As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary of independence from Great Britain, Vermonters are hatching plans to celebrate the events that sparked the Revolution in 1775.
Jonah Spivak, communications coordinator for the town of Bennington and member of several state and regional committees focused on the 250th anniversary, said he has been working for several years to bring Vermont’s Revolutionary history to life through commemorative events.
Spivak has collaborated with partners in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York to coordinate reenactments and other activities marking the Revolutionary period in the region. The state partners also created a commemorative powder horn for the 250th anniversary that will be transported from Hartford, Connecticut, for the celebrations in Vermont.
“We’re creating a piece of history to go along with that actual history, to tell the story of the 250th,” Spivak said. “The powder horn is a way of linking that story because none of us own the story by ourselves. We all have a piece of it, and we do a better job telling it when we include those other pieces as well.”
To kick off the celebrations on Saturday, eight high school groups in Bennington County are scheduled to debate the question “Shall the colonies seek independence from Great Britain?” from the perspective of colonists in 1775, for a $1,000 prize donated by the Keelan Family Foundation, Spivak said.
Along with the debate, the committee is organizing a field trip to the Bennington Battle Monument and other historic sites for every fourth-grade student in Bennington County and has crafted a curriculum on Vermont’s Revolutionary history for high-schoolers, said Brooke Remington, a member of the educational task force for Bennington 250th anniversary committee.
“We’re just excited to get the opportunity to show students what rich history is right here,” Remington said. “It’s just an opportunity for our kids in the area to delve into history and really interact with that on a personal level and bring things to life.”
Activities at 15 historic sites throughout Bennington County are planned for May 3 and 4. That weekend is set to culminate with a reenactment at the Jonas Galusha Homestead in Shaftesbury, Spivak said.
The state is working to allocate grants to support local efforts in Bennington and Rutland counties, said Laura Trieschmann, the state historic preservation officer and chair of the state’s 250th Anniversary Commission.
The celebrations are scheduled to continue in Castleton on May 8 with a staged dramatization of the Green Mountain Boys planning a siege on Fort Ticonderoga at the Vermont State University campus, said Thomas Hughes, a member of the Castleton Historical Society and organizer of the 250 commemoration events in Castleton.
On the morning of May 9, 1775, the Green Mountain Boys traveled to Fort Ticonderoga, staging an ambush on the British that marked a strategic victory for the Revolutionaries.
“Every 50 years, we like to remind the world that the most important event happening worldwide for one day, the focus was actually in Castleton, and it’s especially not known simply because it was a sneak attack on a fort,” Hughes said. “The fact that men with muskets could take a fort with so many cannons was really quite a triumph.”
At the last Castleton commemoration event 50 years ago, Mike Canty, then 25 years old, led the charge of Green Mountain Boys who ran a relay race of 60 miles from Castleton to Fort Ticonderoga. Canty, wearing a tricorn hat and bearing a musket, was captured on the cover of the Burlington Free Press in 1975.
Canty plans to return to the role on the morning of May 9, with three generations of his family in tow, to lead cyclists out on their journey to Fort Ticonderoga. Canty said he views tracing his steps 50 years later as “ceremonial” and a “neat history lesson” for younger generations.
Vermont’s tradition of commemorating its Revolutionary past is set to continue in 2026 and 2027, which marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bennington.
Spivak said the Battle of Bennington in 1777 is the oldest continuously celebrated battle in the nation, with the first anniversary event in 1778. He said the yearly celebration “really speaks to just how proud Vermonters were about this incredible victory.”
The 250th anniversary events this year and in the coming two years, Spivak said, highlight the importance of civic education and bring underrepresented stories to the fore.
“My hope is twofold: One, that people will enjoy learning about these shared stories, and perhaps even more importantly, that we will inspire that next generation of stewards of our history, and that is our young people growing up today,” Spivak said. “We need these lessons that history can teach us.”
