Dorset is the site of America's oldest marble quarry and is the birthplace of Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The East Dorset marble quarry had been established by Bill W.'s great grandfather and stayed in the family for three generations.

Strife was created by New York attempting to enforce its legitimate claim to government on settlers who had in good faith purchased land titles from New Hampshire.

The New Hampshire Grantees countered by organizing the "Green Mountain Boys", an informal alliance of civilian soldiers who successfully prevented the settlers from being evicted.

These committees predated those of the 13 colonies formed to protect themselves from the crown by eight years, yet had precedents in similar organizations during the French and Indian War.

By 1775, the land control controversy had reached the point that the Grantees decided to take official action, and they held a general convention in Cephas Kent's tavern.

The Continental Congress had voted to pay the Green Mountain Boys for their services and had asked that a regiment be formed in the New Hampshire Grants.

So they petitioned the Continental Congress to intervene in their behalf against New York and permit the Grantees to serve independently in the war of rebellion.

The Grantees met three more times during the course of the next year, always in Cephas Kent's tavern, and on June 25, 1776, voted "that application be made to the inhabitants of said Grants to form the same into a separate district."

Later that day the convention bound itself "to defend by arms the United American States against the hostile attempts of the British fleet and armies until the present unhappy controversy between the two countries shall be settled."

In 1912 the Vermont Society of Colonial Dames erected an historical marker at the site of the Cephas Kent Inn in Dorset.

The height of land in the Valley of Vermont between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain watersheds is located in Dorset.

The Batten Kill rises just north of East Dorset and flows south into Manchester, then west to the Hudson in New York.

Public transportation is provided along US 7 and VT 7A by Marble Valley Regional Transit District's "The Bus" from Monday to Saturday out of Rutland.