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100 Years in a Box!
The goal of 100 Years in a Box is to commemorate the Vermont Forest Centennial by providing an opportunity to learn more about Vermont State Forests through letterboxing.
Letterboxing combines navigational skills with treasure-hunting. The letterboxing activities provided here will help you and your family and friends learn about the history, industry, management, and natural and human resources that are a part of our Vermont State Forests.
100 Years in a Box was designed to be enjoyed by people of all age groups and provides a variety of adventures to suit many experience levels. You may learn why forests are among our most complex, varied and resilient ecosystems, or discover how forests are subject to competing demands. You may find out how forests can be used without compromising their integrity or what forest practices enhance and maintain wildlife habitat.
Get into the forest, follow the clues, and unravel some of Vermont’s many woodland mysteries!
Letterboxes will be available from May 1 - November 1.
State Forests with Letterboxing
About Letterboxing
Letterboxing involves seeking out hidden letterboxes by following clues. Each letterbox in the 100 Years in a Box program contains a unique rubber stamp and a logbook. When you discover the letterbox, stamp your personal stamp page or journal with the rubber stamp you’ll find inside. Sign your name or stamp the enclosed logbook with your own rubber “signature” stamp. Add a note or a sketch if you’d like. Don’t forget to carefully hide the box again in the exact place you found it.
Is letterboxing new to you? All you need to get started is a clue. Signature stamps and logbooks add to the fun, but you don’t need to have them to go out and enjoy the thrill of finding a letterbox.
Most of the letterboxing sites included here involve at least a short walk, but others can be reached by car.
Letterboxes are checked regularly to make sure that they are intact and that they contain the rubber stamp, stamp pad and logbook. If you have questions about a particular letterbox, please contact us at 786-3853.
What to Bring
- Letterbox site description and clues
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- Stamp page, field journal, or notebook
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- Field guides and hand lenses
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- Your own personally-designed stamp if you so desire
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Vermont's Forests
The Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation is proud to celebrate its first 100 years supporting Vermonters in their stewardship of the State’s forests. Forests provide wood and other forest products, watershed protection, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, a setting for recreation, and much more. They have played a major role in the history and culture of the State of Vermont. Forests dominate Vermont’s landscape, covering 4.6 million acres or 78.2 percent of the State.
The initial clearing of these woodlands was slow as most colonists established small subsistence farms. Forest clearing became widespread around 1800 as Vermont’s farmers began supplying food and wool to a rapidly growing nation. The thousands of small farms created a strong agriculture-based economy.
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By 1880, only about a third of Vermont remained forested. As early as 1845, George Perkins Marsh warned Vermont farmers about the damage that results from clearing forests.
Eventually, those who once assumed that the State’s forest resource was unlimited were faced with timber shortages. Soil erosion from farm land increased and silt now muddied creeks that once ran clear. And because of the rapid runoff of storm water, springs that previously flowed year round were dry during the summer. As Vermont’s forests diminished, so did once abundant populations of important species of wildlife, for example, the beaver, black bear, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and wolf. |
During the Industrial Revolution, much of the cleared land in Vermont became unsuitable for continuous agricultural crops and was abandoned as farmers left marginal hillside farms. Through the years, trees become established and what were “old fields” reverted to forest land. The opening of the West following the Civil War hastened the pace of farm abandonment across New England. The consequent decline in farming allowed much of the State to revert to forests. The amount of forested acreage in Vermont has doubled since 1880; the sturdy stone walls one finds throughout the State’s woodlands are reminders of the decline in farm acreage that continues today.
Resources for More Adventures
Other Vermont Forestry Centennial Events
Visit Vermont Forestry’s Centennial Homepage to find out about more Centennial Contests and the Forestry Centennial Calendar of Events.
Venture Vermont Outdoor Challenge
Participate in the Vermont State Parks Venture Vermont Program. Points are awarded for doing fun things like playing games, paddling on a lake, playing Frisbee with your friends, attending nature programs, and even letterboxing. If you earn 250 points, you will be awarded a Silver VIP Pass to Vermont State Parks. With it you can come back to Vermont State Parks for the rest of this year and all of next year for free day entry.
Vermont State Parks Summer Calendar
Everything from raptor encounters to a hot air balloon festival are on the State Parks agenda.
More Letterboxing
If the letterboxing bug has bitten you, consider participating in more letterboxing opportunities through the Letterboxing in North America program. Here’s a link to the many letterboxes hidden in Vermont.
www.letterboxing.org
For more local letterboxing fun, visit Valley Quest. Over the past 10 years they have created over 200 letterboxes or 'Quests' in the Upper Valley Region of VT and NH.
www.vitalcommunities.org/ValleyQuest/index.htm
Still more letterboxing prospects can be found at this site.
www.atlasquest.com
Acknowledgment
We are grateful to Jeff Fowler’s students at the Stafford Technical Center in Rutland for creating the stamps found in the 100 Years in a Box letterboxes.
Geocaching
Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can set out a geocache, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS unit can then try to locate the geocache. As part of the Vermont Forestry Division Centennial commemoration, some geocaches have been released on Vermont State Lands managed by the Forestry Division (see bleow). To find geocache opportunities in your area, go to www.geocaching.com
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Geocashes on Vermont State Forests |
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F is for Forestry, GC1PB2A, outside the Essex Office |
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Kruse Kache, GC1TFW5, on MMSF in Underhill |
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Kruse Warm-Up, GC1TFWW, MMSF |
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Kruse Bonus 1, GC1TFXE, MMSF |
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Kruse Bonus 2, GC1TFXR, MMSF |
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Kruse Bonus 3, GC1TFY9, MMSF |
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In Your Face, GC1TFYP, MMSF |
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![Vermont Division of Forestry Centennial [photo]](../rand/cent_roughdraft1.jpg)
