Bellows Falls, Vermont

Bellows Falls is an incorporated village located in the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,165 at the 2000 census. Bellows Falls is home to the Green Mountain Railroad, a heritage railroad; the annual Roots on the River Festival; and the No Film Film Festival.

History

The falls were once a fishing place for the historic, nomadic Abenaki tribes, who were part of the Algonquian language family. They caught plentiful salmon and shad. Indigenous peoples had fished at the falls and inhabited the area for thousands of years before European arrival. They carved two sets of faces in the rocks just below the falls (see Bellows Falls Petroglyph Site (VT-WD-8)).

The community was settled in 1753 by colonists of English descent, who called it Great Falls. Later the settlers named the town for Colonel Benjamin Bellows, a landowner. In 1785, Colonel Enoch Hale built at the falls the first bridge over the Connecticut River. It was the only bridge across the river until 1796, when another was built at Springfield, Massachusetts. The bridge was later replaced. Two bridges currently link Bellows Falls to New Hampshire: the New Arch Bridge (also called the Church Street Bridge), which replaced the Arch Bridge in 1982, and the Vilas Bridge, which was closed due to safety concerns in 2009.

Bellows Falls station

Bellows Falls is an Amtrak intercity train station in Bellows Falls, Vermont. The station also serves the headquarters of the Green Mountain Scenic Railroad, and provides tourist excursions to Chester Depot, Ludlow, Summit, and Rutland.

Greyhound, the national intercity bus service, also serves Bellows Falls from this station. Local bus service to and from the train station is also provided by the Current's Bellows Falls-Rutland Connector (route 57), linking to Ludlow's Okemo Mountain Resort.

The current station, which is known as the Boston and Maine (B&M) depot for one of the railroads that used it, was constructed in 1923 when its predecessor was extensively damaged in a 1922 fire. In the past the station served Boston and Maine Railroad, Central Vermont Railway and Rutland Railroad trains.

A scene of the 1999 movie The Cider House Rules was filmed there.

References

External links

Media related to Bellows Falls (Amtrak station) at Wikimedia Commons