Tomb of the Unknown

A gentle breeze rustled the yellow-green sunlit leaves. The ground was a carpet of long fallen foliage, occasionally punctured by moss-covered rocks, and strewn with fallen branches and trees. Below us, the distant sound of moving water acted as a backdrop to singing of birds above us. We sat quietly, enjoying the cool air and peacefulness. I reached out and touched one of the cool, damp rocks of the cairn that we crouched next to. Below those rocks lay an unknown soldier of the American Revolution.

Vermont's Unknown Soldier

Spoken tradition has it that two Continental soldiers were returning home along the Crown Point Road, which wound its way over the Green Mountains of Vermont from Crown Point, New York, to the Fort at #4 in New Hampshire. The soldiers, possibly staying at a nearby encampment spot, were drinking from a spring when one of them passed away. The deceased man's comrade buried him nearby, at the top of a knoll in the woods. The soldier lay undiscovered until 1935.

Sign at the Crossroads pointing to ... something?

Reverend William Ballou, a Boy Scout master from Chester, Vermont, heard the story of the soldier from Moses Townsend of Ludlow, Vermont, who owned the land at the time. On October 19^th of 1935, Reverend Ballou and Donald Wheatley, also of the Boy Scouts, investigated and were able to confirm the location of the grave. In November of that year, the Chester Boy Scout troop cleared forest debris from around the area. A local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a Revolutionary War Veteran marker and flag at the gravesite soon after.

The van could have made it (probably)

Until 1995, the location had been marked only by wooden signs. These signs had been replaced in 1963, and again in 1984. In February of 1995, the Vermont legislature designated the nameless veteran to be Vermont's official “Unknown Soldier.” In June of that year, Vermont Representative Bernie Sanders put forth legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to award the unkown soldier the Medal of Honor. I've not found evidence that this was awarded, however.

Boy Scout Sign

Boy Scout Sign Detail

On July 4^th of 1995, the wooden signs marking the soldier's resting place were joined by granite Crown Point Road marker #34, dedicated by the Vermont State Guard.

Crown Point Road Marker #34

Crown Point Marker Detail

This morning, my youngest daughter and I set out to find Vermont's Unknown Soldier. The drive was pleasant, and the back-road to reach the trail was fairly well maintained. There was a wooden sign at an old crossroads, that, in theory, pointed the correct way. The sign was less than informative about what it was actually pointing to, however.

Path up the hill

Nearing the top

Two legs of the crossroads were maintained gravel. The other two legs appeared to be old logging roads. Not trusting my van on a log road (experience does sometimes teach us), I parked in a clearing and picked the road that looked most likely. Slinging my toddler up onto my shoulders, I walked the road into the woods, roughly 460 paces, passing a little cabin along the way. The Crown Point marker, and wooden sign pointing to the grave site, were easy to spot next to the muddied track. Running between the granite marker and the wooden sign was a small path, leading up into the woods. After a steep climb of about 280 paces, we arrived at the burial site.

Gravesite and markers

Boy Scout Marker

After paying our respects, we spent a few minutes exploring. Walking down the hill opposite the direction of the path, we quickly found a small stream with clear running water. Though we didn't find the head of it, this could easily have been the water source mentioned in the story. Just beyond the little trickle of water, the Class IV road appeared again, so rather than climb back up through the woods, we hopped the stream and made our way back to the van.

At the bottom of the hill

There's water here somewhere

I've visited the Tomb of the Unknowns in Washington, D.C. This was a much more real experience.

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