Bellows Falls Canal is a canal constructed to allow boat traffic to bypass Great Falls [1] on the Connecticut River in Bellows Falls, Vermont. [2] It was constructed by the Bellows Falls Canal Company and was one of the first canals in the United States. [3] It was used for transport, to power mills, and later for hydroelectric power. The Bellows Falls Downtown Historic District includes the canal.
The Library of Congress has a dry plate negative of the canal from 1907. [4] A historical marker on Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, Vermont commemorates the canal's history. [5]
A British-owned company was chartered to make the Connecticut River navigable in 1791 and spent 10 years building nine locks and a dam to bypass 52-foot-high (16 m) Great Falls. The canal was completed in 1802. [5] [6] Although it was planned and built for river transportation, by the time it opened in 1802 there was already at least one mill using the canal for water power, with more built soon after. [7]
Usage declined with the arrival of railroad service in the area in 1849, and the canal ceased to carry boat traffic in 1858. [6] [7] After 1858, the canal only supplied water power to the neighboring mills, of which there were six at the time. [7] After the mills were converted to electric power, the lower (southern) end of the canal with the locks was filled in, and the upper part of the canal was enlarged in 1926-28 to bring more water to a new hydroelectric generating plant built on Bridge Street, which became the southern end of the canal. [5] [6] [8] [9] The hydroelectric plant has a fish ladder, primarily to aid the passage of American shad, with a visitors center and viewing window that is usually open in the summer. [10]
The lower end of the canal with the locks, south of Bridge Street along what is now Mill Street, is where many of the mills were built to use its power. The 1886 lithograph by Burleigh in the sidebar shows some of those mills.
Only one of those mills is still standing, the Frank Adams Grist Mill (see photo in sidebar), the closest mill shown to the left of the large smokestack in the lower center part of the 1886 image, labeled "13". (Several other mills have the same label.)
The canal ran behind where the photographer who took the picture of the grist mill was standing, on what is now Mill Street. [11] The area where those mills stood along the lower end of the canal is now a public park, the Bellows Falls Historic Riverfront Park and Trail System, located along Mill Street. [12]
Bellows Falls is an incorporated village located in the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,747 at the 2020 census. Bellows Falls is home to the Green Mountain Railroad, a heritage railroad; the annual Roots on the River Festival; and the No Film Film Festival.
Rockingham is a town along the Connecticut River in Windham County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,832. Rockingham includes the incorporated villages of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River, as well as a large rural area west of Interstate 91.
Saxtons River is an incorporated village in the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 479 at the 2020 census. For over a hundred years, Saxtons River has been the home of Vermont Academy, an independent secondary school. Most of the village is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as Saxtons River Village Historic District.
The Saxtons River is a 22.9-mile-long (36.9 km) river in the U.S. state of Vermont, a tributary of the Connecticut River. Its watershed covers 78 square miles (200 km2) and a range in altitude of 1,800 feet (550 m); land use is about 80% forested and 3% agricultural, and the upper river supports wild brook trout and brown trout, while Atlantic salmon occur but are usually limited to the area below Twin Falls on the lower river.
Vermont Academy (VA) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory, boarding and day school in Saxtons River, Vermont, serving students from ninth through twelfth grade, as well as postgraduates. Founded in 1876, the campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Vermont Academy Campus Historic District in 2015.
Vermont Route 103 is a 42.036-mile-long (67.650 km) north–south state highway in southern Vermont, United States. It runs from U.S. Route 5 in Rockingham in the east to US 7 in Clarendon near Rutland in the west. The Vermont Country Store's second branch is one attraction along the route, as well as the Okemo Ski Resort in Ludlow.
The Bartonsville Covered Bridge is a wooden covered bridge in the village of Bartonsville, in Rockingham, Vermont, United States. The bridge is a lattice truss style with a 151-foot span, carrying Lower Bartonsville Road over the Williams River. It was built in 2012, replacing a similar bridge built in 1870 by Sanford Granger. The 1870 bridge, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was destroyed in 2011 in flooding caused by Hurricane Irene.
The Turners Falls Canal, also historically known as the Montague Canal, was a canal along the Connecticut River in Montague, Massachusetts. It was reconstructed in 1869.
Bellows Falls station is an Amtrak intercity rail station located in the Bellows Falls village of Rockingham, Vermont, United States. The station is served by the single daily round trip of the Washington, D.C.–St. Albans Vermonter. It has a single side platform adjacent to the single track of the New England Central Railroad mainline.
The Williams River is a 27.0-mile (43.5 km) river in the US state of Vermont. It is a tributary of the Connecticut River. Its watershed covers 117 square miles; land use is about 80% forested and 4% agricultural, and the upper river supports wild brook trout and brown trout.
The Rockingham Meeting House, also known as Old North Meeting House and First Church in Rockingham, is a historic civic and religious building on Meeting House Road in Rockingham, Vermont, United States. The Meeting House was built between 1787 and 1801 and was originally used for both Congregational church meetings as well as civic and governmental meetings. Church services ceased in 1839 but town meetings continued to be held in it until 1869. It was restored in 1906 and has been preserved.
The Bellows Falls Arch Bridge was a three-hinged steel through arch bridge over the Connecticut River between Bellows Falls, Vermont and North Walpole, New Hampshire. It was structurally significant as the longest arch bridge in the United States when it was completed in 1905.
Vermont Route 121 (VT 121) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Vermont. The highway runs 21.439 miles (34.503 km) from VT 11 in Londonderry east to U.S. Route 5 in the incorporated village of Bellows Falls in the town of Rockingham. VT 121 follows the Saxtons River in northern Windham County. The highway has a pair of gravel sections in the towns of Windham and Grafton.
The Bellows Falls Neighborhood Historic District encompasses a residential area of the village of Bellows Falls, Vermont. Located south of downtown Bellows Falls, the area has one of the largest concentrations of well-preserved 19th century residences in southern Vermont. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and enlarged in 2007.
The George–Pine–Henry Historic District encompasses a residential area of the village of Bellows Falls, Vermont. Located west of downtown Bellows Falls, the area has a significant concentration of well-preserved late 19th and early 20th-century residences. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
The Hall Covered Bridge, located in southern Rockingham, Vermont, carries Hall Bridge Road across the Saxtons River, just north of its junction with Vermont Route 121. It is a Town lattice truss bridge, built in 1982 as a replica of a circa-1867 bridge that was destroyed by an overweight truck in 1980. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Moore and Thompson Paper Mill Complex is a major late 19th-century industrial site off Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, Vermont. It is the largest surviving mill complex from the village's industrial heyday, and is one of the largest of the period in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Rockingham Village Historic District encompasses the traditional village center of the town of Rockingham, Vermont. Settled in the 18th century, the district, located mainly on Meeting House Road off Vermont Route 103, includes a variety of 18th and 19th-century houses, and has been little altered since a fire in 1908. It notably includes the 18th-century National Historic Landmark Rockingham Meeting House. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Rockingham Free Public Library is one of four Carnegie Libraries in the state of Vermont. The building, in Bellows Falls, Vermont, a village of Rockingham, Vermont, was designed by Boston architects McLean & Wright in Classical Revival style. The Carnegie grant was offered in 1905. The town took a while to decide on allocating matching funds. The library officially opened on November 23, 1909. A children's annex was added to the building in 1929. In 2003 a new entryway and elevator were added for improved accessibility.
Great Falls is a waterfall along the Connecticut River between Walpole, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont. It has also been called Bellows Falls, and its Abenaki name is Kitchee Pontegu, which means "great falls". Great Falls became its official name, based on local usage, in 2016. It drops 52 feet (16 m), and the village of Bellows Falls was established next to it, to take advantage of its water power. Previously, the main settlement in town, Rockingham Village, was on a high point of land overlooking the Williams River, with no potential for water power.