Brunswick

With a population hovering around 131, Brunswick is one of the least populated organized towns in Vermont. Located in Essex County along the Connecticut River, the town was chartered in 1761 but was slow to attract settlers -- the remote location, harsh winters, and thin soil made it a difficult place to establish a farm. Those who did stay were resilient by necessity.

The landscape is dominated by the boreal forest that characterizes Vermont's northeastern corner. The Nulhegan Basin, part of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, lies nearby, and the surrounding area supports more moose than people. Brunswick Springs, a set of mineral springs on the riverbank, have long been considered sacred by the Abenaki people, and multiple attempts to commercialize them over the centuries have ended in failure -- by fire, flood, or financial ruin.

Brunswick maintains its own town government despite its tiny population. The selectboard manages affairs, and town meeting is about as intimate as democratic governance gets -- a gathering where every resident who shows up represents a significant percentage of the electorate. It is direct democracy in its purest, most unmediated form.