The St. Albans Raid- St. Albans Vermont

St. Albans Vermont just recently got put on my short list of places to retire.  This is a cool little town jam packed with history and small Vermont town coolness.

We swung by mostly because I wanted to see the town where the northern most land battle in the Civil War occurred.

In 1864, former members of Morgan's Raiders regrouped in Canada and plotted a raid into Vermont.  They ended up robbing 3 banks in this little town, and taking the loot back north with them.

The story gets really interesting because of how they were handled after being caught.  Some viewed them as thuggish bank robbers.  Some saw them as legitimate Confederates helping out with their governments war effort.  Anyway, it is a very interesting side note in Civil War history!

Our main goal of our visit was to stop by the Saint Albans Museum to see their display on the raid.

This is a great community museum ran by some friendly staff who seemed very excited about helping out.  We spent a couple of hours at this museum.  There is one room devoted to the raid, and I was most impressed with a display of actual stolen bills from the event!

They had various other rooms at the museum, and had exhibits on an old school, an old doctors office used in a Normal Rockwell painting, a model of  Phineas Gage, a display on an old theaters, and other things. 

ALL of the other displays were unique and fascinating, and absolutely worth mention in their own right.

We walked the town a little bit.  A nice lady asked what we were looking for, thinking we were lost.  We told her we were doing the walking tour of the town.  We thought it was very sweet that a local asked if confused looking tourists needed directions!

We also stopped by the extremely cozy little coffee shop called The Traveled Cup.  I love the name, and the coffee was great too!  You know I have mentioned that some places get it right, and some don't.  Well, these guys nailed it.  The place was so relaxing too.  If I lived in the area, I would be here all the time.

This is just such a neat little town, with a perfect museum, a perfect coffee shop, and great history.  I think the Norman Rockwell display at the museum is very fitting.