Northeast Kingdom is rural, lake-pocked, sparsely populated
— — the part of the state the map almost forgets.
Not only on a wall.
“The Northeast Kingdom is three counties of high country in the far corner of Vermont, north and east of St. Johnsbury: Essex, Orleans, Caledonia. Lakes are scattered through it like a dropped string of beads. Willoughby is the famous one. Towns are small and far apart. The roads carry farm trucks, fly fishermen, and the occasional skier headed for Burke or Jay. The light comes early. from the studio
Northeast Kingdom is rural, lake-pocked, sparsely populated, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Northeast Kingdom occupies the three northeastern counties of Vermont (Essex, Orleans, and Caledonia), a region of roughly 2,000 square miles bordering Quebec to the north and New Hampshire to the east. Senator George Aiken named it in a 1949 speech in Lyndonville, calling it such a beautiful country up there that it ought to be called the Northeast Kingdom. The name stuck. Population across the three counties is about 64,000, the lowest density in the state. St. Johnsbury, with around 7,000 residents, is the largest town.
The Kingdom is lake country. Lake Willoughby, a 1,700-acre glacial lake held between the cliffs of Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor, is the most photographed. Lake Memphremagog crosses the Canadian border at Newport. Crystal Lake, Caspian Lake, Seymour Lake, Island Pond: dozens of named ponds and lakes are scattered through the hills, most of them cold, deep, and clean. The Connecticut River forms the eastern boundary. The Clyde, Barton, and Passumpsic rivers thread the valleys, all eventually feeding the Connecticut.
The Kingdom is the least populated corner of Vermont, and the quiet is real. Essex County, the northeasternmost, has fewer than 6,000 people across more than 600 square miles, placing it among the least densely populated counties east of the Mississippi. Stretches of Route 114 through the Nulhegan Basin pass forest for ten miles between houses. Mobile service drops out in pockets. The Kingdom Trails network around Burke draws mountain bikers in summer; Jay Peak draws skiers in winter. Between those, the woods hold themselves.