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CHITTENDEN COUNTY BECOMES POPULATION AND POWER BASE

Through the 1930s, Rutland had been the state's largest county, but in 1940 Chittenden inched ahead. By the 1970s it had almost twice the population of Rutland, giving it six seats in the 30-member Senate.

What was more important, perhaps, than its power in the Legislature was that it was becoming home to most successful statewide candidates.

While not a single governor from 1900 to 1960 had lived in Chittenden County, four of the seven chief executives who served from 1961 to 1999 lived there at the time of their election. Every governor from 1977 to 1999 hailed from the Burlington area. With one quarter of the state's voters residing in Chittenden County, candidates known within that county started with an impressive base of support.

Chittenden County also was at the center of a dramatic change in the state economy, as the woolen mills gave way to industries like IBM, which opened a facility in Essex in the 1950s and employed 7,500 by the 1980s.