History of Appletree Point, Burlington's North End

The history is a work in progress. It includes professional research, as well as oral histories, photographs, and recollections of local people whose families have lived in the North End of Burlington for many generations. http://bluebrickpreservation.com/pdf/aphs.pdf

3.9.09

APPLETREE POINT HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ANNUAL MEETING, SEPT. 15

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: DR. FREDERICK WISEMAN, NATIVE ELDER, ACTIVIST AND SCHOLAR.

Title: The Abenaki of the Eastern Shore of Lake Champlain

Abstract: The Winooski River Basin has had a long history of being a major Western Abenaki Homeland, with archaeological sites dating from the Paleo-Indian Period, through to historic times. Abenaki Historian and Johnson State College professor Fred Wiseman will share glimpses of the Abenaki culture, beliefs and diplomacy of the Eastern Shore of what the Abenakis call “Bitawbagok” “the Lake Between.” Using artifacts, music and film clips to illustrate his lecture, he will focus on the critical period of 1609, the Anniversary of which we celebrate this year, when Europeans first discovered the Abenakis’ beloved lake.

Proposed research to be added to the history by Dr. Wiseman, keytnote speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Appletree Point Historical Society:

There is little archaeology specifically on Appletree Point, since it was the embarkation point from the Winooski to the Lake. As far as I know there are but a couple spot finds of Woodland Period projectile points near the mouth of the Winooski and an oral history I recorded years ago saying that there was a family that “spoke Abenaki” who lived at the mouth of the Winooski until the 1930’s. I can check with Gio Peebles to see if there are any other VT archaeological sites on or near Appletree Point, but I doubt it, or I would have heard of them. I don’t think that any scholar could find more than that, and much of what would be written would be speculative or by analogy to other areas. If you widen it to include the archaeology of the Winooski valley, and adjacent Lake shore, I could write something with hard data, since there is lots of info upriver. All of the people from the Winooski Site and the Richmond site and others had to have passed by Appletree Point to go to other areas or to go lake fishing, and so I could do an article focusing on its geography as a “decision node” for the thousands of prehistoric Vermonters who had to decide which way to go upon entering the Lake from the Winooski.

Appletree Point, lower right

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