Our next adventure for Nine Long Days: TR’s Journey to the White House took us to Vermont.
Huh? Vermont?
Yes, it’s a little known fact but an important one. Most people who are familiar with the story of McKinley’s assassination and TR’s midnight train ride assume that the former New York Governor was in the Adirondacks when he first heard about the shooting. Not true. In my best Cliff Clavin voice, it’s a little known fact that Roosevelt was actually at the home of then-Vermont Lieutenant Governor Nelson Fisk. He was there to speak at the annual Fish and Game League meeting on Isle La Motte, a Rockwellian spot near the top of the Green Mountain State.
We sat down with the current owner of what is now called Fisk Farm on the Lake Champlain Island. We had a gorgeous, cool day to work and had a good excuse to take the ferry back to New York. After hearing the news in 1901, TR took a yacht back down to Burlington before heading to Buffalo. We unfortunately didn’t have a yacht available to us, so we had to make do. :)
