Charlotte

Chartered in 1762 and settled shortly after, Charlotte stretches from the shore of Lake Champlain eastward into the Chittenden County hills. The town was named for Queen Charlotte of England, though within a decade of its founding, loyalty to the crown was decidedly out of fashion. Charlotte's lakefront farms became some of the most productive in the Champlain Valley, and agriculture remains central to the town's identity today.

With a population nearing 3,900, Charlotte is a rural community within easy reach of Burlington. The Charlotte-Essex ferry, which has operated across Lake Champlain since the early nineteenth century, remains one of the oldest continuously running ferry crossings in North America. The town is also home to the Vermont Wildflower Farm, a well-known attraction along Route 7. Charlotte uses a selectboard form of government and conducts business at Town Meeting each March, where residents gather at the Charlotte Central School to vote on budgets and local articles in one of the state's best-attended meetings.