Vermont Guides
The world's oldest known coral reef, a lakeside shrine on Vermont's first European settlement, and an island where the 19th century is largely intact.
Isle La Motte is the least visited of Vermont's Lake Champlain islands — not because there's nothing there, but because what's there is quiet, particular, and unlikely to appear on any conventional "things to do" list. The island is roughly five miles long, connected to the mainland by a causeway, built on a foundation of black limestone that turns out to be the world's oldest known coral reef. It has a Catholic shrine on the site of Vermont's first European settlement. And it has roads quiet enough for cycling and shoreline undeveloped enough that the lake feels like it belongs to the landscape rather than to a marina.
From Heart of the Village Inn in Shelburne, Isle La Motte is approximately 45–50 minutes north via I-89 North to Exit 21 (Swanton), then Route 78 West and the signs to the island. The causeway requires no ferry. The island is best experienced with a half-day — enough time to see the Chazy Reef at Fisk Quarry, visit St. Anne's Shrine, and drive or cycle the perimeter roads before heading back south.
The black limestone that Isle La Motte is built on is not ordinary rock. It's a reef — approximately 480 million years old, dating to the Ordovician period, when this part of North America was covered by a warm, shallow sea somewhere near what is now the equator. The Chazy Reef is the oldest known fossil coral reef in the world, and it lies embedded in the island's bedrock, visible in outcroppings and road cuts throughout the island.
The best place to see it is the Fisk Quarry Preserve on West Shore Road — an abandoned black limestone quarry that has been preserved as a nature area. The quarry walls expose cross-sections of the reef with fossil corals, stromatoporoids (ancient sponge-like organisms), and gastropods clearly visible in the stone. Interpretive signs explain what you're looking at and why it's significant. Access is free; there's a small parking area at the quarry entrance. Hours vary by season; confirm current access before visiting.
The same limestone — Isle La Motte black marble — was quarried commercially in the 19th century and used in buildings across the Northeast, including the original Radio City Music Hall in New York. The dry stone walls that line the island's roads are built from it; the material has a dark, fine-grained beauty that is distinctive of this island and nowhere else.
On the western shore of Isle La Motte, at the end of a tree-lined road, St. Anne's Shrine occupies the site of Fort St. Anne — a French military outpost established in 1666 and Vermont's first European settlement, predating the English colonial presence in the region by decades. The fort no longer exists, but the shrine that replaced it in the 19th century maintains the site as a place of pilgrimage and contemplation.
The shrine is a Roman Catholic retreat center operated by the Edmundite Fathers. The grounds include outdoor chapels, a lakeside beach on Lake Champlain, a statue of Samuel de Champlain, and a small indoor chapel. Religious programming — Masses, novenas, and retreat days — runs throughout the season. The grounds are open to visitors of all faiths and none; the setting — on the lake, under old trees, far from the nearest commercial development — has a genuinely contemplative quality independent of its religious function. Confirm current season hours at the shrine's website before visiting; the shrine operates seasonally, typically late May through mid-October.
Isle La Motte's roads are quiet enough that cycling the island's perimeter — roughly 12 miles — is a legitimate afternoon activity. There's little traffic, the terrain is flat, and the views from the western shore across Lake Champlain toward New York State are wide and uncluttered by development. The island's agricultural character — small farms, the black limestone walls, occasional barns — gives it the quality of a Vermont that has not yet been discovered and developed. That quality is not guaranteed to persist; visit while it lasts.
There is no commercial center on Isle La Motte — no gas station, no restaurant, no shop. Bring what you need from the mainland. St. Albans (30 minutes south) has grocery options; Swanton (on the mainland near the causeway) is the closest practical stop for provisions.
The world's oldest known fossil coral reef — approximately 480 million years old, embedded in the black limestone bedrock of Isle La Motte. Best seen at Fisk Quarry Preserve on West Shore Road — free access, interpretive signage, exposed reef fossils in the quarry walls.
A Roman Catholic outdoor shrine on the western shore of the island, on the site of Fort St. Anne — Vermont's first European settlement (1666). Lakeside beach, outdoor chapels, Champlain statue. Open to all visitors, seasonal. Confirm current hours before visiting.
By causeway from the Vermont mainland — no ferry required. From Shelburne: I-89 North to Exit 21 (Swanton), then Route 78 West and island signs. Approximately 45–50 minutes.
No commercial businesses. Bring provisions from the mainland — Swanton is the closest option just before the causeway.
Heart of the Village Inn is Vermont's only adults-only (21+) B&B in Shelburne Village — 45–50 minutes from Isle La Motte. Made-from-scratch breakfast, free on-site parking, and a quiet Vermont base for the northern Champlain Valley.
Book Now ↗Vermont's maple festival capital and the site of the 1864 Confederate Raid — 30 minutes south of Isle La Motte.
6,700 acres of wetland on Lake Champlain's northeastern shore — world-class birding and canoe routes near Swanton.
Private and shared sailing charters from Shelburne Bay — the lake that Isle La Motte rises from.