Fort Dummer State Park | |
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Type | State park |
Location | 517 Old Guilford Road Brattleboro, Vermont |
Area | 217 acres (88 ha) |
Operated by | Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation |
Open | Memorial Day weekend - Labor Day weekend |
Website | https://vtstateparks.com/fortdummer.html |
Fort Dummer was built in the winter of 1724 in what is now the Town of Brattleboro in southeastern Vermont. Today, it is notable as the first permanent European settlement in Vermont. [1] The original site of the fort is now lost below the waters of the Connecticut River impoundment of the Vernon Dam.
Fort Dummer was a British colonial fort built during Dummer's War by the militia of the Province of Massachusetts Bay under the command of Lieutenant Timothy Dwight [2] in what is now the Town of Brattleboro, in southeastern Vermont. This was in the heart of one of the three main sections of the Equivalent Lands. [3]
The fort was the first permanent European settlement in Vermont. It consisted of a 180-square foot (17 m²) wooden stockade with 12 guns manned by 55 men (43 Massachusetts militiamen and 12 Mohawk warriors). It was named after Lieutenant Governor William Dummer, who was acting governor of Massachusetts at the time of the fort's construction.
On October 11, 1724, seventy Abenakis attacked Fort Dummer and killed 3 or 4 militiamen in the only known military action involving the stockade. [4]
Near the former site of the fort is a granite monument, which is one mile (2 km) south of the Brattleboro railway station.
Fort Dummer State Park is part of the Vermont State Park system. It comprises 217 acres (878,000 m²) of forest in Brattleboro, Guilford & Vernon.
The park overlooks the former site of Fort Dummer which was flooded when the Vernon Dam was built on the Connecticut River in 1908. The granite monument that commemorates the fort is not within the borders of the park. The monument itself was moved in 1908 to prevent it from being lost after the dam was completed. The original site of the fort can be seen from the northernmost scenic vista on the Sunrise Trail within the park. It is now underwater near the lumber company located on the western bank of the river.[ citation needed ]
Campground facilities include 50 tent/trailer sites and 10 lean-to sites, toilet buildings with hot showers, and a sanitary dump station. [5] Other facilities include a small picnic area, three short hiking trails, one of which leads to a swimming hole, and a large open field. [6] [7]
Vernon is a town in Windham County, Vermont, in the United States. The population was 2,192 at the 2020 census. Vernon is the site of the now-defunct Vermont Yankee, the state of Vermont's only nuclear power plant, which closed in December 2014.
The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for 406 miles (653 km) through four states. It rises 300 yards south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island Sound. Its watershed encompasses 11,260 square miles (29,200 km2), covering parts of five U.S. states and one Canadian province, via 148 tributaries, 38 of which are major rivers. It produces 70% of Long Island Sound's fresh water, discharging at 18,400 cubic feet (520 m3) per second.
Northfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. Northfield was first settled in 1673. The population was 2,866 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Connecticut River runs through the town, dividing West Northfield from East Northfield and the village of Northfield, where the town hall is located.
Hinsdale is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 3,948 at the 2020 census. Hinsdale is home to part of Pisgah State Park in the northeast, and part of Wantastiquet Mountain State Forest in the northwest.
Brattleboro, originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located about 10 miles (16 km) north of the Massachusetts state line at the confluence of Vermont's West River and Connecticut. With a 2022 Census population of 12,106, it is the most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, which is the Connecticut River.
Jonathan Hunt was an American lawyer and politician from Vermont. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives for the state of Vermont and was a member of the prominent Hunt family of Vermont.
The New Hampshire Grants or Benning Wentworth Grants were land grants made between 1749 and 1764 by the colonial governor of the Province of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth. The land grants, totaling about 135, were made on land claimed by New Hampshire west of the Connecticut River, territory that was also claimed by the Province of New York. The resulting dispute led to the eventual establishment of the Vermont Republic, which later became the U.S. state of Vermont.
Mount Ascutney is a mountain in the U.S. state of Vermont. At 3,144 feet (958 m), it is the highest peak in Windsor County. Mount Ascutney is a monadnock that rises abruptly from the surrounding lowlands. For example, the Windsor Trail is 2.7 miles (4.3 km) to the summit with 2,514 feet (766 m) of elevation gain and an overall 18% grade. Particularly noteworthy are the mountain's granite outcrops, one of which, near the summit, serves as a launching point for hang-gliders.
Dummer's War (1722–1725) was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wabanaki Confederacy, who were allied with New France. The eastern theater of the war was located primarily along the border between New England and Acadia in Maine, as well as in Nova Scotia; the western theater was located in northern Massachusetts and Vermont in the frontier areas between Canada and New England.
William Dummer was an American-born politician and colonial administrator who spent the majority of his life in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Dummer served as the colony's lieutenant governor from 1716 to 1730, including an extended period from 1723 to 1728 when he acted as governor. He is remembered for his role in leading the colony during Dummer's War, which was fought between the British New England Colonies and a loose coalition of Indian tribes in modern-day New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
The New London Northern Railroad was a part of the Central Vermont Railway from New London, Connecticut, north to Brattleboro, Vermont. After a long period with the Canadian National Railway, it is now operated by the New England Central Railroad. The New London Northern was the only through railroad in Connecticut not to come under the control of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
The Fort at Number 4 was a mid-18th century stockade fortification protecting Plantation Number 4, the northernmost British settlement along the Connecticut River in the Province of New Hampshire until after the French and Indian War. It was located in the present-day town of Charlestown, New Hampshire. A recreation of the fort, dating to 1960, now functions as an open-air museum, and was added to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places in July 2020.
The Ledyard Bridge crosses the Connecticut River to connect Hanover, New Hampshire to Norwich, Vermont. It is the third bridge at this crossing to bear the name of the adventurer John Ledyard.
Jonathan Hunt was an American pioneer, landowner and politician from Vernon, Vermont. He served as second lieutenant governor of Vermont and was a member of the prominent Hunt family of Vermont.
Union Station is an Amtrak intercity rail station located in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, United States. It is served by the one daily round trip of the Vermonter service. Most of the 1915-built station is occupied by the 1972-opened Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, while Amtrak uses a waiting room on the lower floor. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Gray Lock, , was a Western Abenaki warrior chieftain of Woronoco/Pocumtuck ancestry who came to lead the Missisquoi Abenaki band, and whose direct descendants have led the Missisquoi Abenaki until the current day. Born near what is now Westfield, Massachusetts, he eventually became the most illustrious and prominent leader to arise among the dwindling Waranoak, once the predominant original inhabitants of the central Connecticut River Valley in today's New England region.
The Equivalent Lands were several large tracts of land that the Province of Massachusetts Bay made available to settlers from the Connecticut Colony after April 1716. This was done as compensation for an equivalent area of territory that was under Connecticut's jurisdiction but had been inadvertently settled by citizens of Massachusetts. The problem had arisen due to errors and imprecise surveys made earlier in the seventeenth century. The Equivalent Lands were never mapped.
The military history of Vermont covers the military history of the American state of Vermont, as part of French colonial America; as part of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York during the British colonial period and during the French and Indian Wars; as the independent New Connecticut and later Vermont during the American Revolution; and as a state during the War of 1812 and the American Civil War.
The western theatre of Dummer's War in the 1720s in northern New England was referred to as "Grey Lock's War". Grey Lock distinguished himself by conducting guerrilla raids into Vermont and western Massachusetts. He consistently eluded his pursuers, and acquired the name Wawanolet, meaning "he who fools the others, or puts someone off the track."
Holyoke station is an Amtrak intercity train station near the corner of Main and Dwight streets in Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States. The station opened on August 27, 2015, eight months after Amtrak's Vermonter service was re-routed to the Connecticut River Line through the Pioneer Valley.