Dirt Roads, a Fire Tower, and Floating Bridge in Brookfield
October 03, 2026

Brookfield is a small town with more dirt roads than paved ones. The Floating Bridge on Sunset Lake is the town’s most famous landmark.

The bridge was first built in 1820 and stretches 321 feet across Sunset Lake. It was built after a resident drowned crossing the ice-covered lake in 1813.

It floats because the lake is about 200 feet deep in some spots, making it too deep for regular bridge supports. The bridge is one of only three floating bridges in the country and the only one east of the Mississippi.

If you look above the north side of the bridge, you’ll spot fishing lures caught in the power lines. A local told me people often snag their lines when casting from the bridge. I joked that the utility company must love that, but he said workers sometimes end up with decent tackle to take home after they clear the lines.

-The cover of the 2023 Brookfield Town Report was dedicated to Ed Koren, who died that same year.

Ed Koren once called Brookfield home

Ed Koren, the beloved New Yorker cartoonist, bought a farmhouse in Brookfield as a second home in 1978. He moved there full-time in the 1980s and served on the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Department for over 30 years. Koren was also Vermont’s Cartoonist Laureate.

“I fell into this house in Brookfield from a year-old copy of Country Journal,” he told writer Andrew Nemethy in a 2014 VT Digger article.

Koren said he found the house through a magazine ad, visited, and quickly fell in love with the location.

The town’s 2023 report, dedicated to Koren after he passed away, notes that Koren often traveled Brookfield’s roads by foot, bike, and skis. He liked to say that Brookfield gave him much more than he gave the town.

Koren’s connection to the Green Mountains began in his teens, when he went to a summer theater camp in Waitsfield. His time in Vermont as an adolescent left a lasting impression. He told Nemethy in the 2014 interview, ‘‘Like a lot of kids, it stays with you.”

-The Bear Hill Fire Tower at Allis State Park in Brookfield.

A fire tower and state park

Allis State Park sits on Bear Hill. At 2,033 feet, it’s Brookfield’s highest point.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built most of the park, including roads, trails, campsites, and some buildings that are still there today.

On top of Bear Hill, you’ll find the park’s fire tower. The first tower at the park was built in 1932, but it was later destroyed by lightning. The tower that now stands on Bear Hill was originally located on Gilson Mountain in Fletcher, where it was built by the CCC and relocated to Bear Hill in 1956. The tower underwent restorations in 2025.

Perley C. Keyes was chosen as the first caretaker and fire observer at the park in 1932, a role he kept for 25 years. By the end of the 1934 season, 12,535 visitors had signed his registry, more than anyone else in Orange County. In a 1949 interview, Perley said visitors came from all over the country, including actor Robert Montgomery.

Before it was a state park, Bear Hill was a favorite local spot. Wallace Steele Allis, who grew up in Brookfield, bought the summit and later donated it to the state to keep the land undeveloped.

These days, the state park is open between May and September, but day use is permitted during the off season (read guidelines here).

-Brookfield has more than 70 miles of dirt roads. Even a section of state highway Route 65 is dirt.

Fun facts about Brookfield

• One of Brookfield’s earliest businesses was a rum factory. Someone once wrote to the town to complain that the rum wasn’t very good.
• Brookfield has the highest point on Interstate 89 in Vermont, where the road rises to about 1,700 feet. It’s probably the most white-knuckled part of the highway during a winter storm. (If you know, you know!)
• A section of state highway Route 65 in Brookfield is a dirt road.
• Each year, Brookfield hosts an Ice Harvest on the last Saturday in January. In spring, locals try to guess when the ice on Sunset Lake will finally melt.
• Brookfield’s back roads are part of Vermont’s Morgan horse history. In 1796, a stallion named Figure, owned by horseman Justin Morgan, became the founding sire of the Morgan breed. Figure once raced and beat two New York horses on a stretch of road in Brookfield still called the Morgan Mile.
• Brookfield native Jessie Fiske was a pioneering botanist and seed specialist who became a longtime professor and department chair at Douglass College, now part of Rutgers University. She opened the Green Trails Inn in 1932.

• Population: 1,268

• Size: 41.7 square miles

• Miles of dirt roads: 71

• County: Orange

• Place Names: Pond Village, East Brookfield, West Brookfield

-The Green Trails Inn, which first opened in 1932, is located in the heart of Pond Village in Brookfield.

Other places in Brookfield worth visiting

Green Trails Inn and Pond Village Pub

Right in the center of Pond Village, you can stay or grab a meal at the newly restored Green Trails Inn, a historic spot with views of Sunset Lake and the Floating Bridge. The pub in the same building serves Vermont-inspired food and tasty drinks. (24 Stone Road, Brookfield; greentrailsinn.com)

The Farmer’s Hand at 1000 Stone Farm

Take a trip up Stone Road to The Farmer’s Hand, a cidery and restaurant at the certified organic 1000 Stone Farm. Their seasonal menu includes wood-fired pizza, sandwiches, small plates, and entrées made mostly with farm-grown vegetables, mushrooms, eggs, and pasture-raised meat.  (1102 Stone Rd, Brookfield; thefarmershandvt.com)

Brookfield Old Town Hall

The Brookfield Old Town Hall was built in 1856 as a boarding house for workers. It later became a Masonic hall. Now restored and listed on the National Register, the building is where you’ll find concerts, dances, markets, celebrations, and other events all year long. (93 Stone Road, Brookfield; brookfieldoth.org)

Marvin Newton House

During the summer, you can visit the Marvin Newton House, home to the Brookfield Historical Society. This house, built around 1835, is now a museum with exhibits and artifacts about daily life in Brookfield. The museum is open on Sundays in July and August.  The historical society hosts an ice cream social in August at the museum with live music and a chance to learn about local history. (1133 Ridge Road, Brookfield; brookfieldhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com)

-A banner for Pond Village on Stone Road in Brookfield.