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, and to the annual Roots on the River Festival.
The falls were once a fishing place for nomadic Abenaki tribes, who caught plentiful salmon and shad. First called Great Falls, it was settled in 1753 by the English...
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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, and to the annual Roots on the River Festival.
The falls were once a fishing place for nomadic Abenaki tribes, who caught plentiful salmon and shad. First called Great Falls, it was settled in 1753 by the English and named for Colonel Benjamin Bellows, a landowner. In 1785, Colonel Enoch Hale built at the falls the first bridge over the Connecticut River. It remained the only bridge across until 1796, when another was built at Springfield, Massachusetts. The Bellows Falls Canal, built in 1791-1802, lifted boats 52 feet (16 m) in 8 locks around the gorge, and also provided water power for industry.
In 1802, the first paper mill was established. Two railroads converged in 1849 at Bellows Falls, helping it develop into a major mill town. By 1859, there...
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