We’re just over a week away until RockFire at Millstone Hill in Barre, the event celebrates central Vermont’s granite heritage and history. However, within the last couple weeks, multiple monuments and sculptures at Millstone Hill have been vandalized, one of those was the Temple of Hephaestus. “I walked around the corner and saw the broken column on the ground, it pretty much knocked the wind right out of me,” said Pierre Couture, the creator of RockFire. Couture helps maintain sculptures throughout the trail and has organized RockFire for 12 years now, and says he just doesn’t understand why someone would do this. Organizers say they will attempt to fix the columns the best they can but they will still be visibly broken, and this is also putting a delay on their other projects. “Our intention is to take this to the next phase which is putting a floor in and some nice metal railings to finish the temple project. We’ll now have to complete that next year instead of this year after we do the repairs,” said Couture. Barre Town PD is investigating what happened, and in the meantime, RockFire has started a fundraiser because the repairs are going to cost thousands. Organizers also said the festival is still on which includes live music and performances.”We use about 2500 candles to light the pathway the whole way, we have campfires at every intersection to help light the way,” said Couture. “We then have musicians who sing traditional Italian music, traditional French-Canadian, the sounds we feel were a part of the quarry heritage,” he said. The festival starts at 6:00 p.m. on June 24.If you would like to donate to the fundraiser you can visit this link.
We’re just over a week away until RockFire at Millstone Hill in Barre, the event celebrates central Vermont’s granite heritage and history.
However, within the last couple weeks, multiple monuments and sculptures at Millstone Hill have been vandalized, one of those was the Temple of Hephaestus.
“I walked around the corner and saw the broken column on the ground, it pretty much knocked the wind right out of me,” said Pierre Couture, the creator of RockFire.
Couture helps maintain sculptures throughout the trail and has organized RockFire for 12 years now, and says he just doesn’t understand why someone would do this.
Organizers say they will attempt to fix the columns the best they can but they will still be visibly broken, and this is also putting a delay on their other projects.
“Our intention is to take this to the next phase which is putting a floor in and some nice metal railings to finish the temple project. We’ll now have to complete that next year instead of this year after we do the repairs,” said Couture.
Barre Town PD is investigating what happened, and in the meantime, RockFire has started a fundraiser because the repairs are going to cost thousands.
Organizers also said the festival is still on which includes live music and performances.
“We use about 2500 candles to light the pathway the whole way, we have campfires at every intersection to help light the way,” said Couture. “We then have musicians who sing traditional Italian music, traditional French-Canadian, the sounds we feel were a part of the quarry heritage,” he said.
The festival starts at 6:00 p.m. on June 24.
If you would like to donate to the fundraiser you can visit this link.