Wells River: Where Three Railroads Met the Connecticut

Wells River sits at the confluence of the Connecticut and Wells rivers, and for much of the nineteenth century that geography made it one of the more important crossroads in northern New England.

The Connecticut and Passumpsic River Railroad arrived in eighteen forty-eight, linking the village to markets in the south. A few years later the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad reached Woodsville just across the river, adding an east-west line, and by eighteen seventy-three the Montpelier and Wells River Railroad completed a third connection, turning this tiny village into a genuine rail junction. Goods moved in three directions; so did travelers crossing Vermont.

The compact commercial center that grew up around those depots still stands, recognized on the National Register of Historic Places since nineteen eighty-three.