Paul Searls’, professor of history and music at Lyndon State College, presentation to the Bennington Historical Society’s April 2014 meeting at the Bennington Museum discussed a plan Alonzo B. Valentine proposed to bring Swedes to Vermont in 1890. This controversial program was considered a failure but it did succeed in attracting attention to Vermont and was a boom to summer tourism. Valentine was a wealthy and politically influential mill owner in Bennington. Valentine street was named after him.

Alonzo B. Valentine's plan to bring Swedes to Vermont from Jackie Marro on Vimeo.