Look at any map of Vermont, way up in the most northeast corner and you won’t find a whole lot of anything. No roads, no towns, no nothing—just a lot of green. That is the Victory Basin: Vermont’s largest boreal forest, wildlife refuge, one big bog, and the realization of Fred Mold’s dream.

Fred Mold was the director of the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium in St. Johnsbury from the 1940s until his death in 1975. He not only made the museum what it is today, a thriving educational institution, but he pushed and finagled for years to get the State of Vermont to create the Victory Wildlife Management Park.

Previously, the area had been logger’s heaven. Small gauge railroads led to bigger railroads out of the basin to “civilization” where the logs were sold. Even before that, during the 1800's, loggers would go into the woods during the winter months, November until the thaw came, and chop down trees. Millions upon millions of board feet were taken out of the Basin. The trees were tobogganed to the edge of the frozen river and stacked until the ice broke up. During the cold nights, the men would pour water down sluices to make a toboggan run for the next day.

As the rivers rose with snowmelt, the timber was pushed into the rivers forming miles-long trails. Men would literally ride logs down the swollen streams to the Connecticut River where they met up with more loggers and log-trains forming one massive jam. Eventually the whole mess ended up at the Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts sawmills.

In 1927, when construction finished on the Comerford Dam across the Connecticut River, closing the gates, it ended the massive water supply used to float the timber. But that last ride was a doozey. Six to eight million board feet of lumber floated down the Connecticut River in a 12-mile long floating forest.

The towns of Victory, Gallop Mills, Granby and numerous other towns flourished during this time. Victory’s population alone topped 500. Now, just a few homes are left.

Railroads became the lifeblood of the loggers after 1927 replacing the toboggan runs and floating jams. Small narrow-gauge tracks led from the logging sites down to the standard-gauge tracks that led out of the basin. Many of the walking tours travel along the remnants of narrow-gauge tracks.

Dana Leavitt of Vermont Worldwide Adventures, who with Steve Amos, curator of the Fairbanks Museum, leads naturalist’s tours through the Victory Basin, knows these parts well. His father was one of the loggers riding that 12-mile jam into Massachusetts in 1927. “Before the loggers came, this was all virgin forest with pumpkin (yellow) pines growing 150 feet tall and six feet in diameter.” He spreads his arms out to indicate the vastness of the now-not-so-forested basin. “Occasionally you can see one or two trees from that era,” he says pointing out a small yellow pine, “but they don’t grow here, as a rule, anymore.”

Dana tells the story of the King’s Forest. “Before the Revolutionary War, the King’s Forester came into the Basin and found thousands of the most perfect trees for the Royal Navy’s masts. He marked them by carving an arrow into their bark and left orders that no one, but no one, was to disturb the King’s trees. Well,” Dana laughs, “you know New Englanders, they have a mind of their own. The first ones cut were marked with arrows!

“When the Forester came back he was furious, but what could he do? Everyone shrugged and said ‘What trees? Arrows?’”

After the forest was logged out, the wilderness took over. New trees have grown up, but not the same species as before. Now there are mostly deciduous trees.

Fred Mold, an avid environmentalist, spent years as an intermediary to get the Basin protected by the State of Vermont. He succeeded. A plaque in his honor sits quietly off the road shaded by his beloved trees. An old steam engine is said to be buried by vines and trees, but still there. Dana found it once, but over 30 years ago. Bits of track beds still form the edges of ponds where Canada Geese roost. The Moose River flows through the Basin, meandering a dark, rich, brown color caused by the acid in the organic matter in the basin runoff.

Walking can be difficult without the proper guide. Quite simply if you get lost, you may not get out again—period. Guides know where to walk safely. Otherwise, you may need hipboots. One false step and you sink into brown muck up to there! Yuck.

Although no moose has had the temerity to pop out to say “hello” during my visits, they are frequently sighted. As are many species of bird and animal: more moose, deer, bear, grouse, warblers, woodpeckers, among others.

The woodland plants are nothing short of glorious: trillium, showy orchis, lady slipper orchids, wild ginger, columbine, and the carnivorous sundew and pitcher plants.

If you are looking for Vermont at its wildest, as it was centuries ago, the only place to find it is here, at Victory Bog.