Pawlet

Straddling the Mettawee River in Rutland County, Pawlet was chartered in 1761 and settled by families who recognized the valley's potential for farming. The town's position along the river provided water power for early mills, and by the 1800s Pawlet had developed a modest village center with the usual complement of church, store, and town hall.

Pawlet is perhaps best known as the setting for several of Robert Frost's poems — the poet's connection to this corner of Vermont ran deep. The town's landscape of open meadows, wooded hills, and stone walls is the Vermont that Frost wrote about. About 1,410 people call Pawlet home.

The Mettawee Community School serves the town's children, and the Pawlet Public Library occupies a converted church in the village. Town meeting remains the annual event where residents debate budgets and set priorities, continuing a tradition of local self-governance that stretches back to the town's founding under the New Hampshire Grants.