{"id":11415,"date":"2022-04-04T15:27:02","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T15:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/?p=11415"},"modified":"2022-04-04T15:42:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T15:42:08","slug":"11415","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/2022\/04\/04\/11415\/","title":{"rendered":"New Lebanon tests a new approach to spurring tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By JOHN TOWNES<\/strong>
Contributing writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW LEBANON, N.Y.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n


When people think of the region\u2019s big tourist destinations, New Lebanon doesn\u2019t typically come to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ruth Abram is the founder of \u201cBehold! New Lebanon,\u201d a new program that encourages visitors and local people to discover the variety of real-world skills and enterprises among the town\u2019s population. The program coordinates instructional demonstrations at local businesses, farms and homes.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Although it\u2019s situated at the crossroads of state routes 20 and 22, just across the state line from the Berkshires, the rural town lacks the quaint New England feel of Stockbridge or the boutique-lined streets of Hudson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


But New Lebanon actually has lots of things going on that a visitor might appreciate, and lately the town has been testing a new way of presenting itself to the wider world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The result is \u201cBehold! New Lebanon,\u201d a nonprofit community-based project that encourages visitors, as well as local people who might be curious, to discover and appreciate the varied mix of real-world skills and enterprises that can be found among the town\u2019s population.
The program, which made its debut on four weekends this fall, offers organized instructional demonstrations at local businesses, farms, homes and other sites. For prices ranging from $15 per event to $75 for a season pass, visitors have been able to learn about everything from building furniture to raising heritage-breed pigs, and they\u2019ve gotten behind-the-scenes looks at attractions like Lebanon Valley Speedway and the local auction house, Meissner\u2019s Auction Service. A shuttle bus carries people from a visitors center to specific events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cThere\u2019s an amazing number of people doing surprising and interesting things here, but their activities are generally not in public view,\u201d explained Ruth Abram, the founder of the program. \u201cThe purpose of \u2018Behold! New Lebanon\u2019 is to provide the public with access to the community, so they can discover how lively and innovative this town is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Although the project\u2019s initial season ended on the weekend of Nov. 1, it is intended to become a permanent attraction, with a calendar of activities stretching on into the future, Abram said.
\u201cThe attendance and response to this has been great, and it\u2019s generated a lot of enthusiasm,\u201d Abram said in late October. \u201cWe\u2019ve already started planning for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reversing a sense of decline<\/strong>
New Lebanon has a heritage of innovation. The town includes the original Shaker community, founded in 1787 and now being restored as a museum. It is also believed to be the site of the nation\u2019s first lending library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In the early 19th century, the Tilden Family founded the world\u2019s first natural pharmaceutical factory in New Lebanon, and Dr. Joel Shew, considered the founder of hydrotherapy in America, harnessed a natural spring to establish therapeutic baths and a natural health center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Off the main roads, New Lebanon has areas of scenic beauty that rival anything in the region.
But like many other rural communities, it has also had to contend with economic challenges as population and business activity have shifted to larger urban and suburban regions. The town\u2019s only full-service supermarket, for example, closed several years ago, leaving residents to drive 20 minutes or more each way to stores in Pittsfield or Chatham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Abram, however, stresses that, on closer inspection, New Lebanon has plenty of assets.
\u201cPeople here have a wide range of important skills and vital enterprises,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Besides attractions like the speedway and auction house that have always been open to the public, the town still has some traditional farms and, like other parts of Columbia County, has become a destination for people in a 21st century back-to-the-land movement focused on organic and niche agriculture. The town has also become home to a variety of entrepreneurs who are drawn by the idea of living in a rural setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cThere are \u2026 young people who are attracted by the inherent characteristics of the community and are moving in with their values and dreams,\u201d Abram said. \u201cMany of them are also bringing innovative and scientific approaches to traditional rural living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrating a community<\/strong>
Abram is a historian and social activist who grew up in Georgia and moved with her family to the New York City area when she was 17. While living in the city, she founded the Tenement Museum, an educational institution dedicated to the immigrant experience, in a preserved tenement on Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


She moved to New Lebanon about seven years ago, when her husband got a job in Albany, and they found a house that attracted them here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Abram said the concept of \u201cBehold! New Lebanon\u201d came to her as a result of conversations with her new neighbors and the frustration she often heard about economic conditions and the closing of important local businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cI kept hearing people say what a great place this used to be, but how it has declined,\u201d she said.
She decided to draw on her experience to develop a project she hoped would give the town a boost by focusing and capitalizing on its identity as a modern rural community. She began floating the idea to others last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Abram said she and the other organizers want \u201cBehold! New Lebanon\u201d to reflect the realities of modern rural life, rather than the idealized, upscale version that is often sold as country living today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


At the same time, she said, they did not want to present the town as some carefully preserved historical time capsule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cThere\u2019s nothing \u2018storybook\u2019 about it, and it\u2019s not always neat and tidy,\u201d she said. \u201cNobody wanted to change anything for this. The idea is to honestly present contemporary rural life as it really is.\u201d
To recruit a roster of guides, she surveyed people in town about what skills they had, especially those that urban visitors were not likely to be experienced with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cIt became a very long list,\u201d Abram said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assessing diamonds, tracking deer<\/strong>
On the weekends when \u201cBehold! New Lebanon\u201d takes place, a slate of designated 60-to-90 minute demonstrations are scheduled at people\u2019s homes, businesses or other sites of activity. People buy tickets at the visitors center, at 14398 State Route 22, and select the specific demonstrations they want to attend. A bus shuttles them to the sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Abram said the events are a mix of general information and instruction in practical skills, particularly those that visitors from urban areas are unlikely to have experienced.
\u201cOne reason people attend these demonstrations is to learn things they can use in their own lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The roughly 50 demonstrations, instructors and skills in this fall\u2019s inaugural season have indeed been varied, encompassing everything from farming and food production to the arts, printing, making wooden gifts, nature skills, furniture making, homesteading and many other fields of endeavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


A demonstration called \u201cSpeed Demons\u201d offered a behind-the-scenes look at Lebanon Valley Speedway, presented by the racetrack\u2019s owner Howard Commander. In another offering, \u201cHitching the Horse to the Plow,\u201d Sarah Steadman and Evan Thaler-Null, two local growers who are trying to minimize their consumption of fossil fuel, showed how they use the power of animals to cultivate their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Several local restaurants offered meals and culinary talks, and Melanie Hunt of Blueberry Hill Market Caf\u00e9 showed visitors how to bake New Lebanon Slab Pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Visitors have gotten to see how a local farm raises heritage breeds of pigs in the woods; others took part in a workshop on tracking deer. Still other demonstrations have included instruction on identifying the quality of diamonds, how to build a terrarium, and a tour nd demonstration of auctioneering by Delores Meissner of Meissner\u2019s Auction Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heritage cattle, border collies<\/strong>
Cynthia Creech, who operates Artemis Farm on 120 acres of scenic upland, led a workshop called \u201cCow Tails\u201d in which she explained her ongoing effort to preserve a breed known as Randall cattle, which originated in Vermont. In 1987, Creech, who was then living in Tennessee, acquired several Randalls that were among the last of the breed. Since then, she has become dedicated to breeding and raising them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cynthia Creech, who operates Artemis Farm on 120 acres of scenic upland,<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


Realizing that they were not suited for the southern climate, Creech brought them back to the Northeast, eventually settling with them on a farm in New Lebanon. She now has about 100 animals, which she sells for breeding and for meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Creech, who also works in the court system, said she agreed to participate in \u201cBehold! New Lebanon\u201d for a combination of reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cI thought it would be good for the town, and I also thought it would be good PR for the Randalls,\u201d she explained. \u201cAlso, Ruth is a very impressive person, and when she gets involved in a project, it\u2019s a smart idea to join if she asks you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Another participant is Eric Johnson, who with his wife, Lori, offered a demonstration on training border collies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Eric, who drives a delivery route for the U.S. Postal Service, is representative of the economic versatility of many rural people. The family raises animals and crops for their own use and for friends. He also has developed a business, Wild Goose Chase NE, that uses his border collies to scare geese away from homes, schools and other sites where their habit of congregating is unwelcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cYou have to be entrepreneurial and be willing to do different things to make it here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A model for other towns?<\/strong>
Abram said \u201cBehold! New Lebanon\u201d is intended to aid local economic development while also enhancing the community\u2019s sense of identity and pride. She said the program is designed to eventually support itself through ticket sales, a gift shop and other revenue sources. She and other organizers also plan to expand the calendar of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cThe goal is for it to become a self-sustaining program that will give an economic boost to the town,\u201d Abram said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Besides attracting more tourists to New Lebanon, she said, the program gives more visibility, and potentially sales, to local entrepreneurs and businesses. The guides are also paid honoraria, which provides them with an additional source of income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


But Abram views the project more broadly. She described it as a \u201cliving museum\u201d that, rather than being based within the walls of a central facility, is integrated with its surroundings.
\u201cWe\u2019re breaking new ground in terms of what a museum can be,\u201d she said. \u201cIf successful, \u2018Behold! New Lebanon\u2019 can also serve as a model that can be replicated in other rural communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The result could be the beginning of a kind of educational research center focusing on rural America, she said. One goal of the New Lebanon project, she noted, is to also produce books and films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Abram acknowledged that some townspeople have been skeptical about the idea of \u201cBehold! New Lebanon,\u201d but she said most have been enthusiastic and supportive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cWe had great luck in recruiting, and many people and businesses have come forward to participate and help,\u201d Abram said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


For example, the Shed Man, a local business that sells outbuildings, \u201chas loaned us a pool house on their site for the visitors booth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


To test the waters among potential visitors, she also contacted people who have second homes in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cI scoured the tax rolls to find part-time residents,\u201d Abram said. \u201cI arranged a tour of the town and invited them. They were extremely interested in what they saw. Many offered to help out and have contributed to the project in a variety of different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Abram said the process of organizing \u201cBehold! New Lebanon\u201d has also had the beneficial effect of bringing people in the community closer together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cPeople get busy with their own lives and priorities and aren\u2019t always aware of what others are doing,\u201d she said. \u201cWith this project, people have gotten to know each other better. Even longtime residents of New Lebanon have been surprised and startled at how much is really going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBehold! New Lebanon,\u201d encourages visitors, to discover the diverse mix of skills, enterprises and scenic beauty in the town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,44,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-community-life","category-profiles"],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_112844.png",1074,707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_112844-100x66.png",100,66,true],"medium":["https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_112844-300x197.png",300,197,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_112844-768x506.png",768,506,true],"large":["https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_112844.png",1074,707,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_112844.png",1074,707,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_112844.png",1074,707,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"John Townes","author_link":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/author\/john-townes\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u201cBehold! New Lebanon,\u201d encourages visitors, to discover the diverse mix of skills, enterprises and scenic beauty in the town.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johntownes.com\/Tree\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}