You’ll discover Miltonboro’s remains along Lake Champlain’s eastern shore in northern Vermont, where a thriving 19th-century lakeside community once stood. The settlement emerged in the mid-1800s, known for its popular summer camps like Everest, which featured cottages and a bowling alley. Today, only a small walled cemetery and scattered stone foundations mark where this bustling community existed. The site’s rich history of tourism, legends, and natural wonders holds many untold stories.
Key Takeaways
- Miltonboro was a thriving lakeside settlement in Vermont during the mid-1800s that has now completely disappeared except for a small cemetery.
- The community featured popular summer camps including Rich, Martin, Watson, Cold Spring, and Everest along Lake Champlain’s shoreline.
- Camp Everest, established in 1878, was a prominent vacation destination with eight cottages, a camp house, and recreational facilities.
- Natural forces like flooding and erosion, combined with years of abandonment, led to the deterioration of Miltonboro’s buildings and infrastructure.
- Similar to other Vermont ghost towns like Glastenbury, Miltonboro’s structures have vanished, with only historical records documenting its existence.
The Rise of a Lakeside Community
While many Vermont communities flourished along Lake Champlain’s shores, Miltonboro emerged as a distinctive lakeside settlement in the mid-1800s.
You’d have found a stunning natural landscape, with stony beaches and Eagle Mountain’s rocks providing a dramatic backdrop for community growth.
Enterprising property owners transformed their land into popular camps like Rich, Martin, Watson, Cold Spring, and Everest, capitalizing on the tourism impact of the region’s natural beauty.
As visitors flocked to these recreational havens, Miltonboro expanded its infrastructure to meet their needs. The community built schoolhouses, a church, and meetinghouses that served both seasonal tourists and year-round residents.
Deep forests and serene marshlands created an idyllic escape that drew people to this lakeside retreat throughout the 19th century. Camp guests enjoyed amenities including fresh food and recreation during their summer stays. Today, only a small cemetery and the name on maps remain of the once-thriving Miltonboro community.
Camp Everest: A Summer Haven
You’ll find Camp Everest perfectly positioned at Milton’s southernmost lakeshore, offering sweeping views of South Hero Island and the Adirondacks across Lake Champlain.
The camp’s facilities, established in 1878 by Zebediah Everest and A.W. Austin, included eight cottages, a camp house, and a bowling alley where summer tourists gathered amid the natural beauty of beaches and forests. The post-Civil War railroads helped transform the area into a thriving summer destination.
Through generations of Everest family stewardship, the camp evolved into a vibrant seasonal community where both renters and family members created lasting memories against the backdrop of Eagle Mountain’s steep ledges and serpentine marshlands. Local farmers often discovered ancient Native arrowheads while working in the fields near the camp grounds.
Scenic Lakeside Setting Beckons
Nestled along Lake Champlain‘s pristine shoreline, Camp Everest emerged in 1878 as an enchanting summer retreat founded by Zebediah Everest and A.W. Austin.
You’ll discover lakeside tranquility amid stony beaches and rich marshlands, where the dramatic cliffs of Eagle Mountain create an awe-inspiring backdrop to your wilderness escape.
From this vantage point, you’re treated to scenic vistas that stretch across Lake Champlain to South Hero Island and the distant Adirondacks.
The surrounding dense forests and diverse wildlife of the Sandbar Wildlife Management Area add to the natural splendor.
Whether you’re hiking the rocky ledges or watching birds in the southern marshlands, you’ll understand why this spot earned its reputation as a “natural beauty hotspot” that drew visitors throughout the mid-1800s.
Original Buildings and Amenities
As one of Lake Champlain’s premier summer retreats, Camp Everest boasted an impressive array of amenities anchored by its central camp house and eight surrounding cottages.
The camp architecture reflected the typical wood-frame construction of late 19th-century lakeside retreats, designed to maximize both privacy and social interaction.
You’d find the camp house serving multiple purposes – from communal dining to social gatherings – while the surrounding cottages provided intimate spaces for families and visitors alike.
What set Camp Everest apart was its unique recreational amenities, particularly the bowling alley, a rare feature for camps of this era.
The facilities took full advantage of the natural landscape, incorporating both the rocky ledges of Eagle Mountain and the serpentine marshlands into the camp’s recreational offerings.
Families Shape Camp Life
The rich history of Camp Everest began in 1878 when Zebediah Everest and A.W. Austin established their summer retreat on Milton’s lakeshore.
You’ll find that the Everest family’s deep roots in the area dated back to 1868 when they first purchased land from the Soper family in West Milton.
Family traditions flourished as multiple generations, from Zebediah to his son Jebediah and later Herb Everest, maintained the camp’s operations.
The cottages buzzed with communal activities as relatives and renters shared summer experiences.
You’d witness the close-knit atmosphere through social events and shared responsibilities that defined camp life.
The romance between Herb and Phyllis Everest exemplified the intimate connections formed at the camp.
This family-centered approach created a vibrant social fabric that connected local residents with seasonal visitors.
The Mystery of Indian Mound
Despite its evocative name, Indian Mound near Miltonboro stands as a natural geological formation rather than a Native American cultural site. You’ll find its true origins traced back to the Saint Lawrence Ice Sheet and prehistoric Champlain Sea, when marine deposits shaped Vermont’s landscape millions of years ago.
While local folklore suggested indigenous significance, University of Vermont’s 1950s excavations revealed only seashells and marine fossils. The mound’s cultural significance emerged in 1927 when the Hutchins family romantically dubbed it “Indian Mound” while building their camp.
Though nearby areas have yielded indigenous artifacts, leading to some undeveloped preservation zones, the mound itself holds purely geological significance. In 1948, Vermont officials even considered dismantling it for swamp fill before environmental concerns halted those plans. Today, the mound remains hidden within the dense Vermont forest growth, concealing both its location and geological features from curious visitors.
Lost Buildings and Vanished Infrastructure
You’ll find scattered remnants of Miltonboro’s schoolhouse and church foundations nestled among overgrown vegetation, marking where these essential community buildings once stood.
Like many blighted buildings across Vermont, these abandoned structures eventually fell into complete disrepair and ruin after years of neglect.
The footprints of former camp buildings can be traced through deteriorating concrete pads and partial stone foundations that dot the landscape.
The devastating 1927 flood left only Joseph Clark’s office building and Phelps Store standing among the ruins.
While most structures have vanished over time, the old stone wall cemetery has endured, its weathered barriers still protecting the final resting places of early settlers.
Schoolhouse and Church Remnants
During Miltonboro’s heyday, both seasonal and permanent residents relied on several essential communal buildings, including schoolhouses that served campers and locals who couldn’t easily travel to Milton village.
The schoolhouse architecture was simple and functional, designed to meet the needs of the lakeshore community that thrived alongside summer camps like Camp Everest. The deteriorating structures visible today show significant interior damage from years of abandonment.
A church and meetinghouse also anchored the community, hosting regular church gatherings for worship and social activities.
Similar to the abandoned logging town of Glastenbury, you won’t find these structures standing today – they’ve all vanished, leaving only traces of their existence through historical records and local memories.
The most visible reminder is a small cemetery enclosed by stone walls, marking where this once-vibrant community gathered, learned, and worshipped together.
Former Camp Building Locations
Once thriving along the Miltonboro lakeshore, Camp Everest stood as the area’s premier summer destination from its establishment in 1878 by Zebediah Everest and A.W. Austin.
The camp’s architectural legacy included a main house, bowling alley, and eight cottages nestled between Eagle Mountain ledges and Sandbar Wildlife Management Area marshlands.
You’ll find few physical remnants of these camp memories today, though historic documents tell of its role serving summer tourists along Lake Champlain.
By 1927, the Hutchins family added their “Indian Mound Camp” atop a nearby steep hill, expanding Miltonboro’s vacation offerings.
Like many abandoned dairy farms across Vermont’s landscape, Indian Mound Camp has vanished into history, leaving only scattered references to mark its existence.
The remote location and limited traffic have helped preserve the peaceful solitude these camps once sought.
Stone Wall Cemetery Survival
While most of Miltonboro’s original structures have disappeared into history, the distinctive stone wall cemetery stands as one of the area’s last visible remnants from its bustling past.
The wall, dating to the late 19th or early 20th century, mirrors similar stone fences found in other Milton region cemeteries, emphasizing its historical preservation significance.
You’ll find this cemetery’s survival particularly remarkable given the complete disappearance of neighboring structures like the church, Camp Everest’s facilities, and various community buildings.
- The cemetery outlasted the adjacent church that once served the community
- Its stone wall provided essential protection as surrounding buildings vanished
- Vermont Old Cemetery Association helps maintain historical records
- The site represents the last physical connection to Miltonboro’s lakeshore community
Natural Landscape and Environmental Forces
Situated along Lake Champlain‘s scenic shoreline, Miltonboro’s natural landscape presents a complex tapestry of marshlands, steep ledges, and diverse terrain features.
You’ll find Eagle Mountain‘s rugged ledges forming the northern boundary, while the protected Sandbar Wildlife Management Area‘s serpentine wetlands define the southern edge. These marshlands have played a decisive role in the town’s fate through natural reclamation processes.
Over time, environmental forces have transformed this once-populated summer camp area. Seasonal flooding, unstable soils, and persistent erosion undermined building foundations, while ecological succession gradually consumed abandoned structures.
Nature’s patient siege transformed the vibrant summer camp into ruins, as floods and erosion steadily dismantled human ambitions.
The region’s freeze-thaw cycles and heavy precipitation accelerated decay, while expanding wetlands and shifting sediments altered usable land. Today, nature has reclaimed most of Miltonboro, leaving only the stone-walled cemetery as a representation of human settlement.
Debunking the Milton Tunnel Legend
Among Miltonboro’s most enduring mysteries, the legend of an underground tunnel network beneath Main Street has captured local imagination for generations.
However, thorough investigations have consistently debunked these tunnel myths and ghost stories. While a short tunnel did exist between creamery buildings, it never extended beneath Main Street as folklore suggests.
- Technical investigations found no evidence of paranormal activity, with car movements explained by natural elevation changes.
- Historical records show houses were built at different times, making a continuous tunnel system impossible.
- Local historical societies and town trustees have no documentation of mysterious tunnels or supernatural events.
- The creamery tunnel’s actual use was quite ordinary – just a space where employees gathered socially for drinks and cigarettes.
The Last Traces: A Walled Cemetery
One of Miltonboro’s last surviving landmarks, a small stone-walled cemetery, stands as a tribute to this once-thriving lakeshore community.
You’ll find it near the historic site of Camp Everest, surrounded by serpentine marshlands and the dramatic ledges of Eagle Mountain, offering views of South Hero island and the Adirondacks.
While the schoolhouses, church, and other community buildings have vanished, this cemetery’s historical significance endures through careful preservation.
Though Miltonboro’s buildings are now memories, its historic cemetery stands as a carefully preserved testament to the community’s legacy.
Its distinctive stone wall remains intact, marking clear boundaries between past and present.
Recent cemetery preservation efforts, including cleanings in 2006 and 2010, demonstrate ongoing commitment to maintaining this crucial piece of local heritage.
As one of the area’s few remaining physical connections to Miltonboro’s past, the cemetery continues to serve the community while preserving irreplaceable historical records.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are There Any Surviving Photographs of Miltonboro’s Original Buildings?
You’re barking up the wrong tree seeking original building photos. Despite historic preservation efforts, photographic archives at Milton Historical Society contain no surviving images of the original structures.
What Happened to the Families Who Regularly Summered at Camp Everest?
You’d find the families gradually drifted away as summer traditions faded in the early 1900s. Their descendants carried family memories elsewhere, though records don’t track where most ultimately settled after leaving Camp Everest.
Were Any Artifacts Ever Recovered From the Indian Mound Site?
You’ll find the archaeological findings at the Milton mound were quite limited – no Native American artifacts were recovered, though seashells and fossils suggest it’s likely a natural glacial formation rather than human-made.
Did Any Year-Round Residents Live in Miltonboro During Its Peak?
You’ll find that year-round residents did exist during Miltonboro’s peak, mainly consisting of families running local farms and camp operations, though the peak population was primarily seasonal visitors and campers.
What Caused the Final Abandonment of Camp Everest in the 1970S?
Like a fading campfire, your beloved Camp Everest couldn’t survive the final factors of declining tourism, changing vacation preferences, and mounting economic pressures, leading to the camp’s closure in the 1970s.
References
- https://obscurevermont.com/2014/08/
- https://urbanpostmortem.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/milton-mysteries-the-tunnel-underneath-main-street/
- https://obscurevermont.com/milton-mysteries-the-indian-mound/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScW-H7A8yL8
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ghost_towns_in_Vermont
- https://urbanpostmortem.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/milton-mysteries-the-indian-mound/
- https://www.miltonvthistory.org/uploads/1/8/9/8/18989561/mhs_nl_2004-05.pdf
- https://www.lcnrcd.com/files/5ada93f3b/LowerLamoilleHistory.pdf
- https://obscurevermont.com/tag/flood-of-1927/
- https://www.miltonvthistory.org/uploads/1/8/9/8/18989561/mhs_nl_2012-13.pdf
