Shawn Dumont was on a back road near Tunbridge when he saw the sign. "No to war," it said, above a yellow-and-blue peace symbol. "I got out and took a picture of it and thought, Wow, that's so cool," Dumont said. He kept driving, then saw another roadside peace sign. I'm going to start documenting these, Dumont thought. Before he knew it, Dumont, a graphic designer and artist who lives in Burlington, was taking drives every weekend with his two young kids. They'd set out without a destination, in search of the peace signs that dot Vermont's landscape. When they'd find a peace sign, they'd stop and knock on the door and ask whether they could snap a photo. The answer was invariably yes, Dumont said, and what he found was a much larger story about the people they met — specifically, those associated with the back-to-the-land movement, who came here in the 1960s and '70s. "They didn't change Vermont as much as they appreciated it and protected it," Dumont said, noting that the food co-ops they created, for instance, helped support generational farmers. The modern-day version of the state, he said, is "all because of these people. The fruit is all here because of the seeds they planted." The revelation prompted Dumont to compile a short photo book about what he and his kids found, filled with some of their favorite peace sign images and written reflections sprinkled in. The result, Peace Signs of Vermont: The Visual Legacy of the Back-to-the-Land Movement, is available online for $30 and in some shops around Vermont — plus one in Japan. Dumont guesses his crew has snapped photos of about 100 peace signs around the state. And, he notes in the book, he and his family are no longer "mere observers." Over the summer, they helped paint a peace sign on a barn at Burlington's Intervale Community Farm. "We're proud to have contributed to the story of this state, where the old ideals of peace, connection, and community continue to find fresh expression across Vermont's rolling hills and weathered barns," Dumont writes. While the book is finished, the journey isn't. Dumont and the kids recently took a weekend drive, he said, hunting for more signs of peace. For more, visit sheltercultivationproject.com. The original print version of this article was headlined "Long Strange Trip" …