Bridgewater

Straddling the Ottauquechee River in Windsor County, Bridgewater was chartered in 1761 and developed around the water power that drove its early mills. The town's four villages -- Bridgewater, Bridgewater Center, Bridgewater Corners, and West Bridgewater -- each grew up around a different mill site along the river and its tributaries, giving the town a spread-out character that persists today.

Bridgewater's most famous enterprise in recent decades was the Long Trail Brewing Company, which operated out of the old Bridgewater Woolen Mill before moving to larger quarters. The Ottauquechee River valley through town is a scenic corridor, and the surrounding hills offer the kind of quiet, undeveloped landscape that draws people looking for the Vermont of a generation ago. The town sits between Woodstock and Killington, making it a less-trafficked alternative to those busier destinations.

With about 1,050 residents, Bridgewater is a small town with a strong sense of its own identity. The selectboard and annual town meeting form the basis of local governance -- a system where showing up and speaking up are the most direct paths to shaping how the community spends its money and manages its roads, forests, and future.