In the nineteenth century, Rutland was the center of a booming marble
industry. By the early twentieth century, the Vermont Marble Company was
considered the largest U.S. corporation in the world. Today, the region
of southwestern Vermont that runs from Middlebury in the north to Dorset
in the south is still called the Marble Valley, ? and visitors flock
every year to tour the Vermont Marble Museum and the International
Carving Studio and to picnic in the quarries. In this first
comprehensive history, Mike Austin chronicles the hardships, religious
lives, labor struggles and triumphs of the Marble Valley's workers and
industrious settlers. Complete with excerpts from firsthand accounts and
news clippings, this wide-scoping history gives an intimate portrayal of
the men and women who shaped the Vermont Marble Valley and made it their
home.