Canal History
The canals of Vermont were built to extend navigation along the 406-mile-long Connecticut River. These canals were basically bypasses around rapids or falls on the river, using low dams and locks. Some of these, such as the 1791 Bellows Falls Canal were later used as power canals for mills. The Bellows Falls Canal is still in use as a power source.
Canal Groups and Organizations
Major Repositories and Archives
Canal Index Pages
The “canal index” project is an on-going project of the ACS to document canal sites. Most of the information is from the 1970-1990 time period, however new pages are being added. Feel free to contribute to this project by submitting a form.
Please note that many of these are the actual pages done in the early 1970s. Changes have occurred since and there are some inaccuracies in the information on the pages.
Note: Canals in blue and underlined have index sheets which are accessible by double clicking on the hyperlink. Canals listed in green below do not yet have index sheets. They are listed here to make the list more complete. It is intended to add index sheets for them in the future.
- Burlington Canal
- Connecticut River Canals
- Bellows Falls Canal
- Water Quechee Canal (Sumner Falls at Hartland)
- Wilder Canal (White River Falls Canal or Olcutt’s Falls) (Actually in New Hampshire)
- Connecticut River Canals Projected But Never Finished
Revised 10/15/2023