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The Native Americans who lived in this region were mostly Abenaki, a tribe of the Algonquin nation. These "People of the Dawn" left much of their language as a heritage in Vermont's place names: Winooski means wild onion; Passumpsic is clear running water. Neshobe, who has both a river and a school named for him, was a chief. Today there are few native speakers of the Abenaki language, although ethnic pride is making a comeback, especially in the state's northwestern corner. In summer there are several regional pow-wows where the old traditions are showcased, along with fine handcrafted jewelry and clothing.

The first European known to have explored the region was the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, in the summer of 1609. He entered from the north, the Quebec encampments along the St. Lawrence River, allying with the Algonquins in an expedition against their enemies to the west, the Iroquois. He arrived at the lake that now bears his name (and marks Vermont's western boundary) on July 4th. His French tongue was the source of "Vermont," green mountain, and French is also still spoken in parts of the Northeast Kingdom and around Barre, where French Canadian settlers were drawn to farming and later to granite cutting. Several towns host festivals to celebrate the French Canadian heritage (and food!).

English settlements moved into the state from the south, starting with Fort Dummer near what is now Brattleboro, in 1724. The fort was a defensive outpost in the French and Indian Wars. When peace was made with the French in 1760, settlers from Connecticut and Massachusetts swiftly moved into the region, which was properly called the New Hampshire Grants at the time. Both New York and New Hampshire laid claim to the area. Resistance to those claims gave rise to a local militia, the Green Mountain Boys, led by Col. Ethan Allen in 1775. Their experience would later give them a significant role in the American Revolution at battles in Hubbardton and outside Bennington in 1777.

American though the land might seem, it was first an independent republic, declared at a meeting held in Westminster on January 17, 1777. The Republic of Vermont had its own mint and postal service, and stayed independent until 1791, when the state joined the union as the first "new" member since the original 13. Thomas Chittenden became Vermont's first state governor.

Independence has stuck as a habit of mind. Maybe it's in the water - the state is liberally endowed with rivers, streams, and lakes. Although the population now includes nearly as many "flatlanders" as it does those whose families broke the soil in past centuries, newcomers seem to quickly absorb the tendency to defend the woodlands and wetlands, keeping local government in a ferment over how and when to allow development, and how best to protect what people are still coming to savor: the land itself, whether wild or farmed or settled as villages and larger towns.

Geography - Slicing along the north-south axis of Vermont are the Green Mountains, and their imposing presence dominates travel time and conditions. The two interstates only add up to 320 miles. Interstate 91 is the north-south route, staying close to the Connecticut River, the eastern boundary of the state. About a third of the way up that highway, Interstate 89 swings west toward the Champlain Valley, with views of some of the most imposing mountains: Mansfield and Camel's Hump, both over 4,000 feet high, and surrounded by peaks of around 3,600 feet. This is the only "easy" way to cut across the state in an east-west direction.

TIP: Any travel you do diagonally or from one side of the state to the other is much slower than you'd expect, because the roads are not multi-lane highways, and the terrain rises through mountain passes.

The scenery is spectacular, like the views from the skiers' heaven of Lincoln Notch, the wilderness of Hazen's Notch to the north, and the hundred-mile view as old Route 9 climbs up Hogback Mountain in the south.

This up-and-down geography makes Vermont seem much larger than its outline on the map. If you travel on Interstate 91, you can easily make it from the south end of the state to the Canadian border in three hours. But it will also take three hours to drive from St. Johnsbury to Rutland, diagonally, even though that's less than half the "crow flying" distance on the map!