Paul Carnahan
In the 1870s, Pioneer Mills built a dam across the Winooski River about a mile and a half upstream from the village of Montpelier, near the bridge at the end of Barre Street. It provided water power to wood-working companies that occupied buildings on what was then the Berlin side of the river. The Vermont Watchman opined, “In a few years, it is believed that a flourishing village will grow around the Pioneer dam, and with shops on both sides of the Winooski, a substantial addition will be made to Montpelier’s standing as a manufacturing centre.” Granite soon supplanted wood products at the site. In 1888 the Pioneer dam also began to supply electricity to the villages of Montpelier and Barre for lighting. Eventually the Pioneer dam was made obsolete by larger hydroelectric plants elsewhere. The city of Montpelier plans to remove the dam to improve flood resiliency.
—historic photo courtesy of Vermont Historical Society; text and modern photo by Paul Carnahan
