Rail trail walk kicks off a year-long geology curriculum rooted in Manchester’s marble history

MANCHESTER, VT — August 31, 2026

Under a moody, overcast sky, Red Fox Community School students spent a morning last week walking the Historic Marble Rail Trail near campus — not just for the exercise, but for the geology lesson underfoot. The trail follows the path of an actual rail line that ran from Granville to Manchester in the early 20th century, hauling marble blocks from the Dorset quarries to the finishing mills in Manchester Depot. Stopping to read historical signage along the trail, students learned its nickname: the “Mud, Dirt & Gravel” line.

The walk kicked off Red Fox’s year-long study of rocks and geology, and gave students their first hands-on encounter with a material that shaped the region long before they arrived in it. Dorset’s marble quarries, first opened in 1785, are recognized as the oldest commercially operated marble quarry site in the United States, and supplied stone for buildings as far away as Washington, D.C.

“We had great curious energy from the students,” said Head of School Karen O’Neill Thomson. “It was a fun way to kick off the school year and our study of geology and rocks — reading the signage and learning how important marble was, and still is, to the Manchester area.”

Walking the trail gave students an early chance to notice what O’Neill Thomson calls the layers of history beneath their feet — the land, the stone, the work of the people who quarried and hauled it, and the ways geology has shaped the local community. Marble quarrying grew into one of the region’s defining industries, drawing workers and their families and giving rise to mills, rail lines, and entire villages built around the trade. Traces of that history are still visible in the marble sidewalks, foundations, and mounting stones that remain part of the local landscape today.

For Red Fox students, that history is now also a starting point for a year of science. The rail trail walk is the first of what the school expects will be a series of place-based lessons connecting geology to the landscape students already know — the same approach the school has taken with past curriculum themes, using the region itself as a classroom.

Red Fox families and friends are invited to follow along throughout the year to see how the study of rocks and geology unfolds.

About Red Fox Community School Red Fox Community School is an independent K–5 school in Manchester, Vermont, where students learn through hands-on, nature-based, experiential education in three multi-age classrooms. Learn more at redfoxschool.org.

Contact: Karen O’Neill Thomson, Head of School Red Fox Community School karen@redfoxschool.org www.redfoxschool.org