Vernon

The southernmost town in Vermont, Vernon sits on the Connecticut River in Windham County at the Massachusetts border. Chartered in 1672 as part of Massachusetts and later claimed by New Hampshire before Vermont, the town has a jurisdictional history as complicated as any in the state. Vernon was the site of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, which operated from 1972 until its shutdown in 2014 and decommissioning thereafter — for decades it was a defining feature of the town and a source of tax revenue and controversy in equal measure.

Vernon's population of about 2,215 reflects a community adjusting to its post-nuclear-plant identity. The town's location at the state's southern tip, with easy access to Brattleboro and the Massachusetts border, gives it a different feel than more isolated Vermont communities. Governor Hunt House, dating to the eighteenth century, connects the town to its colonial roots. Town meeting each March remains the forum where residents govern themselves directly.