From its beginning as a poultry powerhouse to World War II Navy town and to Horse Town USA; Norco has been known over time as a community of go-getters and dreamers with unparalleled volunteerism; stubbornly protecting a rural way of life. Founder Rex Clark wished for families to be self-sustaining with what they could grow and raise on their property; wounded Marine Johnny Winterholler; against incredible odds; led the way for other disabled veterans as the star of the famed wheelchair basketball team the Rolling Devils; and Tamara Ivie fulfilled her impossible dream to play professional baseball. And regular folks; known once as �Acres of Neighbors;� stepped up to create a city of �elbow room;� stopping cold; big-money developers wishing to cut the community into small lots. Today; Norco is an equestrian paradise with trails on most streets and plentiful open space. For decades; this small community has produced activists; ballplayers; college presidents; physicians; actors; cowboys; and lots of Norconians who give back to the community that raised them.
2015-10-27 2015-10-27File Name: B01BPYLU76
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. VT alum hubbyBy Science Teacher DadThis was an x_Mas gift; and it was a greater success than hoped for. Lots of trips down memory lane and a few new things learner about Burlington;Vermont. And UVM that both of us never knew before.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Exhaustively researched; brilliantly written; DONT MISS THIS!By Joshua G. CanningThis well-researcherd and handsomely illustrated volume from promising young writer and historian John D.Thomas; is much more than one has come to expect from the (often staid) "University History" genre. Such books may routinely be dry and formulaic; but not so Mr. Thomass elegantly penned story of the University on the Hill. UVMs colorful history is brought vividly to life in Thomass spare; lively and very well crafted prose. This book may not have the suspense of John Le Carre; the surrealism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez; the transcendent literary flare of Melville or the staying power of Nathaniel Hawthorne but it is not without poetry or intrigue and (in the mind of this reader anyway); Thomas richly wrought tome has the ring of a classic to it--truly unusual for the genre. Popular novel it may not be; but for those with a little more depth; intellect and historical curiosity this book is a real page turner; as full of thrilling plot twists as anything Michael Creighton ever turned out! Indeed this elegantly crafted history is the book that belongs on your bedside table this summer; not one those pretentious "best-selling" novels the New York Times Review of Books so breathlessly lard with anemic adjectives like "ethereal;" "light-filled;"or "transformative." If there is a story that deserves to be made into a major motion picture; surely it is this quiet; unassuming (but thrilling to the intellectually rigorous) history of the University of Vermont. We are all in debt to this fine historian and writer whose name is sure to become a household word before the ink dries on his masterpiece.
