What’s summer without a road trip? Every year, Brave Little State travels around Vermont to find the stories behind the road signs. But even with several years of investigations under our seatbelts, we’re still finding plenty of surprises. 

This year, we looked into the stories behind Lake Willoughby, Hells Peak Road and Pumpkin Harbor Road. 

You can find the web version of this story here. And psst — check out our new Brave Little State landing page, which, for the first time, has a searchable archive of all our past episodes.

Check out our previous brief histories of Vermont road names:

• 2023: Tigertown, Hateful Hill and Gerts Knob
• 2022: Iranistan Road, a Jericho grab bag and punny highway signs
• 2021: Cow Path 40, Agony Hill Road, Texas Falls
• 2020: Devil’s Washbowl, Popple Dungeon Road, Lost Nation Road, Smuggler’s Notch
• 2019: Mad Tom River Road, Hi-Lo Biddy Road, Star Pudding Farm Road, Sawnee Bean Road
• 2018: States Prison Hollow Road, Poor Farm Road, Lime Kiln Road, Kelley Stand Road

This episode was reported, produced, edited and mixed by Adiah Gholston, Burgess Brown, Samantha Watson and Sabine Poux. Our managing editor and senior producer is Josh Crane and our executive producer is Angela Evancie. Ty Gibbons composed our theme music. Other music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Thanks to this year’s question askers: Beverly Decker, Sarah Hazleton and John Finlay.

As always, our journalism is better when you’re a part of it:

• Ask a question about Vermont
• Sign up for the BLS newsletter
• Say hi on Instagram and Reddit @bravestatevt
• Drop us an email: hello@bravelittlestate.org
• Make a gift to support people-powered journalism
• Tell your friends about the show!

Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.