A record of 1625 counts four peasant holdings in Vlkolínec and five želiar households — cottars, families with a roof but no field, who worked for the farmers or in the woods. That is the whole village: nine households. The ground is too high and too steep for grain, so the living came from sheep and cattle, from hay cut by hand on the slopes, and from timber and charcoal burning. What kept the place alive also kept it small, which is exactly why it still looks the way it does.Súpis z roku 1625 uvádza vo Vlkolínci štyri sedliacke usadlosti a päť želiarskych domácností — teda rodín, ktoré mali strechu, ale nemali pole, a pracovali u gazdov alebo v lese. To je celá dedina: deväť domácností. Pôda je príliš vysoko a príliš strmá na obilie, a tak sa žilo z oviec a dobytka, zo sena koseného ručne na svahoch a z dreva a uhliarstva. To, čo obec držalo pri živote, ju zároveň držalo malú — a práve preto vyzerá dodnes tak, ako vyzerá.
