The VT Gores and Grants!
According to the internet, a gore is not a town, but an “unincorporated land remnant.” Vermont has four named gores: Avery’s Gore, Buels Gore, Warner’s Grant, and Warren’s Gore. Gores in Vermont are typically very small triangles and have no municipal self-government. The proverbial “no man’s land?”
The New England Historical Society states that gores are “irregularly shaped segments of land left over from original surveying efforts in the 18th and 19th centuries to plot town boundaries. They exist only in Maine and Vermont and may or may not have any residents.”
Buels Gore is located in Chittenden County, and contains part of Mad River Glen Ski Area, Route 17, and the Appalachian Gap Road.
The other three VT gores are in northern Essex County (see picture above). Only Buels Gore and Warren’s Gore have residents or any form of limited government, with the other gores are almost completely uninhabited, or with the very few residents being incorporated into surrounding townships.
We have ridden in Buel’s Gore, Avery’s Gore, and in Warren’s Gore – which has a lake with seasonal camps around it. Gores are not part of the “251 Towns” list in the 251 Club website, however, so unfortunately you can’t mark them off as done even if you have visited them.
Until the 251 Club changes that, the VT Gores will remain as gaps in our map.