Lake Shaftsbury State Park

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 Vermont — Small gem in southwestern Vermont — a 26-acre lake surrounded by mixed hardwood forest with excellent bass and perch fishing. The lake bottom is lined with a rare floating sphagnum moss mat that supports unique bog plants!

Visitor Information

About Lake Shaftsbury

Lake Shaftsbury State Park in Bennington County provides swimming and nature study on a small lake in Vermont’s southwest corner. The park is known for its floating bog — a rare wetland ecosystem where a mat of sphagnum moss, pitcher plants, and sundews floats on the lake surface. Robert Frost lived nearby on his farm in South Shaftsbury from 1920-1929, writing some of his most celebrated poetry.

Things to Do

Swimming at the beach, hiking the Healing Springs Nature Trail, studying the rare floating bog ecosystem, picnicking, fishing, and connecting with the Frost poetry landscape of southwestern Vermont.

Plan Your Visit

Lake Shaftsbury offers swimming, fishing, hiking, and picnicking. The floating bog is accessible via the Healing Springs Nature Trail — bring binoculars for pitcher plants and sundews. Robert Frost’s grave is in Old Bennington (10 miles south) — his epitaph reads “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.” The Bennington Battle Monument (306 feet — tallest in Vermont) and covered bridges of the Walloomsac Valley are nearby.

Nature & Wildlife

The floating bog — a rare ecosystem where vegetation forms a mat over open water — supports carnivorous plants including sundews that trap insects with sticky tentacles and pitcher plants that drown prey in liquid-filled tubes. These plants evolved to supplement their nutrition in the bog’s nutrient-poor acidic water. The bog also supports cranberries, cotton grass, and bog rosemary. Painted turtles bask on the bog edges.

Insider Tips

Robert Frost country: Shaftsbury was home to Robert Frost — America’s most beloved poet lived here from 1920-1929, writing many of his greatest poems. Pro tip: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “The Road Not Taken” evoke Vermont’s winter landscapes. Bennington: Nearby Bennington was the site of the 1777 Battle of Bennington — a key American victory that contributed to the Saratoga campaign.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Robert Frost write about Vermont?

Frost lived in Vermont from 1920 until his death in 1963 — the state’s stone walls, maple trees, birches, and winter landscapes permeate his poetry. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “The Road Not Taken,” “Birches,” and “Mending Wall” all draw from Vermont life. Frost became the unofficial poet of New England — his work defined how Americans imagine rural Vermont. He was the only poet to read at a presidential inauguration (Kennedy, 1961).