SHELBURNE, Vt. - After a few days of work and touring in this lovely state, a native Wisconsinite can fairly say it's a lot like home, but with mountains.

Actually, Vermont is a lot like certain rural parts of Wisconsin. Its largest city, Burlington, near this little town on the eastern shores of Lake Champlain, has just under 39,000 people. For those who cherish Wisconsin's progressive rural tradition, Vermont offers hope. But hope and fear run close together, and Vermont has its share of the latter, too.

These days, the state's preservation-minded progressives are continuing a decades-long fight against Wal-Mart and its big box stores. Nearby, in another Burlington suburb, is the only stand-alone big box Wal-Mart in the state. There are three other Wal-Marts, but communities have prescribed where and how they locate, namely in existing buildings and downtown areas.

But the storm clouds have gathered again. It's serious enough that the National Trust for Historic Preservation this year put the whole state of Vermont on its list of most endangered historic places in America, the only state to be so listed.

First, though, some hope. My wife has led me on an exploration of Vermont's organic gardens and sustainable farming operations, its quaint little towns and quiet country roads. There's a remarkable level of interest in sustainable farming here, and virtually every roadside produce stand proclaims "ORGANIC" in big letters.

On this August day, the Burlington Free Press ran a business story focusing on the announcement of Central Vermont Public Service, the state's largest utility, that it will introduce a plan to have dairy farmers generate energy from decomposing cow manure and sell it back to the power grid.

Vermont has also been a leader in using renewable energy sources such as woody plant biomass to heat public schools and other buildings, saving money, polluting less and boosting local businesses.Proudly touting "Yankee ingenuity," Vermonters dare to be different. At a meeting of conservationists in Burlington, Vermont political commentator, historian and humorist Frank Bryan said the state and its rural folks got way behind the rest of the nation in the rush to urbanize and industrialize. Now the differences are so pronounced that the state seems advanced. Other states are trying to mimic Vermont's quiet ways, he said.

The state is home to the original liberal idea, Bryan added. It's familiar to many independent Wisconsinites, and it goes something like this: You do what you want, and I'll do what I want, and even if I don't like what you do, as long as you don't step on my toes, I won't bother you about it.

Wouldn't the world do well today with just a dash of that tolerance?

One could easily get all mushy about Vermont, but it has plenty of problems, too. Vermonters locked in this latest tussle with Wal-Mart fear the state will suffer greatly should they lose. Wal-Mart wants to plunk several big box stores down at the edges of rural communities.

The Herald of tiny Randolph, Vt., ran a front page article the other day on a meeting in a nearby community, where environmentalist and author Bill McKibben spoke about "Wal-Mart's threat to Vermont." He pulled out some devastating statistics in his effort to convince Vermonters to be in control, not in the control of others. He cited the example of Iowa, ticking off dizzying statistics about the effect of big box stores: a net loss between 1982 and 1993 of 535 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 269 men's or women's stores, 153 shoe stores and 116 dry good stores. Also affected: a host of supporting businesses, including accountants, lawyers and newspapers. The jobs Wal-Mart created were low-paying and had no health benefits.

A few vignettes we gathered on our work out here stand out as stark reminders of what's at stake in battles like these.

We were stunned to silence in little Farmington, Maine, about 50 miles from the Vermont border. In search of groceries, we spurned a huge, new Sam's Club complex and found a locally owned store. It was virtually empty, save for one other shopper and a tired-eyed checkout girl. The future appeared all too clear for this little grocery store in the shadow of the monster.

It was Frank Bryan who seemed to sum it all up, even though he wasn't talking about Wal-Mart. The rural lifestyle at stake in Vermont today is the incubator for an inventiveness that urban settings can't match, he said. The rural way is all about making do, or making something work to make things do. Inventions like the steam engine and the platform scale were born of that inventiveness in Vermont. The creativity born of this rural lifestyle is a matter of necessity, even today.

The urban lifestyle, with its attendant amenities and big box store solutions, dulls the very ingenuity that places like Vermont engender. What's at stake? An awful lot, it seems.

Bill Berry of Stevens Point writes a semimonthly column for The Capital Times. E-mail: billnick@coredcs.com.

Copyright 2004 The Capital Times

###