History of Newport

From its founding, Newport's population plateaued around 5,000 people until 1950 when it started dropping. It reached bottom in 1990 at 4,434. In 2010 the population dropped from the 2000 census, and it still had not reached its 1950 high which was 5,217. In 2003, the Newport-headquartered Citizens Utility was sold and divided up among Great Bay Hydro and Vermont Electric Cooperative.

The last passenger train left Newport in 1965.

The city sold its airport to the state of Vermont in the 1970s.

The Vermont Teddy Bear Company once had a plant within the city. A Columbia Forest Products plant once employed about 100 workers.

A local subsidiary of an international ski clothing manufacturer once employed 30 workers. It closed in 2011