When the ocean floor uplifted to form the Taconic Mountains, heat and pressure metamorphosed the shale into much harder slate.

[citation needed] Bomoseen State Park has several quarry holes and adjacent colorful slate rubble piles.

[citation needed] In the 1920s, literary critic Alexander Woollcott owned Neshobe Island, which served as a retreat and playground for members of the Algonquin Round Table.

This group of visitors included Laurence Olivier, Helen Hayes, Vivien Leigh, Ring Lardner, Dorothy Parker, Noël Coward, Thornton Wilder, and Walt Disney.

DDT got into the food chain, and osprey populations plummeted as the chemical made their eggshells thin and brittle.

Researchers from Middlebury College working under contract for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation introduced a native aquatic weevil (Euhrychiopsis lecontei) to help combat the problem.