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Montpelier
The smallest state capital in the U.S.
Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the country, with fewer than 8,100 residents — so small it is the only state capital without a McDonald's. It nestles in a narrow valley where the North Branch meets the Winooski River, surrounded by the wooded Green Mountains of central Vermont. Chosen as capital in 1805, it has stayed a tiny, walkable town built around its gold-domed statehouse.
The Winooski River runs west through the valley toward Lake Champlain, and steep forested hills rise on every side, giving Montpelier an intimate mountain-town feel found in no other capital. Fall foliage, granite quarried in nearby Barre, and state government define the surroundings of the least-populous seat of state government in America.