Glover

In 1810, a dam failure on Long Pond sent a catastrophic flood through Glover and the Barton River valley, destroying mills and reshaping the landscape in what became known as the Runaway Pond disaster. It remains one of the most dramatic natural events in Vermont history, and the dry lakebed is still visible today. Glover, chartered in 1783 in Orleans County, has carried this story as part of its identity ever since.

Today Glover is home to about 970 residents and is perhaps best known as the home of Bread and Puppet Theater, the internationally recognized political puppet troupe founded by Peter Schumann. Since the 1970s, Bread and Puppet has staged performances and pageants on its Glover farm, drawing visitors from around the world to this otherwise quiet hill town.

Glover's town meeting tradition continues each March, when residents convene to handle the practical matters of local governance — roads, budgets, schools — in the same direct-democracy format their predecessors used two centuries ago.