Norton

Pressed against the Canadian border in Essex County, Norton is about as far north and east as you can get in Vermont. The town was chartered in 1782, but its remote location and dense forests meant settlement came slowly. Norton's economy has been tied to logging for most of its history, and the surrounding landscape — boreal forest, bogs, and moose habitat — resembles northern Maine more than the pastoral Champlain Valley.

Norton Pond (also called Great Averill Pond in some references — though Norton Pond is the lake within town) and the nearby Averill ponds offer fishing in some of the most remote water in the state. The population hovers around 189, making Norton one of Vermont's smallest organized towns.

Despite its size, Norton maintains its own town government, holding an annual meeting where the handful of registered voters set the budget and elect officers. It's direct democracy at its most literal — in a town this small, a single vote can and does change outcomes.