Roxbury

Sitting at the height of land between the Winooski and White River watersheds, Roxbury occupies a narrow valley in Washington County where the terrain squeezes between the Green Mountains and the Northfield Range. The town was chartered in 1781 and settled by families who farmed the limited bottomland and sugared the surrounding hillsides.

Roxbury State Fish Hatchery, one of five state fish hatcheries in Vermont, has operated here for over a century, raising trout for stocking in ponds and streams across the state. The hatchery's location was chosen for the cold, clean springs that feed into the headwaters of the Dog River.

With about 593 residents, Roxbury is a quiet pass-through community on Route 12A between Montpelier and Randolph. The town has no commercial center, and residents travel to Northfield or Randolph for most services. Town meeting remains Roxbury's annual gathering for self-governance — a tradition maintained with quiet persistence by a community that has never been large but has always been present.