Caledonia County

Named for the Roman word for Scotland — a nod to the many Scottish settlers who arrived in the late 18th century — Caledonia County was established in 1792. It sits in Vermont's northeastern region, a landscape of rolling hills, hardwood forests, and the broad Connecticut River valley along the New Hampshire border. The Passumpsic River cuts through the county's heart, and its falls powered the mills that built St. Johnsbury.

St. Johnsbury, the county seat, owes much of its character to the Fairbanks family. Thaddeus Fairbanks invented the platform scale there in 1830, and the E. & T. Fairbanks Company grew into one of the largest employers in northern New England. The family's philanthropy gave the town two institutions that still anchor it: the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum (1871), which houses an extraordinary art gallery including Albert Bierstadt's 10-foot painting "The Domes of the Yosemite," and the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium (1891), the state's only public planetarium.

The county's 17 towns are home to around 31,000 people. The Northeast Kingdom — a term coined by Senator George Aiken in 1949 — includes Caledonia along with Essex and Orleans counties. Maple sugaring, logging, and small-scale farming remain economic staples. The Caledonia County Courthouse in St. Johnsbury, a brick Italianate building dating to 1855, serves as the seat of county government, housing the Superior Court, state's attorney, and sheriff's department.