Autumn in New England Part II
October 29, 2023
Burlington, Vermont
After our trip to Rhode Island, we drove to our AirB&B in Colchester, Vermont, where we enjoyed an evening in Burlington: walking Lake Champlains's waterfront, checking out the shops like Burlington Flannel Co., and people watching while eating dinner (yummy pizza) outside, on Church Street. If you've ever been to Church Street you know why it's such a great place to take-in all the sites!
Waterbury, Vermont
Sheron, Vermont
Not far from Waterbury was Sharon, Vermont, the birth place of Joseph Smith, who was born in 1805, and was the fifth of Eleven children. I wasn't sure what we would find in Sharon since Joseph Smith only lived there a few months before his family moved, however, they stayed in the surrounding counties until their pivotal move in 1816, to Manchester, New York, near Palmyra. Joseph's parent's Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack were married in Tunbridge, Vermont. Joseph Senior's paternal line gos back to his 3rd great-grandfather Robert Smith from Lincolnshire, England who settled in Massachusetts colony during the Puritan migration. It's interesting to see the Puritan and New England influences on Joseph Smith.
Sharon is quite small, but not in beauty, and the Joseph Smith Memorial was no-less impressive! The tall trees lining the road were covered in lights in preparation for the Christmas Season, and the most colorful mums lined the slate walkways. Even though the Visitor Center was getting a facelift with copper accents, we browsed inside where information of Joseph's early life was displayed (along with bronze sculptures of Joseph). Across from the visitor center was a mission home that the full-time missionaries used for shelter. The monument was quite impressive at just over 50 feet high...a single polished granite shaft 38 1/2 feet high, one foot for each year of the Prophet’s life, and a base that contained a hidden copper time capsule. The total weight of the monument is almost 100 tons. You can imagine how difficult it would be to build such a massive structure so long ago, it was truly a "remarkable engineering feat"! The Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial was dedicated by Joseph F. Smith on the 100th anniversary of Joseph Smith's birth, December 23, 1905.
Stowe, Vermont
