WEST DUMMERSTON-In summer, the West River swimming hole under the Dummerston Covered Bridge is so popular that on Sunday, members of the Dummerston Historical Society had to get there at 10 a.m. to protect some parking spaces for their big noon reveal.
At noon, with approximately 16 Dummerstonians (and 30 bikers) in attendance, the historical society unveiled a new permanent plaque celebrating master carpenter and bridge builder Caleb B. Lamson, who in 1872 built the Dummerston Covered Bridge, the longest covered bridge located entirely within the state of Vermont.
The 280-foot bridge, made entirely of wooden boards held together with wooden pegs, or pins, is a masterpiece of 19th-century engineering. It is the only example of Lamson’s work extant in Vermont.
“The West Dummerston Covered Bridge stands as a powerful example of 19th-century ingenuity meeting 21st-century stewardship,” wrote retired teacher and historian Bill Holiday of Dummerston, who had the original idea for the plaque. “Its Town lattice truss, heavy timber construction, and central stone pier have allowed it to span both the West River and nearly a century and a half of change.”
Celebrating the founding of the nation, the bridge was decorated with a modified Betsy Ross flag, the union containing a circle of 13 stars with the number “250” in the center.
“The flag was just put up on July 1,” said society board member Gail Sorenson, noting it was one of a series sponsored by the Vermont Covered Bridge Society.
“They delivered flags to all the towns with covered bridges, so that hopefully there’s one on every covered bridge in Vermont,” Sorenson said.
Society president Muriel Taylor acknowledged Holiday in her opening remarks.
“In late 2025, Bill contacted me and said the society might be interested in placing a historical marker at the covered bridge,” Taylor said. “We got excited about it. So, Bill, I’m going to thank you several times for doing this.”
Taylor thanked Holiday for his guidance, patience, extensive research, and “way with words and pictures.”
The bridge is one of the more — if not the most — iconic covered bridges in the state of Vermont, Holiday told The Commons.
“And it’s in my hometown,” he said. “So I approached the historical society to see if they’d be interested in putting a marker out there to identify Lamson. I did some research, and it’s just a labor of love, that’s all.”
There are 23 markers of historic sites in Brattleboro alone, Holiday said.
“There’s one on the Common, for example, and at Wells Fountain, at the municipal building, at the Brooks Library, at the old armory, the Gibson-Aiken Center, and on and on it goes,” Holiday said.
“There are three at the high school, one identifying it as a Civil War site, one identifying the Valley Fair that used to be there, and one identifying the grandstand that’s just been renovated but started as a [Works Progress Administration] project in the 1930s,” he continued.
“So I just thought it’d be a good idea to let people see what the bridge is and learn a little history of it,” Holiday said.
A recording of the Holiday’s research, in his own voice, will be available soon via a website link that can be accessed by a QR code on the plaque.
After the unveiling, the group toasted Lamson, who was born in Putney, with apple cider.
Among the details Holiday discovered was that “the bridge was erected to replace a covered bridge that once stood a quarter mile upriver and was destroyed by a flood in 1869. Lamson’s bridge took three years to build at a cost of $7,777.06.”
Holiday also found out that during the construction, the temporary framework of the bridge collapsed and took Lamson down with it. He received a serious back injury when he landed on a rock in the river.
The bridge has had some work done. In 1948, it was given a total floor replacement. It received extensive repairs in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1993, two-way vehicle traffic was suspended when the bridge closed for extensive rehabilitation.
Despite these efforts, by 1994, the bridge was in poor condition and was leaning downstream. Temporary cables were placed to keep the bridge from falling into the West River.
In 1998, the bridge was rebuilt and reopened, restoring it for heavy continued use. Two-way traffic was never restored.
The bridge was submitted for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 by the Vermont Division of Historic Sites, now the state’s Division for Historic Preservation.
“Vermont’s covered bridges are among the state’s most cherished and symbolic historic resources,” state researcher Hugh Howard Henry wrote in the state’s application for the federal program.
He described many of the covered bridges as “an integral part of unique architectural environments whose setting and context have been little altered. In view of the extensive highway programs which are drastically changing the visual environment of the state, the Division hopes to extend National Register protection and recognition to the majority of these important structures.”
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.