The Island Pond Historical society

07/26/2023

Island Pond Remembers is a historical video account of Island Pond, Vermont. This old video was filmed in the 1980s. It features citizens who grew up in Isla...

07/26/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63pAygWBW8w
“Island Pond Remembers” is a historical video account of Island Pond, Vermont. This video was filmed in the ’80s. It features residents who grew up in Island Pond as they tell personal accounts of their childhood—special thanks to Allyn McDonald for producing this video.

Island Pond Remembers is a historical video account of Island Pond, Vermont. This old video was filmed in the 1980s. It features citizens who grew up in Isla...

07/26/2023

Logging in the Northeast Kingdom was a booming industry back in the 1800s and so too were timber mills. Mr George Fitzgerald, a resident and a lumber baron of Island Pond in the late 1870s built a timber mill in the same location where the Goulet garage now stands. The existing garage is the last remaining part of the original mill building.

George Fitzgerald owned 40 thousand acres of land around Island Pond and at one point he hired 400 employees. As well as cutting logs into planks of wood, bobbins were made at the mill for woollen mills. He stayed in business until 1903-1906

During the 1800s there were 88 sawmills in the area.

Logging and timber mills were a large part of Island Pond's history. You can view some of the tools that were used from that important era at the Island Pond Museum

07/22/2023

Before the railroad arrived at Island Pond, the population went from a humble 200 farmers and land dwellers to a thriving 1,500 in just twenty years. A large number of new residents arrived with the development of the tracks and other railroad employment. The town soon became an important location as the halfway point between Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine where international links were formed by the Grand Trunk Railway.

The Grand Trunk Railway became bankrupt in 1923 and was taken over by the Canadian Government which ran the railroad through the Canadian National Railroad. Once the Canadian Government started operating the railroad, the economy was outweighed by political considerations and much of the commercial business was diverted from Portland, Maine to the Canadian ports of Halifax and St. John.

The decline of the railroad contributed to the economic deterioration of Island Pond. Passenger service ended in 1963 and by the mid-1970s much of the infrastructure was demolished.