Day 8

Day 8- We all decided that today would be laundry day. So we headed to a town that we hadn’t been to yet, Littleton. It was settled in 1784 right beside the Ammonoosuc River. The first settlers that came to the area had their first house burned to the grown by Indians and then their second washed away in the spring due to floods. Being resolute about settling the area, the third one was built on higher ground and Littleton’s first residents were now permanently stationed. It wasn’t until 1853 when the train came to town after making an agreement with a local business man that a hotel would be constructed to draw tourists. After that, Littleton became big in all areas of industry with the biggest being the Kilburn Brothers Steroscopic View company which pushed out over 3,000,000 views a year at its peak. An interesting fact about the town is that one house, The Carleton House, was one of the last houses in the United States that housed runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad. It was a nice town that had a very busy main street back then and even now. The best thing about Littleton for me was that it had a functioning laundry mat and my clothes were clean and dry!

After our laundry, we headed across the border in to Vermont to learn about their claim to fame, maple syrup. We learned all about how it was harvested and made through a relatively simple process. In the spring, farmers drill 7/16” holes or smaller into the sugar maple. A tin bucket is then hung beneath the hole and the sap drips into the bucket until it is full. The farmers then collect it and boil off all the water in the sap. What is left is a viscous liquid known as maple syrup.