The Great Sheep Boom and its Legacy in Putney and Environs 1/12/20

The Putney Mountain Association held its annual business meeting. The treasurer's report, election of new board members, and the Missing Link Project, a long-held joint project PMA/WHPA vision to preserve the entirety of Windmill Hill Ridge and development of a through trail from Grafton to Prospect Mountain and on to Black Mountain which is becomming a reality. An emissary of Westminster West Pinnacle Association asked the group to give thought to doing something theatrical about the history of the West.West yellow house which belonged to George Campbell, the breeder of Vermont Merrino sheep, talking about The Equivalent Lands and the events of the Westminster Massacre. Steve Taylor, a farmer, writer, and scholar of rural life in the Connecticut River Valley and former long- time Commissioner of Agriculture of New Hampshire spoke of New England agriculture in the first half of the 19th century which enjoyed its only period ever of true prosperity, an economic bubble that left physical and cultural legacies that still resonate today. It was built on sheep and the prodigious production of their wool. He spoke on this subject with particular focus on the Putney area. Immediately following, a discussion was invited.