Vermont Roads - Bayley-Hazen Rd.




The Bayley-Hazen Road was a Revolutionary War-era trail that was initially blazed to get troops and supplies toward the Canadian front, potentially to take southern Quebec and threaten to kick the British off the continent entirely. However, after a few miles were completed by Jacob Bayley, the rebelling colonists found that British redcoats were already using the road as an easier way to come attack them instead, so any plans for extension were put off. A few years later, the road was completed as far as what is now Hazen's Notch, but presumably was called something else then, since the colonel in charge of building the road was named Moses Hazen. Once again, the British were coming, and the road made it no farther. Several pieces have been cut off and abandoned, while a few have been absorbed into state highways. My photos are of the longest intact stretch, from Ryegate through Peacham.


Ryegate Presbyterian Church.


NB at East Rd. near the church, hidden above the Bayley Hazen plaque in the first caption.


Hillocks to the east.

SB at the town line.


NB and SB embossed signs at Old Cemetery Rd. (east) and Church St. (west), in front of the Peacham Library. This town is the best evidence that people actually used this road for settlement (or anything else other than war).


A few buildings around Peacham, ending in its Congregational Church.


One of the rare intact old alignments of the original road, Elkins Way.

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