This year, the United States is celebrating its semiquincentennial — also known as the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — and communities around the Upper Valley are hosting a variety of events.
In fact, events have already started. Vermont started celebrating a year early in 2025 to commemorate when the Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
The festivities will extend into 2027 because 1777 is significant to both Revolutionary War history with the British siege of Fort Ticonderoga and the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington. The year 1777 also holds a significant place in Vermont history as it was the year it became a republic.
Last year, Hartford’s 250th committee, which is chaired by Gwen Tuson, held a well-attended family contra dance where people tried dances from the 18th century (and other decades) and members of the committee visited summer camps to discuss various parts of Revolutionary War history. Tuson herself talked about then-Gen. George Washington’s spies and instructed campers in how to use invisible ink.
Tucson has fond memories of attending bicentennial events with her family in 1976 — the United States’ 200th birthday — and wanted others to experience that same magic.
“Those events stood out to me as a kid, that our country’s founding was important,” Tuson said.
Hartford has more events in the works for this year, including a Revolutionary War encampment with area reenactors scheduled to take place at Kilowatt Park North in May. One of those reenactors taking part in the event will be Hartford High School history teacher Izzy Provoncha, a Tunbridge resident who is also a member of the Vermont 250th Anniversary Commission, which was formed by Vt. Gov. Phil Scott.
“The hope is to have Hartford students … come to Kilowatt to engage with some living history,” said Provoncha, who has been a Revolutionary War reenactor since the late 1990s and has participated in reenactments of the battles of Hubbardton and Fort Ticonderoga, among others.
In addition to working with the Hartford committee — as well as planning a trip with students to see Revolutionary War sites in Vermont and New York this spring — Provoncha also is working on programs in Tunbridge, including the Tunbridge World’s Fair, which will have a 250th theme this year.
“This is my moment,” Provoncha said.
In addition to the military and political history of 1776, Tuson and Provoncha also want to make sure the events include the experiences of people who were enslaved, Native Americans and those who lived away from any major battle sites.
Last summer, the committee co-hosted an event at the Abenaki (Three Sisters) Garden in Quechee, where participants learned about agricultural techniques used by a Native American tribe that lived in New England and Canada, and whose members still live the region.
“The experience was not exclusive to just soldiers,” Provoncha said. “People were living with the threat and sometimes the manifestation of actual attacks and I think that’s super interesting to have to live with.”
Thetford is taking a similar approach — and casting an even wider net. Instead of just focusing on 1775 to 1777, the Thetford SQC committee is celebrating Thetford history as whole.
“We’re interested in the history of Thetford Academy; the history of the camps along (Lake Fairlee),” committee member Sherry Merrick said.
The committee’s first event, a screening of Jay Craven’s newest film, the Revolutionary War drama “Lost Nation” that is set in Vermont, is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Martha Rich Theater at Thetford Academy. Craven will participate in a Q&A after the film.
One big emphasis for Thetford is community and uniting people across the town’s eight villages. For example, plans are in the works for a Lyme Town Band Concert, which will include Thetford residents, and Bean Hole Dinner — featuring potluck-style early colonial recipes — at the Post Mills Congregational Church scheduled for Aug. 15.
“We’re really good at potlucks in Thetford,” committee member Cynthia Shelton said.
They’ve also started a quilting bee to try “to get people in the same room together over the long winter.” Community members have started to gather to sew two quilts by hand. One will depict all of Thetford’s eight villages, while another will depict a stained glass window at the Frost Church. While neither topic is related to the 250th directly, it is a chance for people to gather and make quilts by hand — as they would have during the Revolutionary War.
There’s also going to be opportunities for levity and humor. The Thetford Center 250th Celebration scheduled for June 20 includes a “Whisker Wager” contest in which people can pay $5 to have their facial hair judged by a panel.
The contest was inspired by a book featuring notable Vermont men from the 1800s that was found at Frost Church.
“It’s a yearbook of all these whacky white guys and their funny hair,” Shelton said. Participants need not be Thetford residents to enter, though their facial hair must be real and “questionable tacked-on hair will be subject to the Tug Test,” according to a description of the event.
In Woodstock, the Woodstock History Center and Norman Williams Public Library are joining together for a series of programs. An online talk titled “Losers of the American Revolution” is scheduled to take place from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Thursday and can be streamed via woodstockhistorycenter.org. Alexandra Garrett, an assistant professor of history at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt., will discuss the impact of the American Revolution on those who remained loyal to Britain and ended up losing their property, homes and connections to the colonies.
Some towns on the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley have also started planning events. Multiple organizations in Hanover, including the Parks and Recreation Department, the Howe and Etna libraries, Historical Society and Dartmouth College have joined together to host and promote events, which will also include celebrating Hanover’s 265th birthday.
Hanover icons Pig and Wolf will be the focal point of a party scheduled to take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m., Friday, March 13, at the RWB Community Center.
“They will also be popping up for a few more events this spring,” Hannah Falcone, events and media manager at Hanover Parks and Recreation, said.
Plans in communities across both states include Fourth of July celebrations with an emphasis on the 250th.
For more information about Hanover’s events, visit hanovernh.org/970/America-250; Hartford, hartfordvthistory.com/250-commemoration; Thetford, thetfordvtsqc.weebly.com; and Woodstock, woodstockhistorycenter.org.
For a list of activities taking place in Vermont — as well as a list of towns with 250th committees — visit anniversary250.vermont.gov.
New Hampshire’s statewide 250th calendar, which is being overseen by the state archivist, can be found at newhampshire250.org.
Additionally, the Valley News will include 250th events that take place in the Upper Valley and are submitted via its online calendar system at vnews.com/events.