City of Newport: a short history

The City of Newport, Vermont is located at the southern end of Lake Memphremagog. The lake got its name from “Mamlabegwok”, the Western Abenaki word meaning “Great Expanse of Water”. It is a 33 mile long lake that flows north into the Magog River at Magog, Quebec, which then joins the St. Francis River at Sherbrooke and ultimately empties into the St. Lawrence River. More than 2/3 of the lake is in Canada. Four of the twenty islands are completely in the USA. The largest island on the lake, Province Island, has the international border running across its southern tip. 

This area was first mapped by General John Stark, who passed through the region as an Abenaki prisoner in 1752. He returned with Major Rogers’ Rangers after their attacks on the Native Peoples of St Francis in 1758. Tradition says that part of the expedition returned down the lakeshore to the southern end, then traveled up the Clyde River to the Connecticut River. 

The first European settlement on the southern end of the lake, called Duncansboro, was established in 1793. According to the 1800 census there were fifty residents in eleven families. In 1816 the township annexed small parts of two adjoining towns and changed the name to Newport. 

On March 5, 1918, the villages of Newport, West Derby and part of the town of Salem were united by charter to form the City of Newport. A likeness of a famous paddlewheel steamer, The Lady of the Lake, was incorporated into the seal of the City