Monkton

Rolling farmland, old orchards, and views of the Adirondacks across Lake Champlain define this Addison County town. Monkton was chartered in 1762 and settled in the years following the Revolution. The town's terrain is gentler than the mountain towns to the east, making it well-suited to the dairy farming and apple growing that have sustained the local economy for generations.

Monkton Ridge and Monkton Boro are the two small village centers, neither with more than a handful of buildings. The town is perhaps best known for the Monkton quartzite, a distinctive reddish rock formation that geologists have studied for its ancient fossil record — some of the oldest reef structures in North America are found in the local bedrock.

About 1,840 people live in Monkton today. The town meeting tradition runs deep here, and residents gather each spring to approve budgets, elect officers, and debate the issues that shape life in a small agricultural community.