St. Johnsbury is a town that got rich making scales and spent the money well. In 1830 Thaddeus Fairbanks patented the platform scale here, and the family firm grew into a business that sold weighing machines across the world, which paid for a surprising set of public buildings. The Athenaeum, a library and art gallery opened in 1871, still has a hall lined with paintings, among them a vast landscape of Yosemite by Albert Bierstadt, hung in the same gallery since the nineteenth century. Across the road, the Fairbanks Museum, a red sandstone building with a barrel-vaulted hall, has a rich collection of stuffed birds, animals and natural curiosities, as well as a planetarium.
The town sits in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, a name that locals use with some pride for the three northeastern counties, where the hills are rounder, the farms are bigger and the population is thin. Maple sugaring is a serious business, and in March and April steam rises from sugar houses all over the hills. Stop at a roadside stand and you can taste syrup, buy maple candy or sit down to a stack of pancakes. St. Johnsbury's name came from the French-born writer Crèvecoeur, who proposed it as a tribute to Saint John, and a certain Gallic fondness for the town is still there.
The Connecticut River Byway follows the long valley that divides Vermont and New Hampshire, running more than 500 miles from the Canadian border to Long Island Sound. This northern stretch is quiet and pastoral, with broad curves along the river, old farms, covered bridges and low mountains, and traffic is light. The surface is mostly good, though frost heaves are common in spring, and the weather turns cold early. Watch for moose, particularly at dawn and dusk, because a collision with one is no joke.
For practical matters, St. Johnsbury has about six thousand people, with fuel, supermarkets, diners and a handful of good bakeries on the main street, and there is little else for miles, so take advantage. Foliage in the first half of October is the great draw, but late spring brings light green hills and empty roads. Summer is warm and short, and winter is long and snowy.