Quechee: Vermont's Little Grand Canyon

The village of Quechee sits above one of Vermont's most dramatic geological surprises. The Ottauquechee River has cut a gorge here that drops one hundred sixty-five feet straight down through ancient rock, earning it the nickname Vermont's Little Grand Canyon. The gorge formed after the last ice age when glacial Lake Hitchcock drained and the river cut quickly through soft sediment, then spent about thirteen thousand years carving the bedrock walls of Gile Mountain schist.

The Abenaki knew this place long before European settlers arrived. The name Quechee derives from an Abenaki word, though scholars debate whether it refers to the gorge itself, the turbulent water, or a nearby landmark.

Europeans turned the falls at the gorge's base into mill power in the early eighteen hundreds. Woolen mills operated here through the nineteenth century. The mills are gone now, and Quechee is better known today for hot air balloon festivals and the Simon Pearce glassblowing studio, which runs on hydroelectric power drawn from the same falls that once ran the looms.