Conceived, planned, laid out & financed by Newbury founder, Gen. Jacob Bayley 1726–1815, who on Nov. 24, 1775, presented his plan to Gen. George Washington for a shorter military route to Canada. On Washington's orders, Bayley began road in spring of 1776. After 26 mi., it was halted until 1779 when Washington ordered Col. Moses Hazen & Col. Timothy Bedel to report to Bayley & continue his road about 26 mi. further northwest to Hazen's Notch now Westfield, VT. Thos. Johnson, Frye Bayley, Abial & Silas Chamberlain, John McLean & Native American, "Indian Joe", surveyed road for Gen. Bayley. Most are buried here at Ox Bow Cemetery near Gen. Bayley.

The events associated with Bayley-Hazen Military Road Marker (spring 1776) connect this location to the larger conflicts and transformations of the revolutionary era. The surviving account identifies the principal action, institution, or individual, but its meaning becomes clearer when the surrounding systems of movement, supply, communication, government, labor, and community life are considered. Many people maintained, defended, visited, worked at, or suffered through the site, including participants whose names were never recorded.

Travel occurred at the pace of horses, wagons, marching columns, and boats. Taverns, ferries, bridges, crossroads, and private houses acted as communication nodes offering food, lodging, animals, directions, and news. A recorded visit or march depended on hosts, servants, enslaved laborers, boatmen, drivers, guides, escorts, and merchants. Such stops reveal the infrastructure through which orders, supplies, intelligence, and political authority moved.

The marker anchors this history to a particular landscape even where the original building, road, earthwork, field, or shoreline has changed. Standing near the location helps visitors understand distance, terrain, approaches, and neighboring resources in ways a written summary alone cannot. It also invites comparison between a concise inscription, inherited local tradition, and the fuller documentary record. The place matters not merely because a notable person or event is associated with it, but because national outcomes emerged from local decisions, labor, conflict, hospitality, and endurance. Preserving the point keeps the relationship between geography, memory, and historical consequence visible. In broader perspective, this episode demonstrates how major historical outcomes emerged from hundreds of local movements, resources, and choices. The surviving point gives those relationships a tangible human scale and a place from which the wider story can be reconstructed. In broader perspective, this episode demonstrates how major historical outcomes emerged from hundreds of local movements, resources, and choices. The surviving point gives those relationships a tangible human scale and a place from which the wider story can be reconstructed.