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Champlain
Islands By Nancy and Richard Woodworth Its promoters call this area Vermont’s West Coast, an appellation that’s appropriate. Viewed from Interstate 87 above St. Albans, deep green islands, large and small, fill the expanse of Lake Champlain beneath a backdrop of towering peaks as far as the eye can see. Every time we pass this breathtaking vista it reminds us of a similar panorama of the San Juan Islands, viewed from Interstate 5 above Washington’s Puget Sound. They call Lake Champlain the inland sea, which is not all that far-fetched. After the Great Lakes, it’s America’s sixth largest freshwater lake, its cool, crystal-clear waters compressed between the Adirondacks to the west and the Green Mountains to the east. But for the presence of mountains and the lack of tidal ups and downs, you could close your eyes and imagine yourself near the ocean in Maine’s Casco Bay or Nova Scotia’s Mahone Bay. Given the "West Coast" and "inland sea" attributes, it’s amazing how undiscovered – and unspoiled – the Champlain Islands are. Although barely fifteen minutes north of Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, and an hour’s drive south of Montreal, the islands convey a sense of isolation. This 30-mile stretch of rural retreat in the middle of the Northeast’s largest lake is something of a never-never land near the international border, too distant for most Americans and another country for Canadians. It has been spared the onslaught that tarnishes similar waterways within development distance of three million people. Grand Isle County, Vermont’s smallest, claims a year-round population of 5,000, tourist accommodations built years ago, summer cottages and campgrounds, rolling farmlands and apple orchards, abundant shoreline, and not much else. U.S. Route 2 is the main road through the islands, from South Hero through Grand Isle, North Hero and Alburg. The islands, incidentally, were part of a charter granted in 1779 to Ethan Allen, Ira Allen and others of the Green Mountain Boys. The grant was given the name Two Heroes, referring to the Allens, and some people still refer to the area as "The Heroes." These little-known islands are replete with history and their own identity, as attested by the 470-page history of the Town of Isle La Motte, one of the more remote islands. "There is a certain indefinable spell about it," wrote author Allen L. Stratton. "It is a quietness, a sense of peace." The islands are long and narrow, never more than five miles wide and sometimes, as at the portage point the Indians named Carrying Place, only as wide as the road separating lake from bay. They’re connected by causeways, bridges and a sense of both peace and place. Material excerpted from Waterside Escapes in the Northeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2005. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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