Cover Picture: Selected “buttons” from the clay bank along the beach at ButtonBay State Park. (×0.8).

THE GEOLOGY OF
BUTTON BAY STATE PARK

By
Harry W. Dodge, Jr.

INTRODUCTION

Button Bay State Park is located on the eastern shore of Lake Champlainwith lake frontage on Button Bay (see maps, Figs. 1 and 2). ThisVermont State Park is reached from the nearest large town, Vergennes,by proceeding southwest, toward Addison, on State Route 22A for .25miles beyond the bridge over Otter Creek, thence, right on the BasinHarbor-Panton road for another 1.4 miles to the first road entering fromthe right. Turn right on this, the Basin Harbor road, and proceed for4.5 miles, thence, left for 1.4 miles to Button Bay State Park (see map,Fig. 2, note arrows). A more direct road is planned to connect the BasinHarbor Road with the Park, however, this route has still not been completed.

Prior to its present name, Button Bay, the “sickle-shaped bay” onwhich Button Bay State Park is located was termed Button Mould Bay[1].In “The Journal of William Gilliland” which is found in the “PioneerHistory of the Champlain Valley” by Winslow C. Watson, Albany,1863, and under the date of September 7, 1765, is found an entry whichspeaks of “his (Gilliland) overtaking ‘the Governors and other gentlemen’[2]at Button Mould Bay, and going aboard their sloop.”

A book of charts by Captain William Chambers contains one entitled“Baye du Roche Fendue (Split-Rock Bay) and the soundings taken inAugust 1779.” At the upper corner of the chart is the name “ButtonMould Bay.” The first appearance of the shortened version, Button Bay,seems to be in Whitelaw’s map of 1796 which was used as the frontispieceof the Census volume, “Heads of Families, Vermont, 1800.”

FIGURE 1
MAP OF WEST-CENTRAL VERMONT AND EASTERN NEW YORK

FIGURE 2

Why the name Button Bay? H. M. Seely (1910, p. 274)[3] when discussingthe shoreline of this bay states, “Besides shells, concretions...