This is Vermont: Athens Traditional Geocache
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At a building on the National Historic Register. Hedgehog Gulf was tempting but who could resist the NHR.
The straight dope:
Chartered: May 3, 1780 (Vermont Charter)
Area: 9,019 Acres = 14.09 Square Miles [ Size Rank: 237* ]
Coordinates (Geographic Center): 72°35''W 43°08'N
Altitude: 980 feet ASL
Population (US Census, 2000): 340 [ Population Rank: 225* ]
Spelled Athans in its charter, the present spelling seems to have been adopted quite early; the modern local pronunciation incorporates "A", as in "Nathan". It is not known who might have suggested the name, or why.
Most of the similarly-named places in the US (Rome, Troy, etc.,) are the result of a post-Revolutionary enthusiasm for classical names. As a medical man, Dr. Solomon Harvey, the first-listed grantee, would have been familiar with the classics, and there may be some vague connection with the 5th Century Greek physician Hippocrates (as in Hippocratic oath) and naming the town for a Greek city (emphasize may).
The only real village has always been known as Athens, and for a time (1827-1907) actually had a Post Office.
An almost entirely uninhabited area in the southern part of the town is known as Hedgehog Gulf. For those not familiar with the term as used in Vermont, the porcupine is often called a hedgehog because it is prickly like a thorny hedge and grunts like a pig when eating or alarmed.
Material excerpted or adapted from Esther Munroe Swift's
Vermont Place-Names: Footprints of History
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