Now that Stowe is a bustling four-season resort — well, to be honest, really two seasons, with two additional slow times in mud and stick season — people forget that it once had tourism only in summer, and later only winter skiers. The “four-season” hoop-de-do has existed only for the last three decades or so. Before that, you could nap in the middle of Mountain Road during off-seasons.

The town’s farming and logging community got an additional source of income — and equally needed diversion — in the mid 1800s, when Summit House was built atop Mount Mansfield and the swank Mount Mansfield Hotel opened for 450 guests on Main Street. Summer folk poured in with their steamer trunks packed with a month or two of finery.

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