RIPTON, Vt. (AP) – A former home of famous poet Robert Frost has been vandalized, with intruders destroying dozens of items and setting fire to furniture in what police say was an underage drinking party.

The Homer Noble Farm, a former Frost residence that’s now a historic landmark, was ransacked late Friday night during a party attended by up to 50 people, according to Sgt. Lee Hodsden.

The intruders broke a window to get into the two-story wood frame building – a furnished residence open in the summer – before destroying tables and chairs, pictures, windows, light fixtures and dishes. Wicker furniture and dressers were smashed and thrown into a fireplace, apparently to provide heat in the unheated building, he said.

Empty beer bottles and cans, plastic cups and cellophane apparently used to hold marijuana were also found, according to Hodsden.

The vandals vomited in the living room and discharged two fire extinguishers inside the building, which is located on a dead-end road off Route 125. A cabin on the property where Frost is said to have done some of his writing was untouched.

The damage, which was estimated at $5,000, was discovered Saturday by a hiker who notified police at Middlebury College, which maintains the site. The property’s caretaker was last there at 10 a.m. Friday, police said.

Frost, a celebrated New England poet known for such verse as “The Road Not Taken” and “The Gift Outright,” died in 1963. He summered at the farm from 1939 to 1963.

“We were very disturbed to hear about the extensive vandalism that took place over the weekend at the Homer Noble Farmhouse in Ripton. We will do everything possible to aid the state police in their ongoing investigation and will follow the case closely,” said Michael McKenna, vice president of communications for Middlebury College.

No arrests have been made, although the public has provided numerous leads, according to Hodsden.

AP-ES-12-31-07 1921EST