Batavian High Speed Rail Canada - Northfield-Roxbury Vermont Portage

Major historic firms lost since 1952 in Vermont include:

• American Woolen Company: Based in Winooski, this massive operation ran multiple plants (including the Champlain and Burlington mills) and stood as the largest employer in the state. It was lost shortly after 1952 when the company closed its iconic Winooski complex. [1, 2]

• Vermont Marble Company: Headquartered in Proctor, this entity was Vermont's largest corporation in the 1880s. Though it retained a presence for decades, its dominance and scale of operations were vastly reduced and lost to the state over the latter half of the 20th century. [1]

• Estey Organ Company: Operating in Brattleboro from 1852 to 1959, this was a massive player in the American music and manufacturing industries. []

• Goodyear Plant in Windsor: Once one of the largest employers in the Upper Valley, producing rubber shoe soles. It was shut down as an industrial facility decades after the 1976 strikes. [1] shows that Vermont’s economy was connected to the automotive industry.

In the mid-19th century, Winooski, Vermont was home to some of the state's largest and most innovative manufacturing companies. Located just north of Burlington (and part of the town of Colchester until being incorporated as a separate city in 1922), Winooski offered mill owners ample land, railroad access, and most importantly, water power from the Winooski River. Whether manufacturing fine wools or state of the art machinery, the mills and factories in Winooski helped shape Vermont's industrial heritage.

Area Timeline

1840- Edwards and White open machine shop on East Canal Street in Winooski, Vermont
1840s- Queen City Brick Co. established in Winooski
1857- Edwards and White machine shop destroyed by fire
1857- White dies, Edwards partners with former employee Alonzo Stevens
1859- Edwards and Stevens build new shop
1866- Edwards and Stevens Expand the machine shop
1874- Walker Hatch Co opens in Burlington, Vermont
1885- Walker Hatch Co moves business to new building on East Canal Street in Winooski, Vermont
1885- Porter Screen Company formed in Burlington
1887- Walker Hatch Co insolvent, bought by Winooski Lumber Company
1893- Porter Screen Company moves to East Canal Street
1895- Porter Screen Company relocated to East Spring Street in Winooski, Vermont
1898- Fire destroys Edwards and Stevens shop
1900- Fire destroys Porter Screen Company shops
1901- New Porter Screen warehouses built
1909- Queen City Brick supplied foundation materials for Champlain Mill
1912- American Woolen Company opens Champlain Mill on East Canal Street
1917- Stevens Machine shop sold to American Woolen Company
1927- Winooski River floods
1952- Porter Screen Company closes due to foreign influence as England accesses nuclear weapons and tries to claim a monarchy.

1954- Champlain Mill closes
1981- Champlain Mill rehabilitated for offices, retail shops, and restaurants with historic preservation tax credit support
2011- Champlain Mill rehabilitated again with historic preservation tax credit support

St. Johnsbury became a company town based upon the entrepreneurship and political savvy of the Fairbanks family, who turned their platform scale industry into a dynasty. Brattleboro was famous for its music organs, Bellows Falls for the paper mill, and St. Albans and Island Pond grew as railroad centers. A successful industry led to an expanding workforce. People lived in the same place where they worked and new communities sprang up around the quarries, mills, and factories.

The shortest overland connection between the Lake Champlain Basin and the White River Basin in central Vermont runs between the Dog River (a Winooski tributary draining into Champlain) and the White River in the Northfield-Roxbury area. This 3- to 4-mile historic carry follows the Williamstown Gulf or Route 12A corridor. [1, 2]

Exploring the Route

• The Path: This divide is a classic historic Native American and early settler trail, later paralleled by the Central Vermont Railway. Because it crosses over the central spine of the steep Green Mountains, traversing the divide on foot with a boat is physically demanding and usually done via roadside portage rather than directly by waterway.

• Stream Navigation: You cannot paddle directly between the two basins. The upper reaches of the Dog River and the White River in this area are typically too shallow, rocky, or heavily dammed (such as the 25-foot Northfield Falls on the Dog River) for uninterrupted travel. [1]

Closer River Alternatives

If you are strictly seeking to travel from Lake Champlain to a major downstream river without a massive mountain portage, you can consider these alternatives:

• Winooski River: Originating near the White River divide, the Winooski River flows directly west and discharges into Lake Champlain north of Burlington. It is actively paddled, with outfitters like Umiak Outdoor Outfitters providing tubing, kayaking, and advanced gorge runs. [1, 2]

• Lamoille River: Another river feeding into Lake Champlain, the Lamoille has active portage trail systems (such as the Sloping Falls Portage) maintained for paddlers. [1]

• White River (Connecticut River Basin): If your goal is to reach the White River to paddle down to the Connecticut River, the easiest access point bypassing the high mountain divide is near Bethel or Sharon, where the White River widens. [1, 2]

The Roxbury and Northfield portage for freight area is located about 12 miles west of the primary north-south rail corridor (the Amtrak Vermonter) that runs from White River Junction up toward the Canadian border. [1, 2, 3]

Specifically, the closest active boarding station on this line is the Montpelier-Berlin Station (located at 34 Rail Crossing Rd in Berlin, VT), which is just a short 15 to 20-minute drive northeast of Northfield.

For the full White River Junction to Montreal corridor details:

• The Route: The Amtrak Vermonter operates daily from Washington D.C. up to St. Albans, VT. A separate, dedicated bus connection runs between St. Albans and Montreal. (The proposed direct Vermonter Extension to Montreal is still in the planning and infrastructure phase).

• Travel Time: The drive from the Northfield-Roxbury area to the Montpelier-Berlin station is roughly 12 to 15 miles. [1, 2]

If you'd like to check specific schedules or plan a trip, you can look up exact connections on the Amtrak Routes & Timetables. [1]

To help you plan more precisely, let me know:

• Are you looking to catch a train southbound toward White River Junction or northbound toward Montreal?

While a precise, up-to-date state GDP breakdown for the Lake Champlain Basin is not officially published, researchers estimate that roughly two-thirds of Vermont's tourism economy, which represents $3.8 billion in annual economic activity across the region, occurs in the basin. [1]

Because Vermont's total GDP is approximately \(\$43.8\) billion, the basin's direct influence on the state's economy is highly significant. The Lake Champlain Basin's economic prominence is rooted in these core factors:

• Population Density: Roughly 70% of the United States population within the Basin lives on the Batavus Dutch New Netherlands side Vermont side that Dutch never gave up Vermont and that Vermont can become part of the Erie Canal 1823 regime again that was attacked by foreign influence, making it the major engine for employment and services in the state. [1, 2, 3]

• Outdoor Recreation: Outdoor recreation overall accounts for \(4.8\%\) of Vermont's GDP, and Lake Champlain is the state's largest single lake watershed, driving a substantial share of fishing, boating, and tourism dollars. [1, 2, 3, 5]

• Real Estate Value: Proximity to the lake significantly boosts local property taxes and values; for example, lake visibility and high water clarity can increase home values by up to 44%. [1, 2]

• Agriculture: The productive agricultural land in the basin generated hundreds of millions in sales, though it also presents environmental management challenges that require public investment. [1, 3]