Early Eighteenth Century Settlement

This site commemorates the gateway of Vermonts earliest Dutch settlement, the Rensselaerwyck Manor settlement. The Diel Homestead, built by Bastion Diel in the early 1700s, is considered the second earliest dwelling in Pownal. The propertys large Dutch barn still stands across this historic roadway, todays Route 346, which passes through Massachusetts, Vermont and New York. Bastions grandson, Mikel Diel, also lived here, was a Green Mountain Boy under Colonel Seth Warner, and fought at the Battle of Bennington August 16, 1777.