Vermont Places and Roads Named After Mud
March 22, 2025

If you’ve driven on dirt roads in the last week or so, it’s clear that Vermont mud season has arrived.

Mud season happens when temperatures rise above freezing and the snow starts to melt. The ground thaws on the surface but remains frozen deep underneath, preventing water on dirt roads—from melting snow and cold rain—from draining.

The result? A saturated top layer of soil with deep, thick mud.

In honor of Vermont mud season, here are places around the state named after mud.

-Looking east on Mud City Loop in Mud City. 

Mud City in Morristown

The name Mud City dates back to 1898 when Joseph M. Chaplin, a farmer on the west side of Morristown, allegedly identified himself as the “mayor of Mud City.”

Chaplin took the name from Mud Brook, which runs through the area, and the name stuck.

Today, a dirt road through Mud City is called Mud City Loop. The area is also where the legendary Lepine sisters ran a dairy farm for decades before their prized herd was auctioned off in 1996.

-Mud Pond Road in Braintree leads to the largest pond in town.

Mud Pond in Braintree

There are at least 24 Mud Ponds (roads, places or ponds) in Vermont, including Braintree, Groton, Jamaica, Newbury and Thetford, according to Esther M. Swift’s Vermont-Place Names: Footprints in History book.

In Braintree, Mud Pond Road will take you to Mud Pond. A local writer in the 1800s described Mud Pond as “very deep with a peculiar light mud.”

In warmer, dry months, you could apparently walk on the pond from some distance from the shore, Swift wrote.

Braintree Historical Society member Jackson Evans said in a 2022 Happy Vermont podcast interview about Vermont place names: “Mud Pond is the largest pond within Braintree’s borders. It’s really beautiful and one of the wilder places in Braintree in terms of geography.”

-Mud Island is one of many islands on Lake Champlain 

Mud Island in Lake Champlain, Near Panton

Mud Island is a tiny island off the Panton shoreline popular among paddlers and wildlife watchers. According to Swift, the name likely comes from the “nature of the island.”

The island was protected in 1994 by the Lake Champlain Land Trust and the State of Vermont after there were concerns about cormorants destroying trees and vegetation.

Mud Island draws paddlers from the Town of Panton’s Arnold Bay boat launch. A loop around Mud Island is where you’ll find gorgeous views across the lake to Westport and Moriah, New York.

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-Muddy Lane connects Route 7A and River Road in Manchester. 

Muddy Lane in Manchester

Muddy Lane connects Route 7A and River Road in Manchester. The dirt road was an old farm road used by the Purdy family and later the Hard family.

The road is short but sweet. Heading west on Muddy Lane, you’ll catch a stunning view of Mount Equinox.  (Fun fact: I grew up diagonally across from Muddy Lane in a house once owned by a member of the Purdy family).

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-In Mud City and other places, Vermont dirt roads get soft in mud season.

Other Vermont Mud Place Names and Road Names

Mud Point in Alburgh

Mud Creek in Alburgh, Ferrisburg and Troy

Mud Flat in Lincoln

Mud Hollow Road in Concord

Mud Hollow Brook in Charlotte

Muddy Pond in Newbury

Mud Pond Forest in Greensboro

Muddy Brook in Shelburne and Williston

Mud Hollow Road in Starksboro

Mud Island Road in Glover and Craftsbury

Muddy Dog Run in Westford

Mud Lane in West Burke

Mud Road in East Charleston and Orleans

-Know of other mud-inspired place names or roads? Email me at [email protected] and I’ll add to the list.

Reader submissions:

Mud Pond in Williston

A mud adjacent name worth mentioning: Deeper Ruts Road in Cabot

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