Thetford is a town made up of five and a half villages on the Connecticut River, where the East and West Branches of the Ompompanoosuc River collect the watershed from hills descending from the ridges running north of the White River to the Green Mountains. About 2,500 people cohere around those villages, mostly in the lower reaches of these hills. About half of the working townspeople work in town, with the others mostly commuting about 20 minutes to the south to the business centers in Hanover and Lebanon, NH.

The small size of the individual villages gives Thetford a very small-town feel, even as it has grown to the size where other more centralized newcomers alongside long-time residents for 250 years, as Dartmouth College, a major local employer, has been around for about the same amount of time, producing something close to a consistent ratio of newcomers to oldtimers for eight generations. If you are new to town, you’ll likely find these communities enjoy a diversity of the old and new.

This Citizen’s Guide is designed to give people an quick overview of how the community and its government work, hopefully, encouraging involvement and better enjoyment.

Town Organizations

• Community Nurse
• Thetford Volunteer Fire Department
• Emergency Management 
• Thetford Library Federation 
• Latham Library
• Peabody Library
• Thetford Historical Society
• Thetford School District

Additional Town Resources

• Community & Meeting Calendar
• Board & Commission Meeting Minutes
• Maps
• Town Documents
• Town Reports