Lamoille County

According to local legend, the county's name is the result of a mapmaker's error. Samuel de Champlain labeled the river "La Mouette" (the seagull) in the early 1600s, but somewhere in the copying of French maps, the letters got rearranged into "Lamoille." The county itself wasn't organized until 1835, making it the second-youngest of Vermont's 14 counties. It was carved from portions of Chittenden, Franklin, Orleans, and Washington counties.

The Lamoille River flows west through the county's center, passing through the towns of Morrisville, Johnson, and Cambridge before eventually reaching Lake Champlain. Stowe, on the county's southern edge, sits at the foot of Mount Mansfield — at 4,393 feet, the highest point in Vermont. The mountain's ski trails opened in 1937, and the Civilian Conservation Corps cut the original trail that became Stowe Mountain Resort. Today Stowe draws visitors year-round, though the town has worked to balance tourism with its small-town identity.

Hyde Park, the county seat, is a village of about 500 people — quiet enough that the county courthouse on Main Street is one of the most prominent buildings in town. Johnson is home to Northern Vermont University (formerly Johnson State College), and Morrisville serves as the commercial hub. The county's ten towns hold roughly 25,000 residents. The sheriff's department and state's attorney operate from Hyde Park, overseeing a county where the mountains are always in view.