ADDISON, Vt. (WCAX) – When driving or walking around, you may not realize just how many people walked the same paths for thousands of years. In this week’s edition of “We the People,” reporter Claire Jones visited an Addison County historic site where visitors can not only learn about, but also travel the same routes as people before us have for centuries.
Chimney Point, at the foot of the Lake Champlain Bridge, is just a stone’s throw from Crown Point, New York. But long before there was a bridge, the area was a crossroads with centuries of human history.
“That was the super highway right there,” said Elsa Gilbertson with the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. “This was a busy place all throughout history.”
The Chimney Point State Historic Site museum captures snippets of that history.
The short journey by boat across the lake began with Indigenous groups, with traces of their trade left behind.
When European colonizers arrived, Chimney Point remained a hot spot. In 1731, the French built a fort to block the British from traveling down the lake and began settling the area. Many of the property lines they drew remain. “You can see those skinny lot lines are still visible in the Addison area,” Gilbertson said.
But as the French were leaving in 1759, they burned the fort, leaving only a chimney standing, giving the location its namesake.
Around the end of the Revolutionary War, the building that visitors now walk through was first built. It was a tavern first, and then a summer resort in 1890.
The first Champlain Bridge was completed in 1929.
Finding slices of Chimney Point history continues. Crews replacing the bridge in 2009 made a brand new discovery. “Historians knew that this early redware potter named Moses Bradley practiced somewhere on Chimney Point, but like, where? You know? And then there it was,” Gilbertson said.
Fast forward to today, and the museum continues to dig deep into the countless stories of the area. “To think that all these people passed right by here, and this is what helped with the making of our country,” Gilbertson said.
Connecting the travels that We The People make today with those same steps made by those before us for thousands of years.
