Rural Weston was once home to classic farms arranged as big house, little house, outhouse, barn, and in this sparsely populated town of several hundred a few remaining farms still stand amid fields slowly returning to forest. Local settlers such as the Gilpatricks were versatile and hardy, combining lumbering with work in their farm fields, and most of the Gilpatrick Farm buildings that once stood up the hill burned in 1982. Along the Byway, barns, sheds, and foundations built close to a main farmhouse or connected by an ell reflect the convenience needed in winter. Danforth once bustled with a railroad, shipping, sawmills, several hotels, and a stagecoach, and as lumbering, mills, tanning, and farming thrived, the town's ornate architecture reflected 19th century prosperity. The railroad and the water-powered mills on Baskahegan Stream helped businesses thrive, and after the railroad arrived in 1871, trains shipped wood, leather, and farm products from Danforth.