[5] In 1928, Nobel Prize–winning novelist Sinclair Lewis bought Connett Place with a total 300 acres (1.2 km2) and adjacent Chase Farm.

He named the property Twin Farms and used it as a vacation house during the 1930s and 1940s with his wife Dorothy Thompson.

[6] In 1941, German playwright Carl Zuckmayer, a refugee from Nazi Germany whom Dorothy Thompson had helped to get into the US, rented Backwoods Farm, with its farmhouse from 1783 nowadays owned by Hannah Kahn[7] and a total 180 acres (0.73 km2), from Joseph Ward (of Maynes & Ward hardware store on Main Street in Woodstock, Vermont) for 50 dollars a month.

[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 48.9 sq mi (127 km2), of which 48.7 are land and 0.2 is water.

The racial makeup of the town was 98.43% White, 0.42% Hispanic or Latino, 0.31% Asian and 1.04% from two or more races.

Silver Lake State Park, encompassing the northern shoreline of Silver Lake, was established in 1955 when some land with shore frontage was donated to the state by John McDill of Woodstock, Margaret Crosby of Barnard, and Richard H. Field of Boston.

Barnard Academy is part of the Windsor Central Supervisory Union.