Isle La Motte

Isle La Motte
	; Statue of Samuel de Champlain on the site of his first shore leave in what is now Vermont
Location in Vermont
	Isle La Motte
	Isle La Motte
Basic data
Foundation :	October 27, 1779
State :	United States
State :	Vermont
County :	Grand Isle County
Coordinates :	44 ° 52 ′ N , 73 ° 21 ′ W Coordinates: 44 ° 52 ′ N , 73 ° 21 ′ W
Time zone :	Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents :	471 (as of 2010)
Population density :	23.1 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	43.2 km 2 (approx. 17 mi 2 ) of; which 20.4 km 2 (approx. 8 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	30 m
Postal code :	05463
Area code :	+1 802
FIPS :	50-35875
GNIS ID :	1462125
Website :	www.IsleLaMotte.org

Isle La Motte is an island and town in Grand Isle County of the state of Vermont in the United States with 471 inhabitants (according to the 2010 census).

geography

Geographical location

Isle La Motte is located in Lake Champlain , around 15 kilometers south of the Canadian border and right on the border with New York State . It extends about nine kilometers in a north-south direction and about three kilometers in an east-west direction; the area of the island is 20.6 km². It is connected to Alburg in the east via a bridge. The surface is flat.

Neighboring communities

Since the Isle La Motte is an island, the road connections that were created via dams in Lake Champlain often have to cover much longer distances to the surrounding places than the straight-line distance indicates. Therefore, in the following list, the distances by road are given as an additional second item.

North: Alburgh (11 km / 15 km)
North: North Hero (7 km / 15 km)
Northeast: Swanton (17 km / 28 km)
South East: Grand Isle (18 km / 28 km)
Southeast: St. Albans (18 km / 50 km)
South: South Hero (26 km / 38 km)
West: Plattsburgh (22 km / 37 km)

climate

The mean mean temperature in Isle La Motte ranges from −9.44 ° C (15 ° Fahrenheit ) in January to 20.6 ° C (69 ° Fahrenheit) in July. This means that the place is around 9 degrees cooler than the long-term average in the USA. The snowfall between mid-October and mid-May is more than two meters, about twice as high as the average snow depth in the USA. The daily sunshine duration is at the lower end of the range of values in the USA, between September and mid-December it is even significantly lower.

history

Lighthouse from 1881; on the northern tip of the island, seen from the land side

Like the entire area around Lake Champlain , Isle La Motte has been around since around 8000 BC. Inhabited as evidence of camps, spearheads and flint stones. The written history of the island did not begin until 1602 with the expedition of Samuel de Champlain , who later discovered Lake Champlain, which was later named after him, and who set foot in what is now Vermont on Isle La Motte. In 1666 a fort was built on the island to protect the French colonists living in the north against raids by the local tribes, which could hold 300 soldiers and was commanded by Pierre de St. Paul, Sieur de la Motte . The island is named after this first commander. A chapel was built inside the fort for St. Anne, mother of Mary. After four years of existence as the southernmost outpost of France on the American continent, the fort was abandoned and razed. The troops stationed here were ordered back to Canada. The St. Anne's Chapel was also torn down, but the local Mohawks remembered the place as Tgawistaniyonteh , which means "where a bell is hung".

After the conquest of the area by the English and subsequently the American War of Independence , the Isle La Motte was planned for settlement by veterans of the War of Independence at the same time as the areas of Alburgh and Two Heros in 1779. In the area of the Isle of Motte , as it was named in the declaration, 96 settlers were registered.

Between 1802 and 1830 the island was named Vineyard ; the reason for the renaming and renaming is unknown. The island's first post office, which opened in 1829, was still addressed as Vineyard until 1853 , when it was finally brought into line with its current name. Another post office, the Fisk Post Office - named after its operator - operated between 1892 and 1929.

religion

1843 Methodist Church
(listed on the National Register of Historic Places )

In 1892 Isle La Motte was rediscovered by a Burlington Catholic community as the site of the region's first St. Anne's Chapel; the Indian name of the island was decisive. The chapel was rebuilt with donations in 1893 and has served as an important place of pilgrimage for Vermont, New York and southeastern Canada ever since. On Isle La Motte there is a Roman Catholic and a Methodist congregation. The pilgrimage site of St. Anne's Chapel is constantly manned by a Catholic priest.

Population development

Census results - Town of Isle La Motte, Vermont
year	1700	1710	1720	1730	1740	1750	1760	1770	1780	1790
Residents										47
year	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890
Residents	132	338	312	454	435	476	564	497	504	551
year	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990
Residents	508	510	385	352	335	295	238	262	393	408
year	2000	2010	2020	2030	2040	2050	2060	2070	2080	2090
Residents	488	471

Culture and sights

Natural monuments

The Chazy Fossil Reef

The black-gray, marble-like stone of the island turned out to be an essential geological relic, which was quarried in several quarries, especially on the southern tip of the island and used in many well-known buildings in the region such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Radio City Music Hall in New York: it is the remains of one of the oldest reefs on earth. The reef formed 480 to 450 million years ago in a shallow body of water near the equator and extended over a length of 2,000 kilometers. It is particularly noteworthy that corals were found among the reef builders here for the first time, although not as a main contributor. The quarries were closed after the importance of the formations was recognized and are now used by geologists as profound outcrops. Since 2009 the fossil reef has been a national natural monument.

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

The Vermont Route 129 runs north to south through the center of Town. It connects Ilse La Motte with neighboring Alburgh via a bridge. There is no Amtrak stop in Isle La Motte. The nearest stops are in Rouses Point or St. Albans.

Public facilities

There is no hospital in Isle La Motte. The closest hospital is the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.

education

Schoolhouse from 1843
(listed on the National Register of Historic Places )

Isle La Motte belongs to the Grand Isle Supervisory Union with Alburgh, Grand Isle, North Hero and South Hero . The Isle La Motte School offers classes from kindergarten to sixth grade.

The Isle La Motte Free Public is located on Main Street. The Isle La Motte Historical Society was founded in 1925. She takes care of the preservation of the local relics of history; this also includes a school house from 1840, a forge and a log house from the same period, which have been put together to form a small historic village.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Nelson W. Fisk (1854–1923), Lieutenant Governor of Vermont

literature

Zadock Thompson: History of Vermont, natural, civil and statistical, in three parts . Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington 1842, p. Volume III, p 96 ( limited preview in Google Book search). (for development up to 1840)
Abby Maria Hemenway: The Vermont historical Gazetteer, Volume 2 . Burlington 1870, p. 554 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).