HARDWICK – Between June 1, and October 5, the Hardwick Historical Society (HHS) opened the Depot to the public every Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In that time, 261 people stopped to look around, most from the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail that passes within 10 feet of the Depot. Although not every respondent answered every question, 33 of those people filled out a survey the HHS created so we can learn more about our visitors.
Buffalo Mountain Market on Mill Street in Hardwick joined National Co+op Grocers on October 3. The co-op has more than 3,500 active owners and $6 million in annual sales.
The survey revealed about a third of the people biked alone and the rest traveled in groups of two, three or four. Eighteen women responders slightly out-numbered 15 men. Half of both men and women were over the age of sixty. That surprised us.
The visitors came from 21 different zip codes, 13 of them in Vermont. The furthest Vermont zip code, West Halifax, was a man and his two half-grown sons on a weekend outing. A couple from Onsted, Mich., were from the furthest west; a visitor from Green Cove Springs, Fla., was from the furthest south.
Only one person said he was doing the entire trail from Swanton to St. Johnsbury; most were doing round trips from West Danville, Hyde Park, or Hardwick. We didn’t ask how far their round-trips would take them. Those taking one-way trips, Hardwick to St. Johnsbury or Hardwick to Morrisville for instance, planned to ride 30 miles or less.
None of our visitors had been in the Depot before, and those who commented about it said nice things. Twenty-four of the 33 said they wanted to come back, several to bring friends or family. Five admitted they lived too far away and would probably never return.
We asked how they learned about the Depot. Half of the 22 commenters said something like “We biked by and saw your beautifully finished building and ‘Open’ sign.”
A few had picked us out on the LVRT map; a few had parked at the trailhead by us; and a few had followed a suggestion to visit they received from someone else.
Several had biked by when we were closed and finally had a chance to look inside. Virtually nobody set out on their bike to visit us. That may help explain the ages of our visitors; most people don’t appreciate history until they have a bit of their own. So, when people become empty-nesters and have time to notice how the world has changed, they may become interested in history. Out on their bikes for a leisurely ride, they may stop at a historical museum they would have passed by 20 years earlier.
A personal note: I moved to the Hardwick area in 1971 and became the elementary school librarian for the Morristown Elementary School. I left the area as a full-time resident in 1983. I returned as a seasonal resident in 2007 and full-time in 2014. In those 17 years, only rarely have I met someone whom I could identify as a former student. One of the people who stopped on her way past the Depot this summer turned out to be one. She’s 59.
