Please be sure to check this out: a new animated film, "Love of the Land," which "highlights [the] tragic story of Vermont farmer Romaine Tenney."
You remember Mr. Tenney, who was one of those classic Vermonters. He tragically entered the pages of history more than fifty years ago when, in reaction to the taking of his farm for Interstate 91, he burned his house and farm buildings down, and shot himself. He had nowhere else to go. An informal memorial to Mr. Tenney -- a maple tree (how Vermont) -- stood on the site of his former property near Exit 8, until the tree was too diseased to remain and was removed.
We learned more about Mr. Tenney when we spoke with Howard Mansfield Howard Mansfield about his book "The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down - Our Belief in Property and the Cost of That Belief," which features a chapter on Mr. Tenney. As Mansfield puts it:
Tenney was that farmer by the road tourists used to stop and talk to as they sought out a specific kind of Vermont experience.“Romaine himself, personally, he never went to town meeting, he didn’t write letters to the editor, he didn’t stand up and protest,” he said. “He was just living his life — and history, or the world, came to his doorstep, which is the way it happens all the time.”
Dave Arnold and Kristen Bennett have also featured Mr. Tenney (and Mr. Mansfield) on their Infrastructure Junkies podcast, in several episodes worth your time to listen. Start with this one.
The animated film was created by Travis Van Alstyne, also a Vermonter, about this local folklore which has now (finally) entered the national discussion. The film gives a better and more immediate sense of Mr. Tenney's plight and his tragic conclusion that he could not live apart from his land and property. Here's an interview with the filmmaker.
We've also embedded an interview with the local fire chief who was an eyewitness first responder to the incident back in 1964. Also worth checking out.
