I spent a long time wandering around the woods, scouring the Internet, reading books, and petting the sweet dog in the Danby library to find out what I can about the history of Danby. I'm biased towards the information that I find interesting, which has resulted in a fairly random and far-flung research net. I'm interested in the intersection between landscape and culture. I'm interested in the biases and omissions of the town's early record-keepers. I'm less interested in the economy, though I tried to soldier through it. And I found the 20th century hard to research, though undoubtedly there's a lot of incredible information I failed to capture.

I've split this story into four chapters, organized chronologically. Feel free to peruse them at your leisure by clicking the chapter links or navigating through the chapters tab in the menu bar.

Pre-European Landscape

• Landscape
• Geology
• Dreary Wilderness
• Native Americans

New Hampshire Grants (1700's)

• Getting Lost
• First Settlers
• Finding Traces
• New Hampshire Grants
• Local Government

Danby Evolves

• Mills
• Sheep
• Economic Decline
• Railroads
• Schools

Danby in the 20th Century

• Contradicting Vermonts
• Two Catalysts for the Hippie Invasion
• Crash and Bounce
• Leaving (and Coming Back)