Sights

St. Albans Historical Society Museum

Situated on the east side of the green, the three-story St. Albans Historical Society Museum (Church St., 802/527-7933, www.vmga.org/franklin/st.albanshs.html [1], 1–4 p.m. Mon.–Fri. mid-June–early Oct., $3 adults, free children 14 and under) is chock-full of historical artifacts, including relics from the Civil War raid, a 3-D re-creation of Norman Rockwell’s painting The Doctors Office, and railroad memorabilia. Its pièce de résistance is a new 18-foot-long LED-festooned diorama of the Lake Champlain region.

Chester A. Arthur Historical Site

North of St. Albans [2], the Chester A. Arthur Historical Site (off Rte. 36 or 108, Fairfield, 802/828-3051, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Sat.–Sun. July–mid-Oct., donations accepted) honors the nation’s 21st president, best known for reigning in the worst of the Gilded Age excess with rigorous prosecution of fraud and the establishment of the modern civil service.

The site displays a pictorial history of Chas’s life in a reconstruction of the home where Arthur was purportedly born (though modern research shows he actually moved to the house when he was one year old). To get to the site, head north from the small village of Fairfield and bear right after one mile. Continue for five miles along the road, which eventually turns to gravel.

Abenaki Nation

Nearby Swanton is also the tribal headquarters for the Abenaki Nation (100 Grand Ave., Swanton, 802/868-2559, www.abenakination.org [3]), the western branch of the “People of the Dawn,” the Native Americans who inhabited most of northern Vermont [4], New Hampshire [5], and Maine [6] for thousands of years before the coming of European settlers. The Nation runs a museum with exhibits including headdresses, masks, and an authentic birch-bark canoe.