Skip to main content

Vermont 251 Club

Entering the Town of Sunderland on Kelley Stand Rd.


Some of you may be aware of county collecting and the tracking site for counties, which is http://www.mob-rule.com/counties/. I tend to visit the county collecting site, and if I am in a new area, I will go bonkers for county collecting. This is because it encourages myself and others to visit places around the country that they would otherwise not have visited. Canada has counties as well, but I have not found a similar map for Canadian counties. However, being a resident of Albany, NY, and having clinched most counties in a radius of hundreds of miles (the island counties of Massachusetts mock me though), I needed something to whet my appetite.


Last year, I stumbled upon the Vermont 251 Club, while reading the yearly Vermont travel guide. To my understanding, the Vermont 251 Club was founded in the 1950s to encourage people to visit every city and town in the State of Vermont. There are 251 of these cities and towns. Some are easy to get to, since they are on major roads such as I-91, US Route 7 or VT Route 9. Others, are more difficult to get to such as Somerset, in southern Vermont, which involves driving on a rickety old forest road. Probably makes sense that Somerset's population is 5 (neighboring Glastenbury's population is 16).


There is an organization for the Vermont 251 Club, based in Vermont, naturally. Currently, I am not one of their members (I have not gotten around to paying dues), but I do keep track of what towns I've visited, and it does give me good reason to try to visit every town in Vermont. It seems to be a much easier goal to accomplish than visiting every town in my home and native state of New York. I currently have visited 219 of the 251 towns in Vermont, with the Northeast Kingdom being essentially what I am missing the most of. There are some other towns, mostly in the northern half of Vermont, that mock me as well.


Links:

vt251.com (Track your Vermont towns)

My own tally of Vermont towns

RedJar.org

Comments

Anonymous said…
Is there a club like this in NY State?

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Mojave Road Trip Part 2; The deadly desert highway (California State Route 127 and Nevada State Route 373)

After leaving Barstow via Old Highway 58 my next destination was in Death Valley.  To access Death Valley from rural San Bernardino County required a trek on north on Interstate 15 to California State Route 127 which becomes Nevada State Route 373 at the state line. Along I-15 I encountered the road sign oddity that is Zzyzx Road about eight miles south of Baker.   Zzyzx Road is a four mile road that used to go to the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa.   The spa was founded in the 1940s and the owner made up the name "Zzyzx" to claim it was the last word in the English Language.  The spa has been shut down since the 1970s and is now part of a Desert Studies Center for California State University. The southern terminus of CA 127 in Baker is located at I-15 exit 246.  CA 127 is a 91 mile north/south highway which runs to the Nevada State Line in Inyo County.  CA 127 is called Death Valley Road from I-15 northward.  South of CA 127 ...

Finding the Pre-Emption Road of New York State

  The Pre-Emption Road (or rather a series of roads named Pre-Emption Road) follows a survey line called the Pre-Emption Line, drawn in the early days of the United States. The story begins with Massachusetts and New York having competing land claims to modern day Western New York State that have their roots in colonial charters granted by the British. After the Revolutionary War ended, this land became the frontier of the nation and its settlement became a priority for the new American government. During this era, there were a lot of competing land claims that needed to be settled. It was no different with the land claims between New York State and Massachusetts. On November 30, 1786, Massachusetts and New York sent representatives to Hartford, Connecticut to resolve their competing land claims. In less than three weeks, the representatives had reached a compromise. Massachusetts would receive pre-emption rights, meaning the right to sell the land after the Indian title ...

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...