Highgate Falls is a 20-foot waterfall on the Missisquoi River in Highgate, Franklin County, Vermont, set directly below the Village of Swanton's hydroelectric dam, though the dam has heavily altered it.
The falls
The river drops about 20 feet in a single step over a natural ledge; the dam immediately upstream adds roughly 25 feet more. Most of the flow no longer runs over the natural cliff: it leaves through a spillway next to the hydro intake and down a channel cut into the rock. A 1988 Vermont state inventory of waterfalls put the natural fall at about 15 feet.
Getting there
The falls sit about 3.9 miles east of Swanton. The Douglas & Jarvis iron truss bridge carries Mill Hill Road over the Missisquoi just downstream of the dam and is open to pedestrians.
When to go
Most of the river is released through the spillway beside the hydro intake rather than over the natural cliff, so the natural ledge usually carries only part of the river.
On site
The iron bridge stands just downstream of the dam. It is 215 feet long, a lenticular truss that Wikipedia describes as one of the largest of its kind surviving in the Northeast. Parking, fees and rules on swimming, dogs and access below the dam aren't documented.
History and name
A dam first went up here in the late 1700s to power mills and forges. Swanton Village bought the development rights in 1894 and finished a hydroelectric plant in 1920; a November 1927 flood rose 17 feet above the dam. The 1990 powerhouse expansion was dedicated to Village Manager Orman E. Croft, and an inflatable rubber dam was added in 1994. The falls were once called Keyes Falls and Potters Falls, names out of use for more than 175 years. The Berlin Iron Bridge Company built the bridge in 1887; it joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Nearby
Hungerford Brook Falls is about 1.2 miles away, Stevens Brook Falls about 6.5 miles and Dead Creek Falls about 8 miles.
Distances are straight-line.