Authors: Carly Fink, Carson Hauck, Zach Pinto, and Caroline Santinelli

 

 

This project is one of four in the Environmental Studies Senior Seminar class at Middlebury College in Spring 2014. With a class focus on innovation in Rutland, our group was tasked with telling Rutland’s history and connecting it to present-day stories of transition and innovation in Rutland. These stories include advancements in food, energy, and resilience that other projects in our class brought to light, as well as voices of the creative economy that we uncovered through our research.

 

Originally, the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in West Rutland inspired our group to question the role of the marble industry in Rutland’s past and how the obsoletion of this resource shaped it’s future economy. As we discussed the best ways to present a relevant narrative that launches a continuing discussion of Rutland’s story, we decided that the story we want to tell addresses the essential question: How do resources act on our economy? And what happens when they run out or become obsolete?

 

Rutland boomed at a time in history when the nation supported mass extraction of a natural resource—marble. Now the town struggles to build a “new economy” while battling a nationally publicized “heroin crisis.” Our narrative includes voices from Rutland’s past, as well as those of present entrepreneurs, innovators, and creative economy proponents who are working to revitalize the city. We compare Rutland’s story to those of other American cities, such as Moab, Utah and Detroit, Michigan, that have used creative economy initiatives to recreate their identity and economy following industrial decline.

 

Hopefully through our narrative we communicate not only Rutland’s story, but also how one city's story is part of a bigger one. Thanks for reading and visiting the site!

 

 

 

Questions? Please contact Jon Isham (jisham@middlebury.edu) or Diane Munroe (dmunroe@middlebury.edu) at Middlebury College

 

 

Although the information in this website has been funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement to Bates College, it may not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.

 

Photo Credits: www.quarriesandbeyond.org, www.stonestructures.org, www.vermont-marble.com, www.usgwarchives.net/vt/rutland/, Wikipedia, www.rutlandcity.org, www.shorpy.com, en.academic.ru, and provided by James Davidson, The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, Paul Costello, and Carly Fink