The United States of America is a federal union of 50 states and a capital district. As its name suggests the state of Vermont is located in the Green Mountains (monts verts in French) south of the Canadian border and northeast of New York. Rejecting claims to the territory by New Hampshire and New York, residents organized the independent Vermont Republic in 1777 (during the Amerucan Revolution). In 1791 Vermont was admitted to the United States as the 14th state, the first to be added to the original 13. Vermont is far from the ocean but the state has half a dozen lighthouses nonetheless. The lighthouses are on the eastern side of Lake Champlain, which is part of an international waterway connecting the St. Lawrence and Hudson Rivers. The lake drains northward to the St. Lawrence through the Richelieu River and it is connected southward to the Hudson by the Champlain Canal, opened in 1823. There are six more lighthouses on the west side of the lake in the state of New York. For almost 70 years none of the Lake Champlain lighthouses were active but starting in 2002 the Coast Guard reactivated several lighthouses in each state. Lighthouse Digest has Jeremy D'Entremont's December 2002 article on the relighting effort. At one time there were also three lighthouses on the Vermont side of Lake Memphremagog, but none of these towers have survived. Navigational aids in the United States are operated by the U.S. Coast Guard but ownership (and sometimes operation) of historic lighthouses has been transferred to local authorities and preservation organizations in many cases. Lighthouses on Lake Champlain are operated by the Aids to Navigation Team at Coast Guard Station Burlington, part of Sector Northern New England in the Coast Guard First District. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. USCG numbers are from Vol. I of the USCG Light List.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Southwestern Québec | West: Central and Northern New York
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted 2001. Checked and revised February 22, 2025. Lighthouses: 12. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.