In its 40-mile long course, the river drains approximately 263 square miles as it flows northwards into the southern end of Lake Champlain.
[1] In 1901, a civil engineer constructing a hydroelectric dam on the river discovered the hull of a Revolutionary War–era vessel, just below Carver's Falls.
After temporarily diverting the river, his crew excavated the ship, discovering within it an iron chest containing English gold sovereigns.
[4] In addition to the sunken Revolutionary War era sloop, there have been several other historical vessels that found their way to the bottom of the Poultney River.
In the process, the hull split in half and what was not brought ashore disappeared downstream, only to be rediscovered and surveyed by archaeologists in 1981.