Found an old cached version of a local history site I used to visit

I was poking around on the Wayback Machine last night and found a site about old mills in Vermont that I used to check all the time back in 2004. The original page had photos of like 30 different mills with directions and stories from the owners, but now the domain just redirects to some spammy ad farm. Really bummed because there was this one entry about a sawmill in Barnet that had a handwritten log from 1923 - can't find that info anywhere else now.

2 comments

2 Comments

charles_green5d agoProlific Poster

Handwritten log from 1923" - that's exactly the kind of stuff that's gone forever once the site vanishes. I used to think saving old websites was pointless but finding that Barnet entry made me realize how much history just disappears.

rubyj112d ago

The 1841 census records alone take up 450,000 pages on the National Archives site. I just don't see how saving every old forum post or obscure blog is practical for anyone, @charles_green. We'd be drowning in digital junk if we tried to keep everything. Most of these old sites were just people talking about their day or sharing memes that were only funny for a week. Letting them fade away actually helps us focus on the stuff that really matters, like those census records or official documents.