The Jail Branch River is a
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...
in central
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
. It is a tributary of the Stevens Branch of the
Winooski River and part of the
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain ( ; french: Lac Champlain) is a natural freshwater lake in North America. It mostly lies between the US states of New York and Vermont, but also extends north into the Canada, Canadian province of Quebec.
The New York portion of t ...
watershed.
The Jail Branch is a 16-mile-long river that rises in
Washington, Vermont, and flows north into
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
, where it comes under the influence of the state of Vermont's
East Barre Dam.
Orange Brook and its tributaries Baker Brook, Nelson Brook, and Nate Smith Brook enter the Jail Branch before it flows into
Barre
Barre or Barré may refer to:
* Barre (name) or Barré, a surname and given name
Places United States
* Barre, Massachusetts, a New England town
** Barre (CDP), Massachusetts, the central village in the town
* Barre, New York, a town
* Barre (ci ...
. Turning northwest, the river passes through
East Barre; Honey Brook and its tributaries enter from the north before it descends through a narrow valley to the center of Barre, where it enters the Stevens Branch just south (upstream) of the downtown. The watershed area is .
The Jail Branch River supports a healthy wild brook trout population and has had few pollution problems in recent years.
On May 26, 2005, the Jail Branch was the site of the
drowning
Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...
of three children, whose bodies were found in Barre at 5:45 a.m. local time. The drowning was attributed to the steep riverbank, which could have caused the children to slip and fall into the river.
The East Barre Dam
The
East Barre Dam was built in response to the 1927 flood. The flood set state records and hit the Winooski River Valley and tributaries the hardest. Eighty-four people died as a result of the flood statewide, and the downtown of Barre was decimated from the flooding of the Jail Branch and Stevens Branch rivers.
Nowadays, the dam protects the city from flooding almost yearly, as the area above the dam floods semi-yearly but the controlled flow of water into Barre cuts back considerably on the amount of flood damage.
See also
*
List of rivers of Vermont
This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Vermont, sorted by drainage basin, and ordered from lower to higher, with the towns at their mouths:
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River flows south towards Long Island Sound in Connecticut ...
References
External links
ElitesTV reportABC report
{{authority control
Rivers of Vermont
Tributaries of Lake Champlain
Rivers of Orange County, Vermont
Bodies of water of Washington County, Vermont