Did you Know?

This year and next, MFFC staff will dig into the extensive archival materials tucked into cabinets and storage areas throughout the Visitor Center to highlight fun facts about Vermont’s first environmentally focused nonprofit’s various farm, public and dwelling structures, which are constantly cited in historical documents and anecdotal accounts from visitors, members and friends. George Merck founded MFFC (incorporated in 1950 as the Vermont Farm and Forest Foundation) to encourage quality time spent in the natural world, to allow for shared partnership between the region’s working and natural lands practitioners and to conserve land and value land as an essential ecological asset.

MFFC’s nine cabins all have long, storied histories and continue to be used season to season by hundreds of people annually as a unique and simple getaway that offers opportunities for friends and families to spend quality time together. Cabins and huts also act as a basecamp for outdoor enthusiasts, school groups and internship cohorts.

This season, we feature Clark’s Clearing cabin.

MFFC’s first cabin is named after the Clark family who settled in Rupert in the early 1800’s. Augustus Clark, who relocated from Granville, NY accumulated 1100 acres in Rupert between 1815 and 1825. His main agricultural activity was raising sheep. In order to do so, he cleared forest land for grazing and grew field crops - hay, wheat, corn, oats and potatoes. In 1842, Clark moved to Manchester and sold his land in Clark Hollow to Susan Raymond. This land transferred to the Clemons and Young families (at its height, the farm had over 70 barn buildings) and was then sold in 1907 to the West Rupert Timber Company. After a few subsequent timberbased transfers, George Merck bought the property in the 1940s. Augustus’ brother Myron Clark ran a tannery in West Rupert that manufactured harnesses, boots and shoes.

Clarks Clearing was built by one of two all-women’s Student Conservation Association (SCA) crews in 1972. The other crew worked out at Mount Rainier in the Pacific Northwest and both were organized by SCA founder and visionary (and friend to MFFC) Liz Cushman Titus Putnam. These two crews blazed the trail for leading young women into land conservation.

The structure was originally built as a lean-to, with an open door and window frames and was then converted into a cabin. Our oldest cabin is now our newest! Renovated in 2016, Clarks is now insulated and fitted with a skylight, making it super cozy on cold winter nights. It sleeps three comfortably, is 1.3 miles from the Visitor Center and rents for $55 per night May 1-September 30 and for $70 from October 1-April 30.

References: Raymond Fisher Document, 1989; VT Life Magazine, Autumn, 1988; MFFC Photo & Document Archive.