Silver Lake Woods

Silver Lake Woods. . , The Blake and Purmort families were among the first settlers to East Georgia, and were the first to cut a trail along the Lamoille River, now known as Vermont 101A. The foundations are all that remain of one of the dairy farms, which included outbuildings, a large barn, and a sizeable square farmhouse, which burned down in the 1970s. The surrounding fields were open, and hayed with teams of horses. , Known as Blake Pond at the time, the families used the waterbody as a source of water for their farms. Two disastrous fires in Saint Albans in 1891 and 1893 prompted the city to seek a more adequate water supply, resulting in the construction of two dams on the pond. The city renamed the pond to Silver Lake to create an image of more abundant, higher quality water. , Today, walking along the trail, two very large old maple trees mark where the woods began when the land was farmed. As recently as the 1960s, the canopy was low enough for an unobstructed view to Silver Lake. , The Georgia Conservation Commission purchased and conserved this property in 2017 with help from Vermont Land Trust, and funds left to the town by the late Fran Moses. Fran was a longtime resident of Georgia, and an avid birder.