Saxtons River Falls is a 15-foot waterfall on the Saxtons River in the village of Saxtons River, part of the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont. It pours over a ledge just below the Westminster Street bridge, where the village's first mills were probably built.
The falls
The drop is listed at 15 feet, though another description gives a set of cascades with about 8 feet of total drop. The river spills across a broad ledge in the middle of the village, and the best view is head-on from the Westminster Street bridge just upstream.
Getting there
The falls are in the village center, about 3.3 miles from Bellows Falls. Parking is available near the white church at the west end of the village, across from where River Street meets VT 121, followed by a walk of about 150 feet south on River Street and a turn right onto a paved road closed to traffic. The walk is under a tenth of a mile, about two minutes with 20 feet of descent, rated easy, and the falls are not on private property.
When to go
April through November is the recommended season.
On site
Because the falls can be seen from the paved road and the bridge, the site is wheelchair accessible. Dogs are allowed, and swimming is described as good.
History and name
In historic district records, the river offered water power at three sites along a half-mile stretch, and the so-called Middle Falls, just below the present Westminster Street bridge, had an abrupt twenty-foot drop where the first grist mill and sawmill were probably built. By 1835 a soapstone mill and a wool pullery had joined them. The sawmill at the head of the falls, run by Ransom Farnsworth from the 1850s and later by the Frey family, burned in 1959. The dam above the falls washed away in the 1938 hurricane, and a rubble foundation on River Street marks the mill site.
Nearby
Two more falls on the same river are nearby: Upper Twin Falls about 3.1 miles away and Twin Falls about 3.2 miles. Brockways Mills, on the Williams River, is about 4.9 miles away, and Drewsville Gorge, in New Hampshire, about 6 miles.
Distances are straight-line.