Searsburg

With a population of around 126, Searsburg is one of the smallest towns in Vermont. Located in Bennington County along the Deerfield River, the town was chartered in 1781 and named after Colonel Isaac Searle. For most of its history, Searsburg was a logging and milling community, its economy tied to the river and the surrounding forests of the Green Mountain National Forest.

In the modern era, Searsburg became notable as the site of one of Vermont's first commercial wind farms, installed on a ridgeline in 1997. The town's tiny population means that governance is an intimate affair — town meeting here is less a civic ritual than a neighborhood conversation. Nearly every resident knows every other, and decisions about the budget or road maintenance carry the directness that comes with true small-scale democracy.