Brighton

Island Pond -- both the lake and the village that shares its name -- is the heart of Brighton, an Essex County town that has served as the unofficial capital of the Northeast Kingdom since the region was given that name in 1949. The town was chartered in 1781, but its real growth came with the arrival of the Grand Trunk Railway in the 1850s, which made Island Pond a major railroad junction connecting Montreal to the Atlantic coast.

The railroad defined Island Pond for over a century. The roundhouse, the rail yard, and the workers who maintained them gave the village a workaday character unusual for such a remote location. When the railroad declined, the town reinvented itself around outdoor recreation -- snowmobiling, ATV riding, fishing, and hunting draw visitors year-round. Island Pond the lake, with its distinctive island visible from the village, remains one of the prettiest bodies of water in the Northeast Kingdom.

Brighton has about 1,155 residents and operates under the selectboard system. Town meeting day is a well-attended affair in a community that takes local governance seriously -- perhaps because, in a region this remote, the decisions made at the town level are often the ones that matter most.