Vermont is, for many visitors, the postcard-perfect New England state. A part of the United States since 1791, the first to join the Union after the Thirteen Original Colonies, Vermont has many unique, and sometimes quirky, features. The place has attracted artists and other creative geniuses, some of them decidedly eccentric, from its earliest days. The natural parts of Vermont, like the famous Lake Champlain, offer unusual points of interest for visitors and locals alike. With a state as rich in traveling attractions, it should be little wonder that some of them come with a quirk or two.

Montpelier

Montpelier, while being Vermont’s charming capital, is the tiniest among all US state capitals with just around 8,000 residents. For comparison, the second-smallest, Pierre in South Dakota, has a population of about 14,000. Established in 1787, this historic town warmly welcomes visitors with a variety of landmarks, including the Vermont History Museum and the sprawling 200-acre Hubbard Park. The State House is also open to the public for tours. Just a short drive west, less than an hour away, lies Lake Champlain, one of the Northeast’s most beloved watersides.

The town’s name pays homage to Montpellier, a beautiful city in southern France. This naming reflected the high regard for France at the time, especially for their support during the US War of Independence. Interestingly, Montpelier has experienced its share of flooding, with significant damage occurring in the years 1927, 1992, and most recently in 2023.

Elmore

Elmore, a charming small town in Lamoille County with fewer than 900 residents, is a favorite spot for autumn leaf-peepers. Located north of Montpelier, this peaceful town has its own unique charm, including several local landmarks sharing the name ‘Elmore,’ which adds to its character. It’s important to note that Elmore town is separate from East Elmore. To the west, Elmore Mountain overlooks the area, while Elmore State Park lies just north of the town itself. Enjoying waterside beauty, Elmore Lake is often listed among Vermont’s most picturesque lakes, with its waters flowing into the Lamoille River through Elmore Pond Brook. Like Montpelier, Elmore is situated east of Lake Champlain. For those seeking a more bustling scene or a change of pace, the vibrant city of Burlington, just an hour’s drive west, makes for a perfect day trip or weekend getaway.

Stowe

Stowe, with a lively population of 5,300, is Vermont’s top spot for adrenaline seekers and the eccentrics among us, earning its reputation as the state’s premier ski and snowboard destination. The Stowe Mountain Resort proudly calls itself the “ski capital of the east”—that’s the eastern United States. Nestled near the breathtaking Mount Mansfield, Stowe offers more than just winter fun; warmer months bring plenty of activities like hiking and mountain biking in the beautiful Cady Hill Forest.

The town also has a rich history, being the home of Jake Burton Carpenter (1954-2019), the visionary behind Burton Snowboards and a trailblazer in making snowboarding an international sport. While some might have called him eccentric when he launched his company in 1977, today he’s celebrated as a true pioneer whose legacy keeps inspiring young snow sports enthusiasts, like those at Mount Mansfield Winter Academy, a special school dedicated to nurturing the next generation of champions.

Manchester

Manchester, a town with 4,500 residents located in southwest Vermont, is popular among art and architecture enthusiasts. It features Hildene, the estate of Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert, which boasts an impressive Georgian Revival house and grounds. The town’s American Museum of Fly Fishing showcases numerous rods, flies, and related gear, attracting many superstitious anglers. Manchester is also home to Orvis, a renowned fishing and clothing company. The Southern Vermont Arts Center hosts exhibitions, and includes a sculpture garden and performance space. Nature lovers should visit Mount Equinox, west of town, or explore the Green Mountain National Forest to the south.

Eccentric fact: Jonathan Goldsmith, known for portraying “The World’s Most Interesting Man” in Dos Equis commercials, resides in Manchester. Stay quirky, my friends.

Brattleboro

Brattleboro, with a population of 12,100, sits along the Connecticut River and features a variety of attractions and oddities. Located just west of New Hampshire—in which the Connecticut River forms the border—and just north of Massachusetts, the town is an ideal midpoint for exploring the wider New England region. Outdoor enthusiasts will appreciate Fort Dummer State Park, welcoming hikers, bikers, and campers alike. Among the more renowned eccentric figures in history, British writer Rudyard Kipling moved to Brattleboro after marrying a Vermont woman in 1892. Their home, Naulakha, references his birth and childhood in India. Kipling believed that Brattleboro’s conservative small-town culture created an

Woodstock

Woodstock, a town with 3,000 residents located in upstate New York, is separate from the famous 1969 cultural event. This southeastern town attracts architecture enthusiasts, particularly for the First Congregational Church, built in 1807 and featuring a bell cast by American revolutionary Paul Revere, and the Norman Williams Public Library, completed in 1884. For outdoor activities, visitors can walk in Woodstock Town Forest, located south of the town, or enjoy panoramic views from the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park, the only part of the US National Park system in Vermont besides the Appalachian Trail. Recently, Woodstock has modernized its infrastructure with digital technology, launching the “Wireless Woodstock” initiative in 2011, which provides free Wi-Fi across the entire town. It’s not quirky; it’s just cool.

Vermont’s Quirky Small Towns May Also Be Its Best

These small Vermont towns show the state’s sometimes quirky, but never boring character. Architecture fans will find unusual, beautiful examples state-wide. Montpelier is an oddly pint-sized capital with heavyweight history. Brattleboro has long attracted strange, sometimes brilliant types, whether foreign or domestic. Manchester is interesting enough for the World’s Most Interesting Man. And with abundant natural parks, the Green Mountains, and the majesty of Lake Elmore and Lake Champlain, the quirks of Vermont’s best features should attract even the most straight-laced visitors.

If you haven’t lived in certain New England towns, it can be hard to fathom their centuries-old direct democracy-style Town Meetings, where everyday residents vote on mundane town business such as funding for schools, snow plows and road repairs.

These days, voters are also being asked to weigh in on national and international issues, for example, demanding the de-funding of ICE, and condemning “the unprovoked attack and start of an illegal and immoral war against Iran.” It’s all fueling a separate – and fierce– debate on what towns ought to be debating.

“When you have people sleepwalking into an authoritarian regime, it’s up to us to sound the alarm,” insists Dan Dewalt, an activist in Newfane, Vermont, one of several communities where residents scrambled to draft a resolution against the Iran war in time for their annual Town Meeting on Tuesday.

Local resolutions are a uniquely effective tactic, activists and experts say, and they’re being used increasingly around New England and beyond, especially as national politics have become so polarized.

“People feel isolated, helpless and hopeless. And when you hear about other people who are just like you taking a stand and representing something that you believe, that gives you not only hope, but it gives you power,” said Dewalt.

Several other Vermont towns will be considering resolutions Tuesday calling for the removal of the president and vice president “for crimes against the U.S. Constitution,” while many others will vote on a pledge to ” to end all support of Israel’s apartheid policies, settler colonialism, and military occupation and aggression.”

A similar divestment resolution passed 46 -15 in Newfane last year, following hours of heated argument over the plight of Palestinians, the security of Israelis, the “inflammatory” language of the resolution – and whether such problems half-a-world away even belong on the agenda of the tiny town of just about 1,650.

“It’s a Town Meeting for town issues,” Newfane resident Walter Hagadorn declared at a recent Select Board meeting, where residents pressed board members to block any future resolutions not directly related to town business.

“You shouldn’t be subject to hours and hours of people virtue signaling” and trying to “hijack Town Meeting,” Hagadorn said.

Others agreed, suggesting activists host a debate on their issues at another time and place, or stage a rally or protest instead.

But Select Board member Katy Johnson-Aplin pushed back, saying that would not have the same impact.

“It doesn’t work the same way,” Johnson-Aplin said. It’s only when the issue is formally taken up at a Town Meeting that “it goes in the newspaper and it’s recorded that the town of Newfane has agreed to have this conversation.”

University of Pennsylvania political science professor Daniel Hopkins has been watching the growing movement of local communities taking a stand on issues far beyond town lines.

“This is a trend we’re seeing increasingly across the 50 states and in a variety of ways but I think it has taken on a new and potentially more concerning edge,” Hopkins said. “I worry that we are in an attention-grabbing, sensation-rewarding media environment in which the kinds of issues that engage us at a national level may further polarize states and localities and make it harder for them to build meaningful coalitions on other issues.”

Indeed, in Newfane, the resolution regarding Israel became so divisive that some residents decided not to even come to last year’s Town Meeting, according to Select Board vice-chair Marion Dowling.

In Burlington, where a similar resolution was proposed, City Council President Ben Traverse says things got so heated, he and his family were getting harassing phone calls and even death threats. Burlington city councilors voted in January to block the question from going to a popular vote.Vermont has a history of “big issue” resolutions, from the push for a Nuclear Arms Freeze in the 1980’s, to calls to ban genetically modified foods in 2003. Dewalt, the Newfane activist, was behind several of them, including calls to impeach then-president George W. Bush in 2006, which got him invited to talk about it on network TV shows, and quoted in The New York Times.

“I can guarantee you if I stood up on my soap box and made a declaration of the exact same wording, I wouldn’t have had anybody asking me questions about it, he said. “We’re not pie-in-the-sky here about the power of our Newfane Town Meetings, but our actions have consistently had an impact.”

But opponents say activists overstate the impact of their resolutions, and their victory. They say it’s disingenuous, for example, to claim the town of Newfane supported the resolution against Israel, when the winning majority of 46 people was less than 3% of town residents.

“I feel like they’re using the town as a vehicle for their personal messages and that bothers me,” says Newfane resident Cris White. “It’s so junior high.”

Traverse, the Burlington City Council president, also takes issue with what he calls the “inflammatory” language of that resolution.

“The question, as presented, approaches this issue in a one-sided and leading way,” Traverse says.

In Vermont, any registered voter can get a resolution on the Town Meeting agenda by collecting signatures from 5% of their town’s voters. While elected city or town officials have the authority to allow or block the resolution, there is no process in place to vet or edit language.

Traverse says it would behoove city leaders and voters to require an official review to ensure that language is fair and neutral, just as many states do with ballot questions. Traverse says he’s not opposed to contentious, big issue resolutions being put to local voters, but the language must be clear and even-handed.