont,” guide Don Facto says daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(Look down, just past the “Defacing Historic Property Is Felony Vandalism” sign, and you’ll spot “Mike & Gail” scrawled in now-dry cement.)
The addition of an elevator (Vermont’s tallest) around 1960 has made the trip to the top effortless. But take the minute-long flight and you’ll find many visitors, rather than peering out the tall, thin windows, instead are mulling over small screens and muttering why there isn’t a bigger range of signal bars.
“I would have liked it if it was more open,” said one cellphone user, convinced all the stone was crowding out better reception. “But obviously they don’t want anybody falling.”
The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation figures if you can’t beat them, join them. Log onto new websites such as benningtonbattlemonument.com and you’ll discover how the Battle of Bennington led the British to later lose the Battle of Saratoga — “a major turning point for the American Revolution.”
“The Battle of Bennington was of no small consequence,” adds historicsites.vermont.gov. “The mostly untrained Yankees had overwhelmingly defeated some of Europe’s best trained, disciplined and equipped troops.”
Touchscreeners can learn more on the “Vermont State Historic Sites” Facebook page.
“We encourage people to friend us,” says the division’s Tracy Martin.
Fans from around the world — as many as 50,000 a year — are also sharing their thoughts in the monument’s old-fashioned pen-and-paper guest book.
“We’ve had every state in the union represented this year,” says Facto, who can point to signatures from several continents, too.
The monument will commemorate Bennington Battle Day — officially Aug. 16, but since that’s a Sunday, state government offices will close Monday — with a “Battle Day 5K” running race Saturday at 10 a.m. (“starts and finishes with cannon fire,” organizers promise), followed by an all-day encampment by 5th Continental Regiment re-enactors.
Or visitors can unplug from it all and simply tap into the view from the top.
“So much better,” one concludes in the guest book, “than Google Earth.”
Kevin O’Connor, a former staffer of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, is a Brattleboro-based writer. Email: kevinoconnorvt@gmail.com
