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| Abbreviated History of Vermont |
Calvin Coolidge Homestead ~ Plymouth Notch, VT
Courtesy Division for Historic Preservation
With a popluation of fewer than one million people, the State of Vermont is the second smallest state in the United States. Vermont was originally populated by the indigenous peoples of the Algonquin, Iroquois, and Abenaki nations. Samuel de Champlain, an early French explorer of North America, was the first European to discover the Green Mountains. The name “Vermont” is derived from the French, les monts verts, “the green mountains.”
With the treaty that ended the French and Indian War in 1763, the French ceded the area known as Vermont to the British. In the New World, Vermont was claimed by both New Hampshire and New York. Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys are credited with overcoming the Yorkers. Vermont formally declared it's independence on January 17, 1777 in Westminster. In 1791, Vermont was admitted to the union of the former colonies, becoming the fourteenth state.
An excerpt from Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont: “Vermont remains exceptional-or at least unusual-among the United States in its small population, its high proportion of rural population…its direct democracy in town meetings, and its close supervision of elected officials and representatives.”
State employees play a significant role in Vermont’s ongoing heritage—in respecting the past, safeguarding the present and helping to shape the future. For more information:
HistoricVermont.org
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