In the nineteenth century, Rutland was the center of a booming marble industry. By the early twentieth century, the Vermont Marble Company was considered the largest U.S. corporation in the world. Today, the region of southwestern Vermont that runs from Middlebury in the north to Dorset in the south is still called the Marble Valley, "? and visitors flock every year to tour the Vermont Marble Museum and the International Carving Studio and to picnic in the quarries. In this first comprehensive history, Mike Austin chronicles the hardships, religious lives, labor struggles and triumphs of the Marble Valley's workers and industrious settlers. Complete with excerpts from firsthand accounts and news clippings, this wide-scoping history gives an intimate portrayal of the men and women who shaped the Vermont Marble Valley and made it their home."