Category Archives: RiverFest 2022

In 1976 the Brattleboro Reformer reported on the archeological dig that occurred at the Fort Dummer site along the Connecticut River.The site is about 1 mile south of downtown Brattleboro, along the Connecticut River. Fort Dummer was built on the banks of the Connecticut River in 1724. Its purpose was to protect English settlements in northern Massachusetts. There had been a series of attacks by the Abenaki and the French in this area and the Massachusetts colony built the fort to protect these settlers.Northampton and Northfield, Massachusetts were under constant threat of attack by an Indigenous leader known as Grey Lock and the French.The Abenaki viewed the English colonizers as invaders and fought in hopes of stopping the encroaching English advancements up the Connecticut River. When the fort was built it was immediately attacked by Indigenous people attempting to protect their land and way of life.Reports at the time recorded three or four English soldier deaths, […]

Excerpts from local newspapers concerning the replacement of the covered bridge connecting Brattleboro with Hinsdale. March 7, 1902 The old Connecticut River Bridge in Brattleboro, known as the old toll bridge, had the closest call in its history and it is now in such battered and weakened condition that it will probably be a better policy to build a new bridge than to attempt to repair the old one. The damage to the bridge came through the extremely large quantity of ice in the river. The ice went out with a tremendous crash and it was forced so high in the air that it tore away the braces on both sides of the center pier of the bridge and also at the pier on the Vermont shore. Mr. Adams, who occupies barns on the island, moved his horses and wagons to the village and the people on the island were obliged to leave for safety. […]

By JESSICA DOLAN One of the historical sites in Brattleboro that is a key site for Indigenous history, and the history of competition between England and France to settle North America, is Fort Dummer. The history of Fort Dummer takes us into the beginning of the 18th Century, at a time when Sokokis, other Abenakis, and their Northern Seven Nations allies were trying to contain the English within the bounds of their existing colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, and prevent them from settling more Indigenous land to the North and West. Fort Dummer was the first European settlement in what later became Vermont; it was considered by the English to be a northern and western “frontier” of wilderness and Wabanaki territory. And yet, there is not much information about the fort, its land, and its site offered to residents or visitors of Brattleboro. During the time that it was built and […]

The Hinsdale Bridge Collapse Saturday, March 28, 1920 the Hinsdale Bridge between Brattleboro and Island Park collapsed into the Connecticut River. The winter had produced a great deal of snow, a warm spell caused a quick melt, and eight to ten inches of ice were still on the river. The Brattleboro Daily Reformer gave the following description of what led to the bridge collapse. March 28, 1920 “The effect of the warm sun on the superabundance of snow in the woods was beginning to be felt…Brooks swollen by the contents of other brooks fed by smaller tributaries had been pouring into the Connecticut River for days, and the accumulated volume reached flood proportions…The ice jam at East Putney broke away about 5 o’clock, snapping off trees on the river banks as though they were toothpicks in a giant’s hand. When the river here began filling…it was known that the East Putney jam had arrived…With the […]