Muskrat Trapper

Barry Forbes lives on Route 116, five miles east of Middlebury and eight miles south of Bristol, Vermont. He says if you’re trying to find the place, just slow down and his hounds will let you know where he is. Barry lives in a double wide trailer directly behind the house where he spent his entire childhood, and he’s never been away from this place for longer than thirteen months, when he was in Vietnam. Across the road from his house is a mountain where he’s been fishing and hunting and trapping since he was seven years old.March is muskrat season in Vermont and Barry took me out and showed me a few muskrat lodges. But the truth is, muskrat season was just an excuse to be around him for awhile, and talk with him about his lifelong passion for hunting.Music for this show by Peter Cressy of Plainfield, Vermont.Thank you Mark Davis.Thank you to The Vermont Folklife Center for introducing me to Barry years ago....