When we moved from Burlington to Colorado Springs in the 70's there was a steep learning curve to be had regarding our new environment. The Springs, contained by the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on the west, was fifty miles south of Denver and growing rapidly towards it. Among the new arrivals to the Springs was the US Olympic & Paralympic Training Center which would train among other athletes, our swim and dive teams. There was also a new year round high school complete with an indoor swimming pool near multiple new housing developments of which we were waiting to get into. I didn't realize it yet, but in another year I would be attending not one of the new schools near our home, but the oldest school in the city. My sister encouraged me to join the swim team and before I knew it I was at practice twice a day and taking swimming for PE. All schools in CS required that students pass beginner swimming prior to graduation.
I mention all of this not simply by way of introductions; but because Jimmy Carter was President and America's oil consumption was front and center. As a Country, we were learning a hard lesson about limited resources, a lesson that our South Western states more easily transferred as conserving water was already part of everyday life. With five teenagers and two adults, my mom drove a Chevy Suburban but soon would be driving a four door Mazda wagon that sounded like a sewing machine with doors that lacked that satisfying thunk when pulled shut. While the nation learned about energy conservation, my family was learning that fines would be issued for water runoff on the sidewalks, Our newly installed yard was mostly crushed red rock with native water conserving shrubs and a small vegetable garden. Coming from VT however, my parents couldn't resist installing a patch of front lawn too.
This was the start of modern US energy conservation / turning off every other light and my introduction to water conservation / using dishwater for more than washing dishes. We were a nation conflicted. We were two years past the Columbia University coined term Climate Change and thirteen years before the 1990 clean water act which included Lake Champlain. We hadn't as it turns out, come to a full four way stop, we had instead only yielded before merging onto the interstate.
When Martin mentioned that he would be interested in a blog about Vernon's brooks then and now, he also mentioned that Vernon once had an Upper Salmon brook and a Lower Salmon brook and would I be willing to look into what became of them. While there may be several explanations for their disappearance from the maps, my mind traveled immediately to the mighty Colorado river. The "Grand" as it was once known flows through seven states and two countries; but due to human activity like dams, irrigation and reservoirs, it no longer reaches it's natural outlet. Instead, what begins as pristine trout streams in the Rocky mountains now ends as mud miles shy of the Gulf of California. The segment of the river that runs through the Grand Canyon is, "...the number one spot on the American Rivers' Most Endangered Rivers report in 2015"* Okay, so that thought may have been a bit of a reach, but we have two missing brooks in our town!
These are the sorts of questions that keep me occupied during our long COVID distancing February nights. Were the Salmon Brooks only renamed as the Broad Brook had been? That brook was named Wanasquatok (Little River) by the indigenous people here before the Europeans. Could the brook have been diverted by development or agriculture or maybe dammed for a mill or impacted by a larger electric generation station? I have become accustomed to brooks flowing from inland east to the Kwenitekw / Connecticut river; but what if there used to be brooks flowing along side of the river like those that flowed along side of Lake Hitchcock 18,000 years ago?
Martin Langeveld informed me that, "In 1891 Washburn History, the "Principal streams" are listed as Broad Brook, Upper and Lower Salmon brook. On the 1869 DeBeers map...a number of brooks are shown but only Broad Brook and Witch Gutter...are identified." Martin also wrote that, "Today, principal brooks in town are listed (in the town plan) as Town Brook, Newton Brook, Cold Brook" with Broad Brook needing to be added. So it would seem that Martin has narrowed the time frame by quite a bit for me.
The closest major change to that date which heavily impacted Vernon was in 1907 when the construction of the Vernon Hydroelectric Dam began. The change to this area was so substantial, that the then Vernon road (now 142) was relocated to adjust for flooding.*** In Sokoki Sojorn; Vernon Dam, Vernon is written about in detail including that the dam was "... built in 1909 atop an ancient fishing site there at the Great Bend."*** The article extensively discusses the promise that the Retreat Meadows and adjoining waterways would not be flooded by the project. The area was flooded and so legal settlements were made. Are the Upper and Lower Salmon Brooks now under water due to the Vernon Dam? Did the construction of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (also discussed in the article), remove the Salmon Brooks? There is however, no mention of either brook in this article.
Just when I thought that I would never crack this mystery, one of my favorite Vernon residents stepped up to help me though she is now unfortunately laid to rest. As it also turns out, the story does include a dam built for energy, just not the one that I had guessed. Barbara Emery Moseley wrote in Hunt'ing Down History part 6, "Jonathan (Hunt) had the means to hire a master builder. Also, there was a close access to a sawmill built several years earlier by his father. It was located on the Lower Salmon Brook, near todays post office plaza (George's Mill). Additionally I located the periodical The Towns of Windham County which under the heading Water Marks states, " It (Connecticut river) frequently rises 30 feet above low water mark. In 1763 it was 37 1-2 feet. At this time, the Lower Salmon Brook was higher than ever known and the embankment on the north side of the mill pond gave way beside two dams above, and thousands of tons of earth were washed through the meadow below. **** Under Principal Streams, Broad Brook, Upper and Lower Salmon Brook, Island Meadow Brook and Belding's Brook. Old Fishing places, Cooper's Point, Lily Pond and The Pool are other water headings of note.
I guess it goes to show, that when researching local mysteries, it's best to start locally! I hope that my starting in Colorado during the energy crisis wasn't too much of an inconvenience to my readers as we solved the mystery of Vernon's vanished brooks. Now aren't we all curious about that mineral spring fed pool? -Norma Manning
Addendum: Rich Holschuh, author of Sokoki Sojourn, contacted me about this post. Rich writes, "I believe Upper Salmon Brook is the one just north of Tyler Road..."
*Colorado River, American Rivers
**Vernon Dam, Sokoki Sojourn
***Hunt'ing Down History part 6, Hunt family history by Barbara Emery Mosely as published in vernonvermont.org
****The Towns of Windham County, Vermont Historical Gazetteer volume V
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