Earth Peoples Park
| Earth Peoples Park | |
|---|---|
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,275 ft (389 m) |
| Coordinates | 45°00.00′N 71°48.65′W / 45.00000°N 71.81083°WCoordinates: 45°00.00′N 71°48.65′W / 45.00000°N 71.81083°W |
| Geography | |
| Location | Essex County, Vermont |
| Topo map | USGS Norton |
Earth Peoples Park (1970–1994) was a 592-acre (2.40 km2) parcel of swamp and forested land located in the small Canada–US border village of Norton, Vermont. The park property is now known as Black Turn Brook State Forest and is now owned by the state of Vermont.
Purchase of the Norton parcel was inspired by the People's Park in Berkeley, California, with some donations for the down payment raised at the 1969 in Bethel, NY. The Vermont parcel was purchased and managed as a non-profit trust (Earth Peoples Park Inc.), with the land deed officially recorded so as to convey the trusts' 'ownership' of the land (the only real asset of the trust), to 'all of the peoples of the earth'. Due to land surveying errors going back to the settling of that region of the United States and Canada in the late 18th century, the 45th parallel (which was the boundary line set by treaty) actually passes through the acreage several hundred feet to the south of the present-day international boundary vista line, somewhere in the vicinity of the large hay field.
In early 1970, the partially logged area, its northern property line running along the international boundary with Canada, as well as prime Coaticook River frontage on the east, was purchased sight-unseen from a 'Strout Realty' mail-order land catalog for $38,000. Criteria included finding as large a property as cheaply as possible, with the remoteness considered a plus (fewer neighbors to bother). It was an unlikely, snow-bound, out of the way location, with little else drawing most folks to that sparsely populated corner of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, the population of all of Essex County less than 5000 residents at that time.
Unlike the original People's Park in Berkeley, which is owned by the University of California, the underlying principle was that the Vermont trust land would be legally open to anyone who wished to visit, camp, or homestead upon it, rent free for as long as one desired. The land purchase originally included a separate 1-acre (4,000 m2) parcel nearer town upon which a A-frame was erected as a sort of welcoming center, access at that time was via a shared gravel driveway and through farm fields to the actual land holdings. Locally it became known as 'the last left turn(s) in America', requiring a series of unmarked left turns starting less than 20 feet (6.1 m) south of the US Customs station. Many uninformed visitors often missed the left turn, and suddenly found themselves entering Canada by mistake. In 1974, the shared access was traded for construction of a new, private road leading directly west from State Route 114. The land swap negotiated between the trust and neighboring farmers included construction of a concrete bridge crossing the Coaticook River at the southern edge of the land near Number Six Brook, that access is now known locally as 'Black Turn Brook Rd'.
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