Lunenburg

Chartered in 1763, Lunenburg sits on the Connecticut River in Essex County, directly across from Lancaster, New Hampshire. The town was one of the earliest settled in the Northeast Kingdom, and its river-valley location gave it advantages — fertile intervale land and access to trade routes — that the more mountainous interior towns lacked.

Lunenburg has about 1,245 residents and includes the villages of Lunenburg and Gilman. The Neal Pond area in the town's interior provides recreation, while the Connecticut River frontage connects the community to the broader Upper Connecticut River valley. The town's economy has historically relied on farming, logging, and the paper industry — the former Gilman paper mill, across the river in New Hampshire, employed many Lunenburg residents for generations.

Local governance follows the selectboard and town meeting model. Lunenburg's position as a river town at the edge of Vermont's most rural county gives it a perspective that bridges the Northeast Kingdom's isolation with the Connecticut River valley's connectivity — a duality that shapes civic life here.