Vol I No. I Fall The first documented use of the word Vermont is dated April 11, Almost all modern historians have accepted the comments of early authorities who associated the word Vermont with France's colonial presence in the Champlain Valley. One of the earliest texts to make the association is Zadock Thompson's History of Vermont Thompson comments that the name "Verd Mont" had been applied long before the claimed christening of the state as "Verd Mont" by Reverend Hugh Peters in He was followed by numerous missionaries, traders, settlers and soldiers who identified rivers and other physical features of the Champlain watershed.
Among the many such christenings, let us mention the original European appropriation of what is now Lake George Lac Saint-Sacrement by the missionary Isaac Jogues in Pierre Lamotte de Saint-Paul was the first to erect a fort in Vermont, on the island which still bears his name.
The French left many traces of their presence in the toponymy of Vermont but Vermont is simply not one of them. The word Vermont is not in any historical way connected with the French presence in the Green Mountain State before No document map, travel journal, official correspondence from the period refers to the Green Mountains or the region as Vermont or Vertmont , Vertsmonts , les Monts Verts , Verdmont , or alternate meanings such as Versmont i. The evidence from the days of New France or rather the lack of it suggests that Green Mountains is not a translation of Vermont but rather that it is the French word which is a translation.
Where did the original name of Green Mountains come from? The dating of the earliest mention of these words might provide some hints. To help us in this endeavor we can summon three types of evidence: the earliest appearance of the words Green Mountains on a map; the earliest references to the words in written documents; contemporary allusions to an oral tradition.
An inventory of early cartography , from the earliest map showing English settlements in what is now southern Vermont to the first map displaying the words "State of Vermont," [7] reveals that the very first map showing " Green Mountains " dates from The earliest identification of mountains in the area designates the White "Hills" of northern New Hampshire.
The available written evidence reveals that the earliest mentions of the Green Mountains are associated with the appearance of the Green Mountain Boys in the summer of Warner's Company of Green Mountain Boys under arms, fired three vollies of small arms, in concert and aid of the glory. Ethan and others began to act as bands of armed men.
As rumors circulated that 'Governor Tryon of New York was marching toward Bennington with troops, the committees of safety in and around Bennington began to collaborate more closely and more openly with the most aggressive agents associated with Seth Warner, Ethan, Remember Baker and others. These elements were now calling themselves Green Mountain Boys.
In June, news of the Governor arrived, not in the form of an invading army, but in the guise of a conciliatory letter. It is to that development and the rejoicing which it unleashed in Bennington that we owe the encomium an expression of enthusiastic praise published in the Hartford Courant.
But by how many years? If one remembers that in , English settlers in Vermont numbered no more than , it is unlikely that such a small, dispersed colony had already appropriated its physiography to the degree of identifying and naming the Vermont section of Appalachia or, for that matter, any mountain range. If the designation Green Mountains originated in the s, it must have taken some time to impose itself. Therefore it is likely that the term Green Mountains became common a few years before the Green Mountain Boys began to create their mythology, that is, in the late s.
A potent argument: no written mention of the Green Mountains can be found before in the hundreds of documents which have come down to us. Oral tradition from the earliest days of English settlement could help us in tracing the origin of Green Mountains or in refining the date of its earliest use. That testimony would have come down to us in written form and would be subject to great caution.
Such evidence is most rare. Late in we find the following startling lesson of geography from Ira : "The Green Mountains begin in Canada near the Bay of Chaleur, and one branch runs through Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and ends near New Haven.
The work of Arthur Hughes lists several Green Mountain and Green Hill, most associated with landmarks in northwestern Connecticut where the Allens and many of the earliest settlers of southern Vermont grew up.
No mountain range in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ever bore the name Green Mountains. Based on a review of the available evidence we can advance with some degree of confidence that the word Vermont is indeed a translation of Green Mountains, and that most likely it comes from the fertile mind of Thomas Young, a self-made scholar who probably knew some French.
In other words: Is Vermont good French? Although Vermont had at first fought for the American cause in the Revolutionary War, the Green Mountain State remained separate from the United States for 14 years—meaning it had its own currency, postal service, constitution, and president—until it became the 14th state in Vermont is one of the six New England states states whose first European settlers were Puritans from England. Much of the state is covered in mountains and forests.
In the center of the state, the most famous range is the Green Mountains. Formed over million years ago, the rocks are thought to be some of the oldest in the world. The rugged Northeast Highlands in the, well, northeastern part of the state and known for granite peaks divided by streams. Running north to south in the eastern part of the state, the Vermont Piedmont is the biggest geographic region. This hilly area includes the fertile Connecticut River Valley.
Lots of lakes dot the Piedmont in the north. The Alcan Highway. Mackinac Bridge Connects Michigan. Golden Gate Bridge. Tennessee Tennessee became the 16th state of the union in Louisiana Louisiana sits above the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River, bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east and Texas to the west.
Pennsylvania One of the original 13 colonies, Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn as a haven for his fellow Quakers. Arkansas Part of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, Arkansas became a separate territory in and achieved statehood in Oregon Following exploration by the Spanish and French, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Oregon was mapped by the Lewis and Clark expedition in their search for the Northwest Passage. The heroics of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys kept their neighbors at bay, and by Vermont had drawn up its own constitution as a free and independent state.
Further asserting the independent thinking of the state, Vermont became the first state to outlaw slavery. The Georgia state legislature proclaimed that Vermont was so independent that "the whole state should be made into an island and towed out to sea. The tradition of independence carries on to the present day, as Vermonters continue to jealously guard every person's right to be free thinkers. Amidst the beautiful scenery of Vermont's hills and valleys, individualism and independence remain strong.
He called them "Verd Mont" meaning green mountain. This well-known nickname for the state of Vermont is in reference to the Green Mountains named by Samuel de Champlain in Currently, this nickname is displayed on Vermont license plates as seen on the plate to the right.
Earlier plates pleaded "See Vermont" or simply stated "Green Mountains. In a state known for its maple syrup, its maple sugar, and its excellent skiing, is it any wonder that these would be represented on the state quarter? Vermont chose to highlight these most important industries by depicting a man tending his sap buckets with Camel's Hump Mountain in the background.
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