Face the River: A Tour of Montpelier's Riverfront

Trestle Dam

If you walk towards Main Street from Confluence River Park, you will find yourself on a pedestrian bridge parallel to a railroad bridge. Lean over to see the Trestle Dam when the flow level is low. 

This "rat dam," as it’s sometimes called, was built when sewer pipes discharged directly into the North Branch, providing rats with a convenient avenue to enter buildings. The dam created a pond that submerged the sewer pipe openings, preventing rats from entering the pipes.

The sewer pipes and the rats are long since gone, but the crude dam remains. Now, when the Winooski is at flood stage, this three- to five-foot flow barrier leaves the North Branch nowhere to go except up, pushing the river to jump its stone banks and pour into the basements and first floors of much of downtown. Removing even this modest structure could go a long way in protecting Montpelier from flood waters.

In addition to reducing local flood levels, this removal would also offer an immediate fish passage benefit. Compared to the warmer waters of the mainstem of the Winooski River, the North Branch provides cold water habitat that trout and other fish need to survive and reproduce. By having one less barrier along this tributary, fish will be able to enter this critical habitat while they are migrating.

Bailey Dam

Currently next to Montpelier’s Shaw's grocery store, this dam was originally built to power a clothespin factory. The dam was reworked after the 1927 flood, with gates added in an effort to protect against ice jams. In the 1970s, the gates were removed because they had actually exacerbated the issue.

Vermont River Conservancy is now studying Bailey Dam in detail to understand just how much its removal could reduce flood levels in downtown Montpelier. In addition to potential flood level reductions, removing this dam would also provide fish passage, increase water quality, and provide better paddling conditions, connecting upstream paddlers to Confluence River Park once completed.

Distance to next location: 0.9 miles

Barr Hill Gin Distillery

Today, walking this path is the most efficient, and safest, way to get from Barr Hill Gin to downtown Montpelier. Can you imagine that instead of walking back that 1 mile you just did, one day you could put a tube, kayak, or canoe in the river and float down to Confluence River Park? It would be a lot faster, and more fun! 

This project is in the works and a design has been created to make it a reality.

Distance to next location: 0.6 miles

Pioneer Street Dam

Parking is very close to this dam  here , on Old Country Club Rd.

The Pioneer Street Dam, about 1.5 miles from downtown, is the oldest of the four, dating back to the 19th century.  The deteriorating condition of this timber crib dam poses a significant water quality risk to downstream areas. 

Now, there is a portable toilet storage facility upstream, and the land alongside the dam once belonged to Capital City Gas, which burned coal on the site to create gas from 1902 until 1949 and left behind significant coal tar contamination.  Now, decades later, there is concern that sediment behind the crumbling 168-foot-long, eight-foot-high dam could be contaminated because of its proximity to the former gas plant. 

Vermont River Conservancy is studying how to safely remove this crumbling dam and the contaminated sediment behind it, protecting water quality and improving aquatic organism passage. 

Situated along the bike path with convenient parking and easy entry into the river, the opening left behind by the dam could have a future as a starting point for river paddling trips.

Distance to next dam removal site: 2.7 miles

Rivers and Transportation

As you make your way towards the final dam removal site along this tour, take some time to notice how intertwined transportation and rivers are in Vermont. 

While you’ve been on the bike path, you have crossed pedestrian bridges, adjacent to railroad bridges and vehicular bridges. You have been on a built path along the river, next to railroad tracks, state highways, and town roads. You may also notice how the topography changes dramatically the further you get from the river, which has been pushed to the side against steep hills to make more room for our cars and trains to travel along flat land that is a historic floodplain.

5 Home Farm Way

If you peer past the railroad bridge, Route 2, and Agway, you might be able to catch a glimpse of this site- which is going to be a restored floodplain someday soon. Thanks to the committed work of the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience, a legal conundrum has been answered regarding the ownership and historic value of the building on this parcel. 

Located at the confluence of the Winooski River with the Stevens Branch, this site is a floodplain that has the potential to hold large amounts of water before it makes its way into Montpelier. The building on the site will be removed, and the elevation of the floodplain will be lowered to maximize the storage.

Distance to next location: 1.2 miles

Winooski Hydropower Dam

Small parking lot at approximately 200 Power Plant Rd, Montpelier, VT 05602 within half a mile of the dam.

Some of the things you noticed while on the Penstock Trail may make more sense now that you see this dam. The river below the dam is fast-moving, rocky, and way lower than its floodplain compared to the river behind the dam. Behind the dam is a 7.5-acre impoundment, where the water slows and stops before spilling over the dam. 

What makes this dam different from the others you have seen along the tour is that it is still in use for the purpose for which it was built. 

Spanning 227 feet across the river and 26 feet high at its maximum, this dam is a landmark on the landscape that you are bound to notice! While the dam provides hydropower, it also has impacts on fish passage, which is obvious with its large drop-off and fast-moving water below the dam. Fish ladders and a “run of river” release system are strategies that some other hydropower facilities have explored to improve fish passage while continuing to operate.

Distance to next location: 0.6 miles