Rupert

In the years before Vermont declared independence, the Council of Safety — the provisional government of the breakaway republic — met at a tavern in Rupert. The town, chartered in 1761 in Bennington County, played a role in the early political organizing that led to Vermont's 1777 constitution, the first in America to ban adult slavery and establish universal male suffrage regardless of property ownership.

Rupert sits in the Valley of Vermont between the Taconic Range and the Green Mountains, its terrain a mix of farmland and forested hills. The Merck Forest and Farmland Center, a 3,200-acre working farm and forest on the edge of town, offers hiking trails, a sugarbush, and educational programs that connect visitors to the land.

With about 732 residents, Rupert is a small, rural community whose history far outweighs its population. The town governs through a selectboard and annual town meeting, carrying forward the same democratic principles that were debated in that Rupert tavern nearly 250 years ago.