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Vermont Counties

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Vermont Counties

There are fourteen counties in Vermont. Each county has a county seat, known in Vermont as shire town. In 1777, Vermont had two counties. The western side of the state was called Bennington County and the eastern was called Cumberland County. In 1781 Cumberland County was broken up into three counties in Vermont, plus Washington County, which eventually became part of New Hampshire. Today's Washington County was known as Jefferson County until 1814. Essex County, Orleans County, and Caledonia County are commonly referred to as the Northeast Kingdom.

Grand Isle County, Vermont

Grand Isle County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: North Hero
Year Organized: 1802
Square Miles: 83

Court House:

P.O. Box 7
County Courthouse
North Hero, VT 05474-0007

Etymology - Origin of County Name

For the islands of Lake Champlain, which was named for the French explorer Samuel de Champlain.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Grand Isle County, Vermont, is one of several Vermont counties created from land ceded by the state of New York on January 15, 1777 when Vermont declared itself to be a distinct state from New York. The land originally was contested by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Netherlands, but it remained undelineated until July 20, 1764 when King George III established the boundary between New Hampshire and New York along the west bank of the Connecticut River, north of Massachusetts and south of the parallel of 45 degrees north latitude. New York assigned the land gained to Albany County. On March 12, 1772 Albany County was partitioned to create Charlotte County, and this situation remained until Vermont's independence from New York and Britain. However, this did not end the contest.

On September 3, 1783, as a result of the signing of the Treaty of Paris the Revolutionary War ended with Great Britain recognizing the independence of the United States. Vermont's border with Quebec was established at 45 degrees north latitude, which explains why this county has no dry-land connection to the rest of the United States.

Massachusetts did not formally withdraw its claim to the region, first made in 1629, until December 16, 1786. New York, still not satisfied with the relinquishment of its land to Vermont, asked the U.S. Congress to arbitrate the matter. Congress ruled against New York on March 7, 1788

Subsequently, when Vermont petitioned for Statehood, Congress ordered a joint commission to settle the border between New York and Vermont. This commission ruled prior to Vermont's admission, which took place on March 4, 1791 but a small change they permitted has never been acted upon

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 195 square miles (504 km²), of which, 83 square miles (214 km²) of it is land and 112 square miles (290 km²) of it (57.56%) is water. By area, Grand Isle County is the smallest in the state. Four of its five towns (North Hero, South Hero, Grand Isle and Isle La Motte) are situated entirely on islands in Lake Champlain, while Alburgh is on a peninsula (known as the Alburgh Tongue) extending south into the lake from Quebec .

Neighboring Counties:

Franklin County, Vermont - east
Chittenden County, Vermont - south
Clinton County, New York - west
Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec - north

Cities and Towns:

- Alburg	village	Incorporated Area
- Grand Isle	town
- Isle La Motte	town
- North Hero (County Seat)	town
- South Hero	town

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."