Battle Monument:  celebration center, all day, Governor’s Presentation at 2:30
This Monument marks the destination of the British that led to the Battle of Bennington on August 16, 1777.  Here are statues to General John Stark (NH) and Colonel Seth Warner of the Green Mountain Boys (VT).  There are several other plaques here including one honoring Anthony Haswell, publisher of the first newspaper in Vermont.  Here too is a gift shop.

Samuel Robinson Marker:  leader of the first settlers from Hardwick and Amherst, MA
Walk from the Monument toward Old First Church, to the southeast corner of Bank St.

Catamount Tavern:  a walk-by of the site of the Tavern and a statue of the lion           
This is the site of the Catamount Tavern where the Green Mountain Boys were formed.  Here Ethan Allen formed plans to attack Ft. Ticonderoga in May of 1775.  Here General John Stark (hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill) and Colonel Seth Warner discussed plans for the defenses at the Battle of Bennington in August of 1777.

Ethan Allen: where he lived from 1769 to 1775
Located on the southeast corner of Monument Avenue and Route 9.

Old First:  presentations at 10:00, 12:00, and 2:00; opening ceremony at 11:30 on green
The settlers left Massachusetts to form a church in the spirit of the Great Awakening and Jonathan Edwards.  The original Meeting House served as both a religious and political forum.  Vermont had no capital city so meetings of importance were held in rotating fashion among several locations.  Here Vermont’s Declaration of Independence was debated in 1777 and the U.S. Constitution in 1791 was ratified in 1791.  Here prisoners and the wounded were kept after the Battle of Bennington.
 
Cemetery: self guided tours all day with guided tours at 11 and 1
Here are markers for many of the founders:  Jedediah Dewey (first minister, from Westfield, MA), James Breakenridge (his homestead is one of the “birth places of Vermont”), Moses Robinson, Bridget Harwood (first to arrive, first to die), wounded from the Battle, (and Robert Frost).

Jedediah Dewey’s House:  built by the congregation in 1763, 2nd house south of Old First

Bennington Museum:  just east of the Cemetery and Old First on Route 9
See the artifacts from Old First (Church Gallery), the story of the Battle of Bennington (History Gallery), and the Grandma Moses collection and current exhibit.

Contact:  Don Miller, milled55@nationwde.com, 46 Bank Street, Bennington, VT  05201, 802 442-4411