Via (sec. a) Nashua, Manchester, Concord; (sec. b) Laconia, Lake Winnipesaukee, Plymouth; (sec. c) Franconia Notch; (sec. d) Lancaster, Connecticut Lakes.
B. & M. R.R. parallels this route between State Line and Plymouth; Maine Central between Lancaster and West Stewartstown.
Accommodations of all kinds at frequent intervals, except north of Colebrook.
Paved or cement road throughout.
THIS, the Daniel Webster Highway, is the main north-south route through the central part of New Hampshire, and passes through large industrial cities and the State capital, by some of the better-known lakes, and through impressive Franconia Notch with the profile of the Old Man of the Mountains, and the upper Connecticut Valley.
Sec. a. MASSACHUSETTS LINE to CONCORD, 41.9 m.
US 3 crosses the State Line 9.1 m. north of Lowell.
A granite marker (L), 0.4 m., indicates the Site of an Early Meeting-House (1741) of the town of Dunstable, now Nashua.
Harrisonia Manor, 0.7 m. (L), was formerly part of the estate of the Rev. Thomas Weld, the first minister in this section of the country.
At 1.1 m. is the Old South Cemetery, the burial place of most of the early settlers of Dunstable, including 10 men killed by the Indians at Thornton’s Ferry in 1724. A memorial boulder in the cemetery states that ‘Near this spot A.D. 1684 the settlers of Dunstable built their second meeting-house, Rev. Thomas Weld Minister.’
At 1.7 m. is a junction with S. Main St.
Right on S. Main St. 1.4 m. is a junction with a paved road. Right on this road 0.2 m. is the Nashua Country Club. At 1.6 m. on S. Main St. is Meeting-House Park, with a broad outlook across the Merrimack River (R). Against the skyline is the turreted brick building of Rivier College in Hudson, conducted by the Sisters of the Presentation as a boarding-school for girls, with a curriculum from primary to college grades, and granting degrees to women. During the summer an extension course is given. Next to Rivier College is the Novitiate of the Oblates, a school for young men studying for the priesthood.
A marker in the park indicates the Site of the Third Meeting-House in Dunstable, that stood from 1754 to 1812.
S. Main St. continues 1.7 m. to a junction with US 3, 1.8 m. south of Nashua.
On the southern outskirts of the city of Nashua are right the finely situated John M. Hunt and Mary E. Hunt Homes for elderly men and women, brick structures of the late Georgian style.
NASHUA, 5.1 m. (see NASHUA).
1. Right on Hollis Street, Nashua, to HUDSON (alt. 121, pop. 2070), 1.5 m., a small farming center that is also a residential suburb of Nashua. The town was granted as a part of Dunstable in 1673, was incorporated as Nottingham in 1722, and as Nottingham West in 1746. The name was changed to Hudson in 1830.
Right 1.4 m. from Hudson on a paved road is Benson’s Wild Animal Farm (open from 10 to dark; adm. 25¢), maintained by John T. Benson, an authority on animal and bird life. It is the American distributing station for the firm of Carl Hagen-back, a large importer of wild animals, and is one of the few places in the United States where wild animals are imported directly from the jungle to be conditioned for circuses and zoos. Here are more than 1000 monkeys, a large collection of waterfowl, trained animals, and their trainers at work. The Boston and Maine Railroad has recently inaugurated a special week-end ‘Zoo Train’ from Boston to this spot.
2. Left on Lake St., Nashua, to the Site of the Hassell Massacre, 1.3 m., at the Hassell Brook Bridge. A bronze marker indicates the site of the Joseph Hassell House, 200 feet west. Hassell, his wife, son, and Mary Marks were slain by the Indians on the evening of September 2, 1691. They are all buried on the little knoll where the house stood.
3. Left on Amherst St., Nashua (State 101 A), and left on Broad St. is HOLLIS (alt. 414, town pop. 879), 8 m., no accommodations, an attractive rural village, with a fine church of recent construction in Colonial design, and white houses set at wide intervals along Main Street.
Originally a part of Dunstable, it was set off as West Dunstable in 1739, and incorporated in 1746, taking the name of Holies in honor of the family name of the Duke of Newcastle, a close friend of Governor John Wentworth. After the Revolution, the spelling was changed to Hollis to perpetuate the name of Thomas Hollis, a benefactor of Harvard College.
Around the Common are a number of old houses, including the Jewell House, reputed to have been built in the early years of the 18th century, and the Abbott House, Main St., belonging to the same period.
On the Common is Nevens’s Stone, formerly on the farm of the three Nevens brothers. The men were at work in their fields attempting to raise the stone, when a rider apprised them of the approach of the British on the historic date of April 19, 1775. Hastily placing a smaller stone under the boulder, that they might continue the work later, they armed and joined the Minutemen. Two of the brothers were killed in the Revolution. The stone was brought to the Common many years later.
US 3 follows Concord St. in the northern part of Nashua, and passes through the three villages of the township of Merrimack (Ind.: Naticook, ‘the place of strong current’), that takes its name from the river.
THORNTON’S FERRY, 10 m., the southernmost Merrimack village, was named for Matthew Thornton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. A native of Ireland, Thornton immigrated to this country at an early age, and formerly owned all the land in this area on both sides of the highway. He resided near the present Monument (R) erected in his honor by the State, and is buried in the Cemetery adjoining the monument. From this village a ferry crossed the Merrimack River to Litchfield, a part of the old stage road between Exeter and Amherst.
At 10.7 m. is Horseshoe Pond (R), surrounded by a fine grove of pine trees, with facilities for bathing, boating, and picnicking.
MERRIMACK (alt. 181, town pop. 1084), 11.9 m., no accommodations, the mother village of the town, lies at the junction of the Souhegan (Ind: ‘worn out lands’) and Merrimack (Ind.: ‘swift water’) Rivers. Their abundant water-power has been utilized from time to time by factories, most of which have been destroyed by fire. Plants manufacturing wooden tables survive.
All the section of Merrimack south of the Souhegan was included in the original grant of Dunstable, known by the Indians as Naticook. In July, 1729, land north of the Souhegan for three miles was granted to Joseph Blanchard and others. The town was incorporated as Merrimack in 1746.
Left from the village on a dirt road to Baboosic Lake, 6 m., a picturesque little body of water with numerous cottages and recreational facilities.
Left from the village on the Milford road is the Site of the First Church and Town House in Merrimack, 2 m. This church was erected in 1756 and stood until 1907, when it burned. Its old granite steps are now a marker for the site.
Left from the village on a dirt road are the Atherton Falls, 0.75 m., also called Wildcat Falls, where the Souhegan River breaks through a barrier of rocks tilted up nearly 70 degrees. Numerous potholes are worn in the rocks. This section of the river is a popular place for bathing.
The northernmost of the three Merrimack villages is REED’S FERRY, 13.6 m., named for the owner of an old-time ferry across the Merrimack River at Litchfield. Here was born Walter Kittredge (1836-1905), author and composer of ‘Tenting on the Old Camp Ground,’ particularly popular during the Civil War.
The route passes the Silversheen Fox and Fur Farm (open; free), where there is a large collection of fur-bearing animals, the tall Transmitting Tower of Radio Station WFEA, and the Home Nurseries with several acres of flowers and shrubs. Around a bend in the road, the fine grounds of the Manchester Country Club (L) come into view.
BEDFORD GROVE, 20 m., is a summer resort where varied amusements and facilities for picnics are available.
US 3 swings right, crosses the concrete Queen City Bridge over the Merrimack River, affording a view of the smoking mills of Manchester, and then turns (L) on Elm St., the city’s main thoroughfare.
MANCHESTER, 22.6 m. (see MANCHESTER).
At Manchester are the junctions with State 114 (see Tour 16) and with State 101 (see Tour 17).
Northward from Manchester US 3 follows Elm St., turns sharply (R) into Webster St., and then passes, on the outskirts, Livingston Park (L), a recreational project of the Works Progress Administration.
At 30.6 m. is a junction with a paved road.
Left on this road is HOOKSETT (alt. 194, pop. 2132), 1 m., no accommodations, a little manufacturing town astride a cataract of the Merrimack River. Most of its industries have disappeared, leaving only a furniture-making factory, and the town remains a small farming community. The village suffered heavily in the 1936 flood, on both the east and west banks of the river.
The hills in the vicinity of the present town were called ‘Hanna-Ko-Kees’ by the Indians. John Wainwright, in his diary for the year 1726, refers to ‘a fall called “Onna Hookline,” which is taken from a hill of the same name.’ In an old account of a scouting party under Captain Ladd in 1746, the body of water now called Lakins Pond was referred to as Isle Hooks Pond. An old map dated 1639 locates the Anna Hooksett Hill in this region. Isle au Hooksett Falls was a name given to the region, which took the name of Hooksett when the town was incorporated.
The Penacook Indians are known to have lived in this vicinity, several relics having been found on the west side of the river. In October, 1719, about 80 persons from Hampton and Portsmouth associated for the purpose of obtaining a grant of a township in the ‘Chestnut Country.’ The first settlement made in the territory that now comprises the town was probably made sometime shortly after this, as there is record of a man being killed near Head’s Tavern in 1745 by the Indians, and another in 1748. The town was detached from Chester on the east side of the Merrimack, and Goffstown and Dunbarton on the west side, and incorporated as a separate town in 1822.
Left from the village by the bridge is the Pinnacle (alt. 484), affording a good view of the Merrimac Valley and Mount St. Mary College. According to tradition, the Indians encamped here, their reason probably being that this was an advantageous observation point.
Pinnacle Pond, on the west side of the hill, the source of the western part of the town’s water supply, is fed by the springs and has no visible inlet or outlet. Legend has it that a spire of earth and rock was removed from the ground and inverted, the hole being left, as Pinnacle Pond corresponds in shape to Pinnacle Hill.
Right on Merrimack Street, about 0.8 m. from the center, is located Stobie’s Farm, so called, owned by Robert H. Stobie, director of the New Hampshire State Department of Fish and Game. Dog field trials are held here annually, and there is an unusually fine scenic outlook.
At 31.3 m. is (R) Mount St. Mary College, a Roman Catholic school for girls, housed in an ornate structure of red brick trimmed with granite and decorated with cupolas and turrets. The school is set back from the road on a slight eminence commanding a fine view of the hills of Dunbarton and Hooksett, with the Merrimack River in the foreground. The college has 75 students from many different States.
At 34.1 m. is a junction with a paved road.
Left on this road is SUNCOOK, 0.5 m., industrial center of Pembroke, located on the rapids of the Suncook River. Settlers here were quick to seize the advantages of water transportation offered by the Merrimack, and the water-power found in the rapids of the Suncook River. Mills sprang up early, the first cotton mill being opened in 1812 by Major Caleb Stark. The original mill, an old brick building, and mill-race are still used by the Suncook Mills.
At 34.1 m. is the junction with State 28 (see Tour 13, sec. a).
PEMBROKE (alt. 250, pop. 2792), 35.1 m., limited accommodations, a village extending along a mile-long street, back from the river half a mile, has many old white houses and a sweeping view of the river valley.
In 1725, Captain Lovewell of Dunstable led an expedition to the northern section of the Colonies to stamp out the Indian menace. In a fierce battle at Pigwacket, now Fryeburg, Maine, Lovewell was slain. In 1727, the survivors of this expedition petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for the tract of land, adjoining the ‘Plantation of Pennycooke’ and known by the Indian name of Suncook (‘stony river’). In 1728, 60 men, 46 of whom were with Lovewell, took up the grant and settled it.
Owing to the Bow Controversy and the Masonian Claim decided by the King in 1759 (see History), the town developed slowly at first. Salmon fishing and the naturally fertile land attracted settlers, and, in 1736, the first town meeting was held in Suncook. The town’s four, well-armed garrisons protected the settlement so well against the constant marauding of the Indians that but one person was killed (1748).
Petitions for incorporation were submitted in 1742 and 1757, but it was not until 1759 that the town was finally incorporated, as Pembroke, in honor of the Earl of Pembroke, an influential member of the Court of St. James’s.
Men of Pembroke fought in all the Revolutionary engagements, from Bunker Hill to Yorktown. An anecdote relates that patriotic citizens, learning of the Boston Tea Party, confiscated the tea in the village store and burned it in the public square.
Following the Revolution, Pembroke’s development was rapid. The broad, fertile lands on the banks of the Merrimack, extending to the wooded slopes of the Ridge, offered opportunities for farming and lumbering.
Right is the brick building of Pembroke Academy, founded in 1818 and now used as a high school. This was partially ruined by fire in 1936 and rebuilt in 1937.
The white frame Congregational Church, whose society was organized in 1738, was erected about 1836. Near-by is the Old Cemetery (L).
CONCORD, 41.9 m., State capital (see CONCORD).
At Concord are junctions with US 4 (see Tour 14, sec. a), US 202 (see Tour 15), and Alt. US 3 (see below).
Left from Concord on Alt. US 3 is a junction with a paved road, 2.6 m. Right on this road, passing through the little settlements of BOW MILLS and BOW CENTER (alt. 603, town pop. 780, inc. 1727), is a junction with a paved road, 4.1 m. Among the early settlers of Bow Mills was Timothy Dix, grandfather of General John A. Dix (see BOSCAWEN, Tour 3, sec. b). Right on this paved road, which soon becomes a dirt road, and over Brown Hill (alt. 883), is a junction with a wood road, 2 m., where cars should be left. Right on this wood road 0.25 m. to the Old Bow Mill, the oldest in the State. Here in a low, weathered structure, is the original up-and-down saw that has been in operation since the early 1800’s.
Left from Concord on Alt. US 3 is a junction with a paved road, 4.5 m. Right on this road, 2 m. is the Site of the Mary Baker Eddy Homestead, on the top of a broad hill that offers a view across the Merrimack Valley. The house no longer stands, but in the field (R) is a carefully kept lawn, holding in the center a small pyramid cut from one piece of granite. On each side is a bronze plaque bearing a brief quotation from Mrs. Eddy’s writings. On the opposite side of the road is a thick growth of pines, part of the memorial to Mrs. Eddy. Born in 1821, she spent the first 15 years of her life on this farm, and returned to Concord for a few years before her death in 1910.
Sec. b. CONCORD to PLYMOUTH, 57.9 m.
US 3 follows N. Main St. in the northern part of Concord, uniting with US 4 for 9.6 miles.
At 1.8 m. is (L) the New Hampshire State Prison, a group of brick buildings including a three-story cellhouse and the warden’s home, surrounded by a high brick wall. Industrial activities of the inmates include the manufacture of concrete culverts for use on State roads and registration plates for automobiles. Much of the State printing is also done here.
Behind the prison on Rattlesnake Hill are the Concord Granite Quarries, the first of which, the John Swenson Granite Company, furnished $1,300,000 worth of material for the Congressional Library in Washington.
The highway passes through broad meadows of the Merrimack, hemmed in by the Loudon and Canterbury Hills.
PENACOOK (alt. 336), 6.2 m., including Ward 1 of Concord and a part of Boscawen Township, is a little manufacturing village at the confluence of the Contoocook and Merrimack Rivers. The small square with a nucleus of a tiny park surrounded by brick and frame buildings, is blocked in by hotels and stores. The Washington House (R) has been an active hostelry for more than 100 years.
In the old days Penacook was strongly garrisoned against the Indians and was the scene of the skirmishes between them and the whites.
The water-power of the two rivers gave Penacook an early industrial development which has been maintained to some extent. Woolen mills, built in 1847, are still in operation, as is a woodworking shop started in 1837. More recent industries include an electrical instrument shop, begun in 1904, and the New England Briar Pipe Company, makers of ‘Kay-woodie’ pipes, who maintain here a branch of their main plant in New Jersey.
In 1873, the town produced goods with a value of $1,412,000, including 4,386,000 yards of cotton print cloth. The later decline of the cotton industry in this town is evidenced by a vacant mill (R) at the bridge over the Contoocook. This sturdy structure was one of the few New Hampshire mills to be built of native granite.
To the right of the village at the point where the Contoocook empties into the Merrimack River is the Stratton Flour Mill, one of the few in New England; it stands on the site of a sawmill built in 1789 and of a later gristmill of Isaac and Jeremiah Chandler. A flour mill was erected on the site in 1858 by John H. Pearson and Company, and it was later taken over by the present owners. Thirty-five operatives are employed in day and night shifts, and can grind 5000 bushels of corn daily in the corn mill and produce several hundred barrels of flour in the flour mill.
Right from the village on a tiny island in the Merrimack River stands the Hannah Dustin Monument, erected where that pioneer arose in the night, scalped her Indian captors and then guided a small band of fellow captives safely home to Haverhill, Massachusetts. Cotton Mather’s description of her feat in his ‘Magnalia’ is vivid. He relates that in March, 1697, Mrs. Dustin, a week after the birth of her child, was taken from her bed and with her child, carried away by the Indians. He continues:
‘... Dustin and her nurse notwithstanding her present condition travelled ... one hundred and fifty miles within a few days ensuing, without any sensible damage to her health.... But on April 30, while they were yet, it may be, an hundred and fifty miles from the Indian town, a little before break of day, when the whole crew was in a dead sleep, (Reader, see if it prove not so,) one of these women took up a resolution to imitate the action of Jael upon Sisera; and being where she had not her own life secured unto her, she thought she was not forbidden by any law to take away the life of the murderers by whom her child had been butchered. She hardened the nurse and the youth to assist her in this enterprise; and all furnishing themselves with hatchets for this purpose, they struck such home-blows upon the heads of their oppressors, that ere they could any of them struggle into effectual resistance, at the feet of these poor prisoners they bowed, they fell, they lay down; at their feet they bowed, they fell where they bowed, there they fell down dead. The two women and the youth then followed the Merrimack back to Haverhill, carrying 10 scalps, for which they received a bounty of fifty pounds.’
BOSCAWEN (pron. bos’kwine) (alt. 320, pop. 1359), 8.2 m., limited accommodations, runs along a ridge that overlooks the broad farmlands of the Merrimack Valley. Its main street, one of the most interesting two-mile stretches in the State, is lined with fine old elms that shade the old white houses.
In 1733, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay granted a tract of land on the west side of the Merrimack, seven miles square and designated as ‘the Plantation of Contoocook,’ to John Coffin and others. Settlement began and the town grew rapidly. In 1739, the first meeting-house was built and it was used as a fort until, later in the same year, the first fort was erected a few rods south, overlooking the river. These hardy pioneers were about the only group in this region to survive the French and Indian Wars without being forced to abandon their settlements.
In 1760, the town was incorporated and named in honor of Admiral Boscawen, a British commander who assisted at the siege of Louisburg in 1758. A century later the section of Boscawen west of the Blackwater River was set off and incorporated as the town of Webster.
One of the native sons of Boscawen was John Adams Dix (1798–1879), who after an army service from 1812 to 1828 became Secretary of the State of New York, from 1833 to 1840; a Democratic senator from that State from 1845 to 1849; and Secretary of the Treasury in the last few months of President Buchanan’s administration. After serving through the Civil War as a major general, he was Governor of New York from 1872 to 1874. He is famous as the originator of the saying, ‘If any man attempts to haul down the flag shoot him on the spot.’ Other men born here include Charles Carleton Coffin (1823–96), war correspondent and historian, and Harry Gerrish, said to be the inventor of the screw auger.
On the main street (L) is the Birthplace of William Pitt Fessenden (1806–69), U.S. Senator from Maine (1854–64) and Secretary of the Treasury in Lincoln’s cabinet (1864–65), marked by a granite tablet. It is a large, two-story frame structure with a wide paneled door surrounded by top- and side-lights.
Directly across the street is the Birthplace of John Morrill, inventor of the eight-day clock. The two-story house, set back from the road and shaded by old trees, has a pedimented doorway and small-paned windows in the upper story. In the field behind this house is a stone marker on the Site of a Fort (1739); it was built of hewn logs and was 100 feet square.
Right is a tablet indicating the Site of Daniel Webster’s First Law Office, built in 1805. Just north is the Webster Homestead (1805), sold by Webster to his brother Ezekiel in 1807. The large two-story hip-roofed house has its doorway hidden by a wide carriage-porch of more recent date.
Daniel’s relations with his brother were marked by mutual assistance. After he graduated from college, Daniel had his college debts to pay; at the same time he was trying to raise money for his transportation to Boston, to save the $500 needed to enter a Boston law office, and to pay Ezekiel’s way through college. His only resource was a school-teacher’s salary — no great sum in that period. After several years of struggle, the gift of a horse provided his own transportation to Boston, and enabled him to give Ezekiel the money he had saved for his own coach fare. When he arrived in Boston, he sold the horse to pay his board bill. After Ezekiel graduated, Daniel found him a job as a salaried law clerk in Boston, and the two brothers lived on his salary while Daniel studied law.
At the northern end of Boscawen stands the little brick Library, designed by Guy Lowell, a pleasing combination of Colonial and Georgian lines, skillfully modified and modernized.
Right from Boscawen on a dirt road is the little hilltop village of CANTERBURY, 3.8 m., a small farming community. This road continues to SHAKER VILLAGE, 8.5 m. The compact group of white frame buildings surrounding the Main Dwelling (1793) are built on a high ridge commanding a fine view of hills and valleys. Dominating the group is the white meeting-house (1792). Left is a building of red brick, housing the office and displaying wares ranging from Shaker sweaters and other textiles to fine cabinet work, all the work of the industrious inhabitants. On the outskirts of the village is a cemetery with only two stones, one a polished granite monument marked ‘Shakers,’ and the other a red granite headstone inscribed ‘Dewey, Our Dog.’
Shakerism was promulgated by Ann Lee, an English Quaker who migrated from England to the Hudson River Valley in 1774. As a result of missionary work, this community was started in 1792 by Elder Clough. It was a religious settlement founded on the policy of celibacy (which necessitated a constant influx of converts to keep it alive), on belief in visions and in communal ownership of property, and on the need of its ritual dances that gave the sect its name.
During the 19th century the community flourished exceedingly. Its leaders were excellent business men, good farmers, and outstanding herbalists. The fields were farmed according to the best principles of husbandry, and the Shakers were ever seeking new inventions by which to lighten their labors.
The religious services of these people have been described by an eye-witness, Charles E. Robinson, who was raised by the Shakers at Canterbury and afterward wrote a history of their sect:
‘Shakerism forbade the mingling of the sexes even in divine service.... As the brethren entered the room they removed their hats and coats and hung them on pegs, which line the side of the room. The Sisters also removed their bonnets. Then standing for a moment in perfect silence, they seated themselves, the Brothers and Sisters facing each other. The adults and children were dressed nearly alike, the Brothers in the Sunday costume of blue and white striped pantaloons with a vest of deeper blue, exposing a full bosomed shirt with a deep turned-down collar fastened with three buttons. The Sisters wore pure white dresses with neck and shoulder covered with snow-white kerchiefs, their heads crowned with a white lace cap, while over their left arm some hung a white pocket handkerchief. Their feet were ensconced in high-heeled, pointed-toed cloth shoes of a brilliant ultramarine blue.
‘Their faces were full of a devout holiness which marked the occasion as one not soon to be forgotten. For the space of a few moments the assemblage of worshippers remained in profound silence. Then they arose as by common consent and stood in silence while the benches in the center of the room were removed. The Brethren faced the Sisters who modestly cast their eyes to the floor while the elder addressed them with a few words of exhortation. At the conclusion of his remarks they bowed their heads for a few moments when they commenced to sing another hymn ... without the use of instrumental music, they all the while keeping time with their feet and with a rocking movement of the body. Then after an interval, one of the sisters in the front rank started the words of a hymn in which they all followed, marching back and forward. Their arms were extended at right angles from their bodies, the palms of their hands turned upwards with a drawing-in movement as they moved on in their march.-...
‘After a short address they began a march in a circle around the center of the room. The Brethren, two abreast, leading the column, the Sisters following after in sections of three abreast. In this march, as in the former exercises, there was a waving movement of their hands ... Occasionally there was a clapping of hands in perfect concert, this being repeated for several times in succession. In marching and counter-marching, the worshipers frequently changed their positions, the Brethren reducing their ranks to two abreast while the Sisters increased theirs to three, and while in this position, the singers stood in the center, the others encircling them twice in their marching. Then again they formed themselves in single file and marched around the center body, ultimately forming into four circles with the singers as a common center....
‘At the close of the singing one of the Sisters began to rock her body to and fro; at first gently and then in a more violent manner, until two of the Sisters, one on each side, supported her, else she would have fallen to the floor. She appeared to be wholly unconscious of her surroundings, and to be moved by an invisible power ... The shaking of the subject continued to increase in violence and it was with great difficulty that she could be restrained from throwing herself forcibly to the floor. Her limbs became rigid, her face took on an ashen hue, her lips moved and she began to speak in a clear and distinct voice, each word of which penetrated every part of the room which was as still as death.... She spoke of the shortness of life, of the absolute necessity of abandoning the world and its sinful pleasures before it was too late; that in Shakerism was embodied all the virtues and none of the vices of mankind; that through her the spirit of Mother Ann was speaking to every Shaker present to remain steadfast in faith and they would enjoy the richest of heaven’s blessing and an eternity of bliss. For the space of fifteen minutes she spoke rapidly, yet impressively, her whole frame shaking from head to foot. Gradually the spell left her and her limbs relaxed as she sank into the seat completely exhausted.’
At 11 m. on this same road is the Worsted Church (1839), a white frame edifice with an exterior similar to many other New Hampshire churches. Its interior decorations have given it its name. Here Mrs. Elizabeth Harper Monmouth was a lay preacher from 1871 to 1878. A woman of good family, she was blind in one eye and had a crippled right arm. Her little house was seven miles distant, but she gladly trudged over the hills each Sunday to open the church. In her spare time she made curtains and mottoes to cover the stains and cracks in the walls using colored worsted yarns, tissue paper, gauze, cotton rags, cotton wadding, and flowers cut from wallpaper. Most of the decorations hang where she placed them, a monument to her industry and perseverance.
Sometime after her work here was completed, she retired to her little farm, having lost the bulk of her income through bad investments. All that remained was her farm and about $50 a year. About $20 of this was earmarked to pay the taxes on the farm. On the rest she decided to live. Being crippled she could not work her farm, and her privations were many. Subsequently she published her experiences in a little pamphlet entitled, ‘Living on a Dime a Day.’
US 4 (see Tour 14, sec. b) branches left at 9.6 m.
At 9.7 m. the highway dips into a little valley with a few houses clustered on one side and an old wooden mill on the other. This was locally called the Valley of Industry; formerly boxes and barrels were made here.
At 12.4 m. is the Merrimack County Farm, with a handsome brick building (L), and a large white barn (R). Just north of it is a Nursery of the State Forestry Department, with a fine display of seedling evergreens.
Stirrup Iron Brook, 13.3 m., crossed by the highway near the mouth of the Merrimack, is so named, according to tradition, because General Henry Dearborn, of Revolutionary fame and a general in the War of 1812, lost a stirrup iron here while on a visit to his sister in Salisbury. It is notable as the spot where the early settlers slew two Indians as retribution for the murder of two Indian slaves.
At WEBSTER PLACE, 15.7 m., a fine old white frame house (R), shaded by splendid old elm trees, was the Home of Daniel Webster after his family moved away from his birthplace several miles north (see below). Daniel as a lad bought a handkerchief on which the Federal Constitution was printed; it is said that at intervals while working in the meadows around this house, he would retire to the shade of the elms and study the Constitution from his handkerchief. From this farm Daniel traveled to Exeter, 30 miles distant, ‘riding double’ behind his father, in clothes that he had outgrown. His rustic manners caused him some mortification until he adapted himself to the more polished environment of Phillips Exeter Academy. In later years Webster was fond of returning to the farm between court sessions or after the adjournment of Congress.
The buildings surrounding his former home belong to the New Hampshire Orphans’ Home.
At 17.5 m. is a junction with a paved road.
Left on this road is Daniel Webster’s Birthplace (open daily in summer; free), 2.75 m., a two-room cabin, built around a sturdy central chimney, and shaded by a magnificent old elm tree. The road now runs behind the house so that the place faces a beautiful stretch of woodland bordered by a swift-running brook. In the room right of the entrance are a few mementoes of Webster. In the kitchen is the fireplace, with all the old accoutrements, including a small Dutch oven. Attached to the house is a small lean-to that served as a stable, and in front is the old well with long sweep.
After military activity in the invasion of Canada in 1759, Captain Ebenezer Webster was allotted 225 acres here, and built a log cabin on it about 1762. A few years later he put up a frame house of which the main section of the present building is a part. Here to Captain and Abigail (Nabby) Eastman Webster was born Daniel, January 18, 1782, a frail child and not in normal health for some years. The Websters lived in this house until the end of the first year of the boy’s life, at which time his father bought a house farther south (see above).
FRANKLIN (alt. 335, pop. 6576) (see FRANKLIN), 19 m.
At Franklin is a junction with State 3A (see Tour 3A).
In the eastern part of Franklin US 3 follows Central St., climbing a steep hill.
TLLTON (alt. 458, pop. 1712), 22 m., limited accommodations, is a small town with a few industries and an old private school. It is united industrially, commercially, and residentially with Northfield, to the south of it, across the Winnipesaukee River.
Originally settled as a part of Sanbornton, Tilton Township was not incorporated until 1869, when it took its name in honor of Nathaniel Tilton, the first settler in 1768.
Right from the village center of Tilton on a paved road to Tilton Arch, 0.2 m., a copy of the memorial arch erected in ancient Rome by the Emperor Titus in A.D. 79. It is on an eminence 150 feet above the river and commands a varied and extensive view of the surrounding country. The arch is constructed of hewn Concord granite. Between the columns reposes a Numidian lion, carved from Scotch granite. The base bears the inscription ‘Tilton 1883.’ It was erected as a tribute to the Tilton family by a descendant, Charles E. Tilton.
Tilton School and Tilton Junior College, School St., are housed in a single group of several Georgian brick buildings on a broad campus. At one side is a row of white cottages occupied by the teachers and students.
The school which was established in 1845 under the ægis of the Methodist Episcopal Church was incorporated in 1852 as the New Hampshire Conference Seminary. In 1923 the present name was adopted. The school has a general and college preparatory program, offering individualized instruction to about 265 students. In 1936 a Junior College department was added.
Left from Tilton on a paved road through Sanbornton Gulf, 2 m., a mile-long cleft through which gurgles a little stream. It is 38 feet deep and the walls are 80 to 100 feet apart and so similar as to suggest that they were once united. In summer the walls are hidden in foliage, and the verdant depths of the gulf at the point where it is crossed by the road make an ideal picnic spot.
On this road is SANBORNTON SQUARE, 3.5 m., one of the several villages in the township of Sanbornton (inc. 1770). It is a cluster of white houses, many of them occupied only in summer, a small white church, and a Grange Hall. In the middle of the square is a band-stand, and concerts given by the Sanbornton Band draw people from surrounding villages. At the top of the hill, north of the village, are the Sanbornton Fair Grounds. Here for many years was held the popular Sanbornton Fair, discontinued in recent years. Left of the fair grounds is an extensive view of mountains, with several ranges of blue lulls extending back to the horizon.
At 26.4 m. the highway crosses a small bridge over a narrow connecting arm between the northern and southern sections of Lake Winnisquam. From this bridge on clear days the white tops of the Presidential Range are visible.
Lake Winnisquam (Ind.: ‘pleasant water’), with a length of about 9 miles and a width varying from 0.5 mile to 2 miles, is an attractive body of water surrounded by low hills. It receives the waters of the Winnipesaukee River and at the southern end sends them out to form the little Silver Lake, an expansion of its southern outlet which again takes the name of the Winnipesaukee River. Silver Lake, earlier known as Little Bay, was the site of Fort Atkinson, erected by Provincial troops in 1746. Here, also, was a six-walled Indian fort. No traces of either are now visible. Winnisquam’s 25 miles of shore line are dotted with summer cottages; in its waters are fish in abundance, and of the same variety as in Lake Winnipesaukee (see below).
At the eastern end of the bridge is the little settlement of WINNISQUAM.
LACONIA, 29.1 m. (see LACONIA).
1. Right from Laconia on Church Street, right on Gilford Ave., 3.9 m., is GILFORD (alt. 730, town pop. 783), limited accommodations.
Right from Gilford to the Belknap Ski Trail and Tow, 1.5 m.
Left past the Gilford church and town house by a fine rolling country road to the Barracks, 2.9 m., a newly built stopping-place for sports enthusiasts in winter and summer. At 3.2 m. is the entrance to the Gilford Recreational Area, embracing 500 acres on the northeast shoulder of the Belknap Range, on a gradual slope toward Lake Winnipesaukee. Within the entrance is a parking place and still further (R) is the main parking area of 50-foot terraces holding 2000 cars. Here is a Stadium seating 3000 people, erected facing a 60-meter Ski Jump which follows a natural land contour. The ski jump is surmounted by a 50-foot steel tower on which is a top platform and cabin for the accommodation of skiers.
The Recreational Area will have open fireplaces and picnicking facilities for both summer and winter use. An artificial pond will be available for skating and swimming. In 1937 the first international ski contest was held on this ski jump.
2. Left from Laconia Tavern, Laconia, on Main Street, past Opechee Park and Opechee Lake (R), and airport, to a junction with a dirt road, 2.8 m., known as the old Parade Road. Right on this road at 1.7 m. is Pulpit Rock in a field (L). Here Nicholas Folsom was ordained as the first minister of Meredith the second Wednesday of September, 1782, by a council of ministers and delegates from surrounding towns.
At 2.1 m., on Parade Road is the old Farrar Tavern (R), used as a hostelry until 1860. Back of the front entry is a secret room reached only by climbing down the bricks of the chimney from the attic.
At 2.5 m., on Parade Road is (R) the Meredith Pound, built in 1789.
At 3.4 m. on Parade Road is a section of the early Town Road where soldiers drilled both at the time of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. It is also a portion of the original Province Road (see LACONIA).
3. Right from Laconia on Main St. to a junction 1 m., with State 106 and Gilmanton Road. Left on Gilmanton Road 0.5 m. to a State Fish Hatchery (open), the fourth largest in the State. Brook and rainbow trout are raised here.
US 3 follows Church Street in the northern part of Laconia.
LAKEPORT, 30.7 m., a suburb of Laconia, is at the lower end of Lake Paugus, named for an Indian chieftain and built partly on flat land, and partly on low hills. Lakeport is the headquarters of the U.S. mail boat on Lake Winnipesaukee (see Tour 10C).
In the home of Abram L. Drake, 40 Prospect St., is an Indian Relic Collection (open); a quarter of the specimens are from this general region. Mr. Drake has been an enthusiastic collector from boyhood.
The highway winds around the eastern shores of Lake Paugus, passing many overnight cabins and a few cottages.
Lake Winnipesaukee (alt. 504), 35.2 m., with a length of 22 miles and a width ranging from 1 to 10 miles is a large fresh-water lake that is very irregular in form, with three bays on the western side, one on the northern, and three on the eastern side. The chief inlet is the Merrymeeting River at Alton Bay and the outlet is the Winnipesaukee River, which starts at The Weirs. The greatest known depth is more than 300 feet. It is difficult to determine the actual number of islands, as there are many that are insignificant in size. Popularly, the lake is said to have an island for each calendar day, but only 274 are habitable.
Although there are 132 different spellings of the name on record the present spelling was established by an act of the New Hampshire Legislature in 1931 and approved by the United States Geographical Board in 1933.
There are a number of legends about the naming of the lake and the meaning of the name. In one, the Indian warrior Kona sought the heart and hand of Ellacaya, daughter of his enemy Ahanton. Ahanton was impressed with the courage of Kona in coming directly to him and asking for his daughter, and, being confident Ellacaya’s heart belonged to the young brave, gave her to Kona as a bond between the two tribes. As the happy couple paddled their canoe across the lake, it seemed to be aglow; feeling this a happy omen Ahanton said, ‘That all the tribes may know there is peace between us, let the water be known as Winnipesaukee, the smile of the Great Spirit.’ Other authorities claim the word means ‘beautiful water in a high place,’ and still others, referring to it as the source of valuable water-power, analyze it as meaning ‘Good water with large pour-out place.’
The shores of the lake were a resort of the Indians as is evidenced by the many relics and artifacts found here. Aquedoctan, or the present Weirs, was a known habitation. The Indian ‘weirs,’ which give the name to the village, are of brushwood or hempen nets interwoven usually in the shape of a ‘W’ or a ‘V’ and placed in the water of the channel at the outlet of the lake; these are visible at low water east of the narrow passage between Winnipesaukee and Lake Paugus. From the name of these fish traps came that now attached to this section.
The first white men known to have seen the lake were members of a surveying party sent north by Governor John Endicott of Massachusetts to establish the Massachusetts Boundary Line (see Endicott Rock below). The earliest settlement on the lake was at Alton Bay in 1770, followed by Meredith, Moultonborough, and Wolfeborough.
Transportation on the water has ranged from Indian canoes and dug-outs hollowed from huge trees to steamboats. A boat with a treadmill operated by horses furnishing power for the paddle wheels was invented by one Patten of Manchester in 1737 and put into use on the lake. The first steamboat on the lake, the ‘Belknap,’ began operation in 1833 and continued to run until 1841. Other improved steamboats appeared, such as the ‘Cork Leg’ and the ‘Widow Dustin.’ A steamboat of long operation was the ‘Lady of the Lake,’ built in 1848 and used continuously until 1893. The ‘Mount Washington,’ still in service, was built in 1872. Nearly 50 per cent of all motorboats licensed in the State are used on this lake. Sailing is also popular. Here in 1852 the first boat race between Harvard and Yale was run off (see Tour 10B). An annual regatta is held in the summer at The Weirs.
Many residences and camps for young people have been established on the shores as well as on numerous islands.
Fishing is a feature at Winnipesaukee. Atlantic chinook and landlocked salmon, brook and rainbow trout, pickerel, yellow and white perch, horned pout, shad, cusk, smelts, black bass, eels, in fact practically all fish native to New Hampshire waters are taken. Winter fishing is a special feature, with tiny houses here and there on the ice for the comfort of the fisherman.
At 35.3 m. is THE WEIRS, a popular resort on the western shores of Lake Winnipesaukee and the chief port on its shores reached by the railroad. It is the scene of much activity in the summer, particularly when regattas are held. The Weirs is the starting-point for the ‘Mount Washington’ Steamer Trip (see Tour 10B).
At the southern end of The Weirs is Endicott Rock Park, a State-supervised beach with bath-houses.
Extending from the beach at Endicott Rock Park is a stone causeway leading to a granite canopy, under which is Endicott Rock. It is believed that the first white men to enter this region were Captain Simon Willard, Edward Johnson, Jonathan Ince, and John Sherman, who were sent here in 1652 by Governor John Endicott of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to lay claim to this land. Journeying as far north as The Weirs, called by the Indians Aquedoctan, they chiseled the Governor’s initials and their own, together with the date, August, 1652, on a boulder to mark the northern boundary of the Colony. This boundary held until the division of Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1740. When the steamer ‘Belknap’ was launched in 1833 and the waters of the channel at the outlet of the Winnipesaukee were lowered to deepen the channel, this boulder was found in the bed of the stream. It is about 12 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4 feet thick, with this inscription:
The markings having become more or less worn by the elements, in 1883 the State legislature appropriated money to have the rock raised and surrounded with safeguards against destruction. A facsimile of the markings on Endicott Rock was made and is in the rooms of the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord.
US 3 continues west from The Weirs by a long steep hill, from which at many points on the hill are (R) wide Views of Lake Winnipesaukee and the surrounding Ossipee (L), Alton (R), and Belknap (R) ranges in that order from left to right.
The highway descends by a steep hill, with a view (L) of Lake Waukewan, into MEREDITH (alt. 549, town pop. 1902), 39.8 m., a village in a hollow between one arm of Lake Winnipesaukee and Lake Waukewan (L). Largely residential and depending in a large measure for its life and business on summer visitors, it has an industry of long standing in the Meredith Linen Mills. Peculiarly, Meredith has no Common about which to group its public buildings, because the early proprietors laid out the original village some miles south of the present location, on Parade Road, where they also laid out a Common of six acres.
Meredith’s early history is closely associated with that of Laconia. The original territory of six square miles was granted in 1748, but it was soon found that the indentations of the bays made less acreage, and that a line seven miles from the northwest corner would not reach the big lake. In 1754, the Portsmouth proprietors increased the grant by calling the northern boundary 12 miles instead of 7; this is the present Meredith Neck.
In early times the place was known as Palmer’s Town, Second Township, New Salem, and was finally incorporated under its present name in 1768. The following year Ebenezer Smith, one of the first settlers, built his log house, returned to Portsmouth, and brought back with him on horseback, his wife, their tiny baby, and, in his pocket, a puppy. In 1873 a part of Meredith was annexed to Center Harbor.
On the western edge of Meredith is little Lake Waukewan, the site of a summer colony. Winter sports are held here.
On the eastern edge of the village on Lake Winnipesaukee is Clough Park. The waterfront is bordered with odd stones from various places. A few yards from shore is a tiny well-grassed Island with a small wooden figure of an Indian standing guard.
Meredith is the junction with State 25 (see Tour 10, sec. a).
1. Right from Clough Park on a paved and dirt road, to the Pinnacle, 3 m., on Meredith Neck, where there is a complete panorama of the lake and the mountains surrounding it.
2. Left from Meredith on State 104 is a junction with a dirt road at 9.5 m.
Here at the junction, on an elevation, is the New Hampton Town Hall, a rectangular two-and-a-half-story structure, erected in 1789 as a church.
Right from this junction 2.1 m. is the Dana Meeting-House (key at house across road), a small one-story, hip-roofed frame building, now painted white, with the interior plastered, probably built about 1800. The many-paned windows are set high above the foundation. Box pews extend around the walls with two sections in the center of the floor, and there are a few unboxed seats. As far as is known the names, tacked on the doors of the pews, are those of the original owners. Originally the services were conducted by three men, in rotation. Dr. Dana, a physician, was the best known of these. Weekdays traveling around on horseback, treating his, patients for twenty-five cents a call, on Sunday he attended to the spiritual needs of the same people. Services were held continuously until 1860 when the church was closed for a time. Summer services are now held by supplying ministers at 3 o’clock (E.S.T.).
At 45.9 m. is a junction with a paved road.
Left on this road to the Asquam House, 0.2 m. on Shepard Hill, from which is a fine view of Lake Asquam and the mountains beyond.
At 46.4 m. is a roadside parking place (R) by Squam Lake from which is an excellent view of the lake and the mountains surrounding it, with the bare and rugged peak of Mt. Chocorua (alt. 3475), in the center. Red Hill (R) is identified by the fire tower on its summit (see Tour 10, sec. a).
The lake, whose Indian name is said to have been either Wonn-as-squam-auke (‘the beautiful surrounded-by-water place’) or Kees-ee-hunk-nip-ee (‘the goose-lake of the highlands’), is considered one of New Hampshire’s most beautiful bodies of water. Officially known as Asquam (Ind.: ‘water’), and popularly as Big Squam, the lake is surrounded by high green hills and heavily forested shores. Its waters flow, not into its neighboring lake, Winnipesaukee, but into the Pemigewasset River. Twenty-six islands dot its surface. It was referred to by Captain John Lovewell in his 1724 journal; he wrote: ‘we travelled 16 miles and camped at the north side of Cusumpy Pond.’ Squam Lake has long drawn summer residents to its shores and has always had a conservative air about it, revealed in the large estates on the northern and eastern shores. Harvard University maintains an engineering camp on the eastern shore. Camp Algonquin for boys is also on this lake.
Squaw Cove, an arm of the lake, took its name from a block of granite with the appearance of a woman on one side of its ledges. The block has been removed, but the legend associated with it lingers. An Indian leader, Waunega, had long been widowed when he fell in love with the young and graceful Suneta, whose home was across the lake, where her father was a powerful sachem of an allied tribe. Suneta loved young Anonis, but her father favored his friend and ally, Waunega.
After the marriage feast, Waunega and Suneta paddled across the lake to the bride’s new home. Anonis was not at the marriage ceremony, but during a fearful storm in the night Suneta suddenly felt the touch of a hand on her face and heard Anonis whisper to come with him.
When the old Waunega, awakened by the storm, missed his bride and went in search of her, a flash of lightning revealed the lovers in a canoe. Waunega discharged an arrow at his rival, who tumbled into the water. Suneta swam to a ledge, imploringly calling on the Great Spirit; but Waunega cried, ‘May the lightning blast her! Let the Manitou make of her an example to coming time.’ Hardly were the words out of his mouth when a crash of lightning and thunder made the mountains and rocks tremble. Terrified at the effect of his own words, Waunega plunged into the water and perished. When morning dawned, there was a semblance of her figure on the rock where Suneta had clung.
The highway winds around Squam Lake across a bridge over the narrow outlet between Squam and Little Squam Lakes.
HOLDERNESS (alt. 581, town pop. 644), 47.6 m., summer accommodations, on a promontory between Squam Lake and Little Squam Lake, is a thriving summer resort that has more of the semblance of an English village than any other in the State.
The original town grant of six miles square on the Pemigewasset River was made by Governor Benning Wentworth in 1751. The following year lots were laid out in the rich intervale beside the Squam River, earlier known as Cohoss and Cusumpy. As no one settled in the place, the charter lapsed. The decisive defeat of the French at Quebec in 1759 removed the threat of the Indian attack from this region and in 1761 Governor Wentworth issued a grant for the township, naming it New Holderness for the Earl of Holderness. The grantees were Major John Wentworth and 67 other Episcopalians, of whom it has been said by an early historian that they were ‘a company of English emigrants ardently devoted to the creed and worship of the Church of England, and with glowing anticipation of the future for the colony. The founders hoped and believed that they were laying the basis of the great city of New England, the rival of Puritan Boston, and destined to throw it into the shade. The headquarters of heresy, they allowed, would have some commercial advantages, on account of its nearness to the ocean and its excellent harbor; but in population, refinement, dignity, and wealth they supposed that Holderness was to be the chief city of the New England colonies.’
In its early days, New Holderness desired to have connections with the Province Road that had been built from Portsmouth to Canterbury and sought the help of the proprietors of the town, who authorized one Hercules Mooney of Durham, ‘to imploy a Pilot to find out a good and convenient place for the road to be cleared from Canterbury to New Holderness.’ The road was routed through Northfield, across the Winnipesaukee River, though Sanbornton, Meredith Center, across a corner of Center Harbor, through New Hampton and Ashland to New Holderness, and thence to Plymouth along the east bank of the river. The settlement was also on Governor John Wentworth’s College Road, built by him from Wolfeborough, the site of his summer estate, to Hanover, in order that he might attend the first commencement at Dartmouth College in 1771. In 1816 the town name was changed to Holderness.
Originally devoted to agriculture and lumbering, its situation on Squam Lake and easy accessibility began to draw visitors to it after 1870.
ASHLAND (alt. 560, pop. 1375), 51.9 m., limited accommodations, is a little town with few residences of size. In its early days Ashland was a part of Holderness; it was incorporated independently in 1868. Gristmills and sawmills were operated here in 1770. Today the manufacture of tissue paper and of woolen goods are the chief industries of the community.
At 53.5 m. is an extremely dangerous turn in the highway at the bridge over the Pemigewasset River.
At 54.1 m. is approximately the Geographical Center of New Hampshire.
The highway now enters the Pemigewasset Valley, a wide intervale of meadows through which runs the river with the same name. It has long been attractive to artists because river and valley lead the eye up to superb peaks, and between them the depression that marks the site of Franconia Notch.
PLYMOUTH (alt. 514, town pop. 2470), 57.9 m., all accommodations, Grafton County seat, is a fine old town on the hillside above the Pemigewasset, where educational, industrial, and recreational activities mingle.
The earliest recorded evidence of white men in Plymouth dates back to about 1712 at which time Colonel Samuel Partridge wrote from Hatfield, Massachusetts to Governor Joseph Dudley in Boston suggesting the sending of an expedition of about 40 men to Coassett, or Coos. Captain Thomas Baker, an adventurous soldier of Northampton, Mass., was selected as commander of 32 men who set out to explore Coos County. Baker and his men followed the course of the Connecticut River to Haverhill, and turning east to Warren Summit, proceeded down the Asquamchumauke River to Plymouth. Just above the junction of this river with the Pemigewasset at what is now known as the Ox Bow, the expedition encountered Indians. A brief skirmish followed, without loss of life to the explorers, but several Indians were reported killed. Captain Baker acquired the blanket, powder-horn, and various trinkets of Waternomee, the chief, and the Asquamchumauke River was named Baker River (see Tour 10, sec. b).
The original charter of the town, dated July 15, 1763, is in the Plymouth Town Library. Settlement began the following year.
Since 1765 industry has played an important part in local life. Lumber mills, a veneer plant, a pig mill, a mattress factory, glove industries, and the manufacture of sporting goods have at various times been important features of village activity.
Plymouth’s outstanding landmark for years was the famed Pemigewasset House. The first structure was built about 1863 by John E. Lyon, president of the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad. When it burned, the railroad rebuilt it, making it accessible from the station by a flight of stairs. Here Nathaniel Hawthorne often stopped and here he died May 18, 1864, in room No. 9. In 1909, the Pemigewasset House again burned and the present hostelry of the same name was built on Highland Street.
Since its incorporation, Plymouth has grown steadily. The fact that for many years previous to automobile days it was a railroad junction brought many people here to trade, and it is still a trading point for a large section.
Plymouth has opened up several ski-trails, and is a popular center for winter sports (see Ski Trails).
On the village green is a bronze Fountain — a Boy Scout kneeling, with water dripping through his hands. The bronze figure is the work of George H. Borst, a summer resident of Newfound Lake, and is on a boulder from Franconia Notch.
Behind the brick Courthouse, Main Street, is the small Public Library (open Mon., Wed., Sat., 7–9 P.M.; Fri. and Sat., 3–6). This little one-story frame building, surmounted by a flat-topped tower, was an early court-house, formerly standing on Main St. In it Daniel Webster made his first plea before a jury in 1805, when he undertook the defense of a murderer. The man’s guilt was so evident that Webster spent most of his time in attacking capital punishment: Webster lost his case.
West a block from Main Street is Plymouth Normal School, occupying an entire block on an elevation between Highland, Langdon, School, and an unnamed street. Livermore Hall, on the east side of School St., a hip-roofed brick structure, topped by the large square Corning Tower, was first occupied in 1891 and its clock first illuminated in 1913 on the occasion of the town’s 150th anniversary. Across School St. are newer buildings prevailingly Colonial Georgian in style. Included in this group is Mary Lyon Hall, the freshman dormitory. The Samuel Read Hall Dormitory, Highland St., newest of the buildings, is a brick structure with large gabled wings, and in the first story large arched windows. On the south side of Highland St., on a slight elevation, is the Russell House, a brick, two-and-a-half-story structure, with white square-pillared porch and a smaller porch above it, surmounted by a low square wooden tower with windows. A feature of the house is the old kitchen that has been restored to its original condition. The Model School, School St., a square, plain three-story brick building is used by students as a practice school, with local children as pupils.
The Holmes Plymouth Academy opened in 1808 was a pioneer institution of its kind and the predecessor of Plymouth Normal School; in 1871 the academy buildings were presented to the State for the Normal School which after much deliberation by State officials was opened in Plymouth in 1871 with 80 students. Present student enrollment is about 200.
Right from Plymouth on a paved road is the Holderness School (1879), 0.5 m., with buildings on a high terrace above the Pemigewasset River, largely grouped in a corner of the large campus, a part of Livermore Farm.
The central building, the work of Frederick Larsen, architect of the Baker Memorial Library at Dartmouth, is a fine example of southern Colonial style. Two gabled-end wings admirably balance the main structure. A small brick dormitory of pure Georgian style is notable for its steep sloping roof which gives an unusual effect on the exterior, and additional space on the interior. This structure, also the work of Larsen, will eventually be duplicated with a connecting building of pretentious dimensions.
At 0.6 m., on this road is (L) the large frame Livermore House (not open). Samuel Livermore, the builder, came from Londonderry in 1774 and became the largest owner of land and an important figure in Holderness and in the State. He was elected one of the Representatives of New Hampshire in the Continental Congress, and in 1782 gave the affirmative action of New Hampshire as being the ninth State to unite the independent States into a nation. From 1789 to 1793 he was Representative in Congress, and Senator from 1793 to 1801, and also chief justice of the State, 1782–90. He used to drive back and forth between Holderness and Philadelphia, a journey of 18 days, in his own carriage. His name is attached to the important falls on the Pemigewasset, north of Plymouth.
At 0.8 m. on this road in a small, well-kept cemetery is the little one-story frame Trinity Church, the second (see St. John’s Church, PORTSMOUTH) Episcopal church in New Hampshire, established in 1797 as of the Church of England. Towerless and simple, it carries an air of superb serenity. Services are held in the church in the summertime only.
Sec. c. PLYMOUTH to TWIN MOUNTAIN, 47.4 m.
This section of US 3 traverses the beautiful Pemigewasset Valley and passes through Franconia Notch with its many natural wonders, including the Flume and the Old Man of the Mountains.
US 3 follows Main Street in Plymouth (see above), and soon crosses Baker River, the former name of which was Asquamchumauke, on a steel bridge. In the intervale (L) was a large Indian settlement where occurred a fight between Captain Baker and the Indians occupying the habitation (see Tour 10, sec. b).
At 2.1 m. is a junction with a paved road.
Right on this road is the Livermore Bridge, a steel structure high above a wild section of the Pemigewasset River.
Across the Pemigewasset Valley is (R) BEEBE VILLAGE, a little paper-mill settlement.
In its northward course, as the road draws nearer the towering wall of mountains topped by the sharp peak of Lafayette, the highway has increasing charm.
WEST CAMPTON, 7.4 m., has far more overnight cabins than dwelling-houses. Situated in the Pemigewasset Valley, a few miles south of the Franconia Notch, it furnishes a view of the mountains in fine perspective.
1. Right from West Campton on a paved road, which crosses the Pemigewasset River, is CAMPTON (alt. 684, pop. 1184), 2.5 m. Campton Upper Village is a little group of simple houses on the shores of Campton Lake. South 0.5 m. is the Lower Village with the century-old woolen mill known as The Little Red Mill. Campton was first granted, with Rumney, in 1761, to Captain Jarvis Spencer, and derived its name from the fact that the surveyors of the original grant camped on this place while running the original lines. Settlement was made here in 1765 and the town was incorporated in 1767. Campton and West Campton were in the last century favorite spots with artists who found here many subjects of especial beauty in the river, meadow, and mountain scenery. Today Campton is largely a residential village and a summer resort.
Right from Campton Upper Village is the Waterville Valley Road, a highway of unusual charm following the windings of the Mad River. The name long since given to this stream is most appropriate; the large boulders in its bed and on the sides that have been moved down from the mountains give proof of the wildness of this stream at certain seasons.
Right on the Waterville Valley Road is the entrance to the Campton Pond Forest Camp, 0.5 m., newly established on this body of water by the White Mountain National Forest. Facilities for camping, bathing, and trailers are available.
At 3.5 m., is a junction (R) with the Sandwich Notch Road, a scenic route of unusual charm. At 6 m. the notch road reaches its greatest elevation, 1421 feet.
At 8 m. on the Waterville Valley Road is the Waterville Forest Camp, a secluded spot frequented by those interested in fishing and tramping.
As the highway proceeds, there are numerous cut-outs through which are visible various peaks.
At 11.5 m. on this road is the Waterville Inn, situated 1500 feet above sea level, but still at the bottom of a great bowl whose sides are numerous encircling mountains, among them Tecumseh (alt. 4004), Sandwich Dome (alt. 3993), Osceola (alt. 4326), Kancamagus (alt. 3774), and Tripyramid — North Peak (alt. 4140), Middle Peak (alt. 4110), and South Peak (alt. 4080). WATERVILLE VALLEY (pop. 23) is a favorite resort for those who desire seclusion and fine mountain scenery. The town was granted to Josiah Gillis and Moses Foss, Jr., in 1819, and 10 years later was incorporated under its appropriate name. The first house, a farm, was built here in 1833 by Nathaniel Greeley. In it he entertained boarders, the first of whom was Ephraim W. Bull, producer of the Concord grape. When the Inn was erected in 1865 it was the only building in the township of Waterville. It is now a community composed of an inn (1865), and 15 cottages, some of which were built as early as the 1870’s. To the Inn many of the same families have come year after year.
The Valley has a nine-hole golf course and 50 miles of summer trails. It also has numerous ski trails and is a notable winter resort.
2. Left from West Campton on a paved road 0.8 m. to Armont Farm, where there is a superb view. This road continues 8 m. to Stinson Lake (see Tour 10, sec. b).
THORNTON (alt. 585; pop. 459), 10.9 m., is a pleasant little section occupying a choice site in the wide Pemigewasset Valley with its northern outlook toward the Franconia Mountains. The settlement is largely made up of farms and summer residences of the simpler type. Thornton was granted in 1763 to Matthew, James, and Andrew Thornton and others, and naturally took the name of the three brothers as its own. The first settlement, however, was made in 1760.
WEST THORNTON, 15.3 m., on the west bank of the Pemigewasset, is largely made up of farms and scattered summer residences.
WOODSTOCK (alt. 701, pop. 756), 18.9 m., is a finely situated little hamlet in the Pemigewasset Valley granted in 1763 under the name of Peeling. The grantees were dissatisfied with the name, and eight years later it was regranted with the more appropriate name of Fairfield. This name did not satisfy the inhabitants, and in 1840 the present name was adopted.
NORTH WOODSTOCK, 23.2 m., by far the larger of the two settlements in the township, is a residential center, but its chief interest is in catering to the summer visitors. Lining the main street are small hotels, restaurants, and gift shops. The village is especially notable for the great beauty of its surroundings; it is at such distance from the mountains surrounding Franconia Notch as to provide clear view of the massing on either side of the pass.
At North Woodstock the East Branch of the Pemigewasset, coming down from the Pemigewasset Wilderness, unites with the Pemigewasset.
Left from North Woodstock is the Joseph Story Fay Reservation, 0.5 m., 150 acres of forest land given in 1897 to the Appalachian Mountain Club. Attractive roads and paths wind through it.
Clark’s Eskimo Dog Ranch (open to visitors, adm. 25¢), 24.4 m., has a large number of dogs of the Eskimo breed all seasons of the year. Many of these dogs are trained for racing in the winter season.
At INDIAN HEAD, 27.2 m., is the largest overnight tourist camp in the State, a small village of uniform English type single-story houses. High above the clearing is the Indian Head, an impressive profile formed by a ledge on Mt. Pemigewasset.
At 27.6 m. the southern boundary of the Franconia Notch Reservation is crossed. Occasionally through cut-outs are visible (R) Mts. Lafayette (alt. 5249), Lincoln (alt. 5108), and Liberty (alt. 4460), while conspicuous Profile Mountain (L) appears as a solid rock wall. Here is the southern end of Franconia Notch, which is about six miles in length. Within this deep cut between the mountains of the Franconia Range on the east and those of the Kinsman Range on the west are such natural wonders as the Flume, the Pool, the Basin, the profile of the Old Man of the Mountains, Profile and Echo Lakes, and a charming little stream, the Pemigewasset — a combination of natural grandeur, dignity, and beauty not excelled in any similarly sized section of the State. The mountains are high and close enough to accentuate the wildness of the scene, and yet distant enough to give perspective.
Geologically, the Notch is an impressive example of the results of glacial action. ‘The pre-glacial stream valley had approximately the same position as the headwaters of the present Pemigewasset River, but was not so deep and the slopes were much rounder. The ice moving through the Notch gradually over-steepened them to produce Eagle Cliff and the cliff of Profile Mountain. The floor of the original valley was also worn down, perhaps several hundred feet.’
At 28.3 m. is the Flume Tea House. In the clearing here formerly stood the Flume House, built about 1848, and one of the famous old hotels of the White Mountain region. Burned in 1871, a successor was built that suffered the same fate in 1918. From this point is an excellent view northward into Franconia Notch. Left is Profile (Cannon) Mountain, right the crags of Eagle Cliff, and above them the sharp summit of Mt. Lafayette, here with but one peak, and a broken incline of lesser peaks. There is also an impressive view southward through the Pemigewasset Valley. Northwest on the mountain skyline are traceable the features of a human face not unlike Washington’s, while the undulant ridge suggests a recumbent figure, sometimes called Washington Lying in State.
Left of the Tea House, under a canopy, is a Concord Stagecoach (see CONCORD), once used on this road through the Notch. The entrance to the Flume (adm. 25¢) is at a gate right of the Tea House.
1. Left from the Tea House either on a winding road or a woodland path through a covered bridge is Boulder Cabin (buses available between entrance and Boulder Cabin 25¢), 0.5 m. In the cabin is a model of an old New Hampshire covered bridge.
The geological history of the Flume is briefly told in signs at important points. The granite of the rocks was formed many millions of years ago; later a dark-colored molten lava was pushed up through the cracks and crevices. Signs indicate these lava seams. The cooling lava solidified into dikes and the principal one was eroded until the flume-gorge was formed. The frosts of thousands of years and the rushing water have widened the canyon. The Flume was discovered in 1803, according to tradition, by 93-year-old Aunt Jess Guernsey, an inveterate fisher-woman. In her wanderings she happened upon this remarkable phenomenon.
From Boulder Cabin the path gradually ascends broad, smooth, and whitened granite ledges over which Flume Brook slips in thin, wide, even sheets. A rustic walk leads to the lower end of the canyon-like Flume, on the western side of Mt. Flume, an eerie fissure between gray, perpendicular walls, some 70 feet in height. At various points trees arcade the chasm, and little birches, lichens, and vines are ensconced in crevices in the rocks. Between these walls the little Flume Brook, which has its sources on Mts. Flume and Liberty, dashes recklessly. Along the walk, which crosses and recrosses the stream, the walls crowd in until there is only room for the brook and the walk. In the narrowest part of the Flume, 12 feet, a huge boulder was lodged for centuries. It was carried away by a terrific avalanche in June, 1883, that deepened the Flume and formed two new waterfalls.
At the upper end of this 700-foot canyon are Avalanche Falls, tumbling down a series of granite steps. The path crosses the falls below a wide basin, and returns by an equally impressive route along the Rim Path of the Flume.
a. Right from the head of the Flume on the marked Flume Slide Trail is Mt. Flume (alt. 4327), 3.5 m. Half-moon in shape, the summit, with a scattered growth of low spruces, offers an extensive prospect over the Franconia area, the Pemigewasset wilderness to the east and the far-extending lowlands.
b. Right from the head of the flume on the marked Liberty Spring Trail is the bare and rocky summit of Mt. Liberty (alt. 4460), 3.9 m.
c. Right from the Rim Path on the Rim Pool Path is Liberty Gorge, a beautiful 70 foot cascade, and down a series of log steps to the Pool, ‘a stygian body of water’ 150 feet in diameter. Here the Pemigewasset falls in a cascade over a mass of rocks into a granite basin, a geological pot-hole, of water almost black because of its depth (40 feet). High surrounding cliffs contribute to the weirdness of the scene. Above the Pool on the rocky side of the mountain rises a Great Pine, estimated to be 175 feet in height. It is one of the largest in the State and considered to be over 175 years old. Left from the pool the path winds through a large number of Glacial Baulders, huge lichen-covered rocks left by the ice-sheet, to the Tea House.
2. Left from the Flume House clearing on a trail, in part an old logging road, is Mt. Pemigewasset (alt. 2534), 1.25 m. From its summit is a fine outlook southward over the Pemigewasset River intervale, westward to the long mass of Mt. Kinsman, eastward to the peaks of the Franconia Range.
The little Whitehouse Bridge, 29.1 m., over the Pemigewasset received its name from a large white house once standing here on the clearing (R) in which lived the owner of a mill. Traces of the dam are in the river-bed.
1. Left from Whitehouse Bridge 1 m. on the Cascade Trail are the Cascades, on Cascade Brook, a small tributary of the Pemigewasset, called by W. C. Prime ‘the finest brook in America for scenery as well as for trout.’ The lower section of the Cascades is a succession of glistening slides of sloping flat granite ledges in places 100 feet wide. From this point are fine views of Eagle Cliff and the valley lying northeast. At 2.1 m., the Cascade Trail unites with the Fishin’ Jimmy Trail, so named from Annie Trumbull Slosson’s story of Jimmy, an old fisherman. On the latter trail is Lonesome Lake, 1 m. (see below).
2. Right from Whitehouse Bridge on the Whitehouse Trail, uniting with the Liberty Spring Trail, is Mt. Liberty, 3.2 m. This is a part of the Appalachian Trail.
The Basin (L), 29.8 m., beside the highway, is a beautifully shaped granite bowl, 60 feet in diameter, filled with the cold and limpid water of the Pemigewasset as it lingers here after a drop in a white cascade. It is a pot-hole, worn by stones whirled by the swift current of the water. At the lower end of the pool a projecting rock resembles a leg and a foot.
Lafayette Place, 31.4 m., is the site of a small tavern built in 1835, and of the Mt. Lafayette House, built in the late 1850’s, but burned in 1861. Here (L), across a rustic bridge, is the Lafayette Place Camp Ground, with a central Administration Building in log-cabin style, and with facilities for camping.
From Lafayette Place is visible (R) the Great Elephant, a formation on Eagle Cliff that resembles a recumbent pachyderm, ‘his trunk thrown out before him, his off-hind foot on the ground, while his haunch is thrown high in the air.’ A white spot in the cliff forms the eye.
Left from Lafayette Place on a trail is Lonesome Lake (alt. 2743), 1.5 m., a little body of water once known as Tamarack Pond, on a ridge under one of the shoulders of Profile Mountain, amid primitive forests. From the southwestern shore of the lake is a view of the rugged, gray-white summits of Mt. Lafayette and the Franconias above the adjacent forest, impressively indicating the depth of the notch at this point. The Appalachian Mountain Club maintains a cabin here in the summer.
The highway continues to follow the busy little Pemigewasset (Ind.: ‘narrow and swift current’) flowing from its source in Profile Lake now over rocks of greenish hue and again over those of brownish tint that frequently direct its course. Numerous odd rock formations accentuate its charm.
At 32.9 m. is Profile Lake (alt. 1930), a small body of water once known as the Old Man’s Washbowl. Sheer above its silver surface rises a shoulder of Profile Mountain (alt. 1500) on which is the stern profile of the Old Man of the Mountains, a striking rock sculpture of a human face, New Hampshire’s best-known natural wonder (see below).
At 33.4 m. is the Site of the Profile House, a famous hotel built in this cliff-enwalled basin in 1853. The original Profile House, though generous in its proportions, was frequently enlarged to accommodate the growing popularity of this region, until it became a most extensive establishment. Because of the great increase in business, occasioned in part by the construction of a narrow gauge railroad between the Profile House and Bethlehem in 1881 which was widened to standard gauge in 1897, the old hotel was regarded as inadequate and was torn down, to be replaced by the New Profile House in 1906. It was burned in 1922.
Just south of this site is the parking place for visitors wishing a more leisurely study of the Old Man of the Mountains. South 500 feet along a brookside path from the parking place is a fine vantage-point, on the edge of Profile Lake, where a boulder marker has been placed by the State. About four o’clock is the best time to view the gigantic silhouette against the blue sky.
Although the Profile was probably recognized by the Indians, little credence is placed today in the tradition of their making it an object of worship. It is generally believed that the first white men to see it were Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks, who were surveying a road though the Franconia Notch in 1805. While washing their hands in the lake they are said to have looked up, and in amazement discovered the face.
Some 48 feet in height, it is formed by three separate ledges of granite, one forming the forehead, another the nose and upper lip, and a third the heavy chin.
Exposed to frosts, summer’s heat, and southeast winter storms, it is remarkable that these ledges have not long since crashed into the depths below. To lessen the danger of its destruction, anchor irons were embedded in the forehead ledge, in the fall of 1916.
Artists by the score have pictured the Old Man. Hawthorne in his ‘Great Stone Face’ and Edward Roth in his ‘Christus Judex’ drew their inspiration from the profile (see Folklore). No scenic feature of the White Mountains is so much photographed by amateurs and with such disappointing results. The usual published photographs are either taken by telephoto lenses, or are enlargements.
The Profile House site parking place is a point of vantage from which are visible several choice bits of mountain scenery. In general, to the north is a fine grouping of the mountains on either side of the Notch, (L) Profile (Cannon) Mountain, (R) Eagle Cliff. Facing north, left on Profile (Cannon) Mountain is visible the Cannon, 1800 feet above the road, a natural rock formation on the top of the mountain and having the appearance of a great gun pushed out from the parapet of a fortress.
1. Left from the Profile House site (alt. 1925), on a trail to the eastern summit of Profile Mountain (alt. 4077), 1.75 m.; by side path to west summit, 2.25 m. From the eastern viewpoint the view into the Notch presents the unbroken wildness of the valley. Eastward is the white-rocked summit of Lafayette, with several cascades glistening on its precipitous sides. Right are the bald top of Mt. Liberty and the lesser peaks down the valley.
2. Right from Profile House site on the Greenleaf Trail, in part an old bridle path, to Eagle Lakes, 2.5 m., two tiny ponds where the Appalachian Mountain Club maintains a hut; and the summit of Mt. Lafayette, 3.75 m. Mt. Lafayette rivals Mt. Washington as a point from which to view a vast array of other peaks and has the added advantage of including Mt. Washington itself and the other Presidentials. Starr King has said of Lafayette that its gentle crescent line of vast outworks suggests the sweep of a tremendous amphitheater. Lafayette is the most individual peak of the Franconia Range, and even of the Presidential Range. It has seven tops, and the number visible varies at different points. The range of notable peaks visible from the summit of Lafayette is large, including peaks in Vermont.
At 34.9 m. is the junction with a road.
Left on this road 200 yds. to the base station of the Aerial Tramway to the summit of Profile Mountain, to be opened in 1938.
Right at 35.1 m. is Eagle Cliff (alt. 3466), a precipitous foothill of Mt. Lafayette, 1500 feet above the highway, especially striking as the sunlight plays on it or when clouds checker its surface, effects most pronounced in the early morning or late afternoon. This ragged cliff is said to have derived its name from an eagle’s nest on its crags, but no eagles remain to carry on the tradition.
Echo Lake (alt. 1931), 35.1 m., lies beneath the sheer and castellated granite walls of Eagle Cliff, which rises 1500 feet above the little tarn. The lake is environed on the north and east by low, rocky Bald Mountain (alt. 2320) and Artist Bluff (alt. 2368), on the south by Eagle Cliff, and on the west by massive Profile (Cannon) Mountain (alt. 4077). The scene would be almost savage without the lake, whose name indicates the acoustic effect found here. On a still day an ordinary shout will re-echo three or four times around the cliffs, while the shot of a gun resounds as though it were a whole battery. Starr King said that toward evening the lake was worth visiting more for its echoes of color than of sound. The little lake is one of the sources of the Ammonoosuc.
At 35.5 m. is the junction with State 18 (see Tour 8A).
At the northern end of Echo Lake is the junction with a path.
Left on this path to Artist Bluff, 0.25 m., a commanding point for a view of the lake at its foot and Franconia Notch south of it.
At the Profile Golf Club, 37.1 m., is a view of the Gale River Valley with (R) wooded Mt. Agassiz (alt. 2394). Sugar Hill is slightly left.
Gale River Forest Camp, 41.6 m., with all camping facilities is maintained by the White Mountain National Forest Service.
Right from Gale River Forest Camp on the Garfield Trail is Mt. Garfield, 4.2 m. Especially fine from this summit are the Franconia and Twin Mountain Ranges.
As the highway continues northward both peaks of the Twin Mountains 1 mile right — North (alt. 4769) and left South (alt. 4926) — are visible southward — only the North Twin is visible from Twin Mountain Village. Rounded Mt. Garfield (alt. 4488), and many-peaked Mt. Lafayette (alt. 5249) form a distant background.
At 45.6 m. appears (R) the whole range of the Presidential Mountains, with Mt. Washington (alt. 6288) in the center (see Tours 2, sec. c, 7, and 8, sec. b).
TWIN MOUNTAIN (alt. 1400), 47.4 m., one of the busiest little summer resorts in all the White Mountain area (see Tour 8), is 4 miles north of Twin Mountains, with south the other Franconia Peaks as well as west, the Presidentials, and smaller peaks on all sides.
At Twin Mountain is the junction with US 302. A bronze marker (L) indicates the beginning of the Dartmouth College Highway (see Tours 8, sec. b, and 4).
Sec. d. TWIN MOUNTAIN to SECOND CONNECTICUT LAKE, 83.4 m.
US 3 leaves northward from Twin Mountain.
CARROLL (alt. 1370, town pop. 402), 2 m., is a scattered hamlet of small houses along the hillside. Originally called Briton Woods, Carroll was granted to Sir Thomas Wentworth, the Rev. Samuel Langdon, and others in 1772 and incorporated as Carroll in 1832. As a whole the township is rough and mountainous.
At Carroll is a junction with State 115.
Right on State 115 is the short Cherry Mountain Road. Skirting the base of the mountain that gives its name to the road, the winding highway leads over the highlands, with varying prospects of the mountain above it. Cherry Mountain itself is heavily wooded with a conspicuous big scar on its northwestern slope, reminder of a White Mountain tragedy. Here on July 10, 1885, an avalanche of earth, rocks, and trees crashed from Owl’s Head Peak, destroying everything before it. For two miles it roared down the mountain-side carrying away the home of Oscar Stanley at the base of the mountain, killing some of his cattle and fatally wounding one of his farmhands. It was from a tree on this mountain that Timothy Nash discovered Crawford Notch in 1771 (see Tour 8).
At the Gravel Farm, 5.8 m., is (R) a marked trail leading 1.8 m. to Owl’s Head (alt. 3370), the only cleared spot on the mountain. From the summit a magnificent scene opens out. Southeast is the Presidential Range, beginning in the north with the long flanks of Madison and the castellated ridge of King Ravine below it, then the shadowy Ravine of the Castles, Mt. Jefferson, followed by Clay and, towering still higher, Washington with the cog railroad curving around its gray sides. Beyond in this same direction is ragged-crested Monroe, level-topped Franklin, corpulent Pleasant and Clinton, Jackson and Webster appearing as one ridge. Crawford Notch is clearly defined. In the southwest may be seen Bethlehem’s long street with Mt. Agassiz behind it. Sugar Hill lies still farther in the same direction. Littleton appears slightly westward, then Whitefield with the Dalton Range in the distance.
On State 115 at 6.8 m. is a junction with a road. Right on this road is Cherry Mountain Notch, 7.4 m. long, which leads to State 302 near the Lower Ammonoosuc Falls, east of the mountain. The road follows the top of a low ridge for some distance with steep embankments on either side. Choice vistas open from time to time, including especially Starr King Range and Jefferson Hill.
The road continues in a leisurely, rolling fashion, and from occasional high spots the wide-spreading Presidentials (R) lift their bare summits above wooded Cherry Mountain (alt. 3600). From time to time the long Franconia Range, with Mt. Lafayette (alt. 5249) overtopping them all, is visible (L). Nearer at hand are (L) Mt. Agassiz (alt. 2394) with its conspicuous observation tower, and round-topped Mt. Cleveland (alt. 2500).
Across a broad intervale is (R) the Starr King Range (see Tour 7). Beyond in the distance appear the blue tops of the Kilkenny Range, or, as generally known, the Pilot Range, of which wooded Mt. Cabot with its fire tower is the highest (alt. 4080).
WHITEFIELD (alt. 952, town pop. 1693), 8.3 m., all accommodations in summer, limited in winter, is a village on John’s River (see Tour 7) between two sharp hills of the narrow valley. Its business district has grown up around its Common where band concerts are held in summer; it becomes an ice palace at the time of the Winter Carnival. The carnival, an annual event, attracts crowds from a wide area and features ice sculpture, horse-racing, parade, ball, queen contest, and winter sports competition.
The township was granted in 1774, taking its name from the Rev. George Whitefield, early itinerant Methodist preacher, who had recently died and who had been a friend of several of the grantees and the Governor. Many of the grantees were given lots in Whitefield as a reward for services during the Revolutionary War. In several early documents the town was erroneously referred to as Whitefields. This matter was adjusted by the Legislature in 1804 when the town was incorporated as Whitefield.
Although Whitefield has a few small industries, it is primarily a summer resort. The ‘Forty-Niners’ occupy the Chase Barn Theater here each summer drawing large audiences from a wide area. Sunday afternoon concerts by famous artists are a feature. The Whitefield Polo Ranch and Airport are on the Hazen meadows south of the village.
Left from Whitefield on State 116, a paved road, is, at 1.3 m., a junction with a dirt road. Left on this road is Kimball Hill (alt. 1735), 1 m., a choice eminence from a scenic standpoint, surrounded in a wide circle by several lakes and ponds in the valleys below it. From the hill are visible west, Burns Pond and Forest Lake, east Cherry Pond and the series of ponds along John’s River, and north Mirror Lake and Blood Pond. To the east are, from left to right, the Presidential and Franconia Ranges, Starr King and Pilot, and in the foreground, Cherry Mountain; in the west, the long Dalton Range.
At 3 m. on State 116 is a junction with a dirt road. Right on this road is a hermit body of water, Forest Lake (alt. 1079), 2 m. Here is Forest Lake Park, a section of 420 acres under the care of the New Hampshire State Forestry Department, with bathing and picnicking facilities. Here begins the trail to Dalton Mountain and the Forest Lake Ski Trail (see Ski Trails).
With the Presidential Range (R) in the distance and with smaller hills on all sides, the highway rises to and passes several fine estates near the entrance, 10 m. (R) to the Mountainview Hotel, from the grounds of which is one of the finest panoramas east and south, in the entire mountain district.
At 13.7 m. is a junction with a paved road.
Left on this road is DALTON (alt. 885, town pop. 580), 7 m., no accommodations Dalton, stretching along the Connecticut River, is a hilly district with some fine farms. A large dam across the Connecticut River provides power for the Gilman Paper Company, of Gilman, Vermont, which employs many of the inhabitants of Dalton.
Much of the center of the township is overrun by the long wooded Dalton Range (alt. 2169). From its summit excellent views may be had of the Connecticut Valley. One especially good viewpoint is on the road over Dalton Mountain where it takes a sharp drop toward Forest Lake. From this spot the Presidential Range shows to good advantage with Kimball Hill in the foreground across the valley, in which are Forest Lake and Burns Pond.
South of Lancaster the highway winds upwards through a notch between Mt. Prospect (alt. 2059) and Round Mountain.
At the top of the notch is the junction with a paved road.
Right on this road (toll fee $2 for automobile and passengers) is the summer home on Mount Prospect of the late Secretary of War John W. Weeks, a native of Lancaster, to whom belongs the major credit for the establishment of the White Mountain Forest Reservation (see White Mountains). A Tower at the top of the mountain commands a wide view of the North Country. The Jefferson Range east, forms a fine setting for the villages of Jefferson and Lancaster while the Connecticut River is visible for several miles with the Vermont hills as a background. Looking south, Martin Meadow Pond is visible (R) from the road.
LANCASTER (alt. 864, town pop. 2763), 16.7 m., all accommodations, is in a fine intervale at the confluence of Connecticut and Israel Rivers, the latter passing through the center of the village. An impressively wide main street with many rare old houses sufficiently spaced to enhance their beauty gives the town a distinguished appearance. Bordered by low hills, the town is in the midst of mountains with blue silhouettes rising above the skyline. Among these the Pilot Range (R), with its serrated peaks rising sharply from the meadows of Lost Nation, northeast, and New France, is a ‘great rolling rampart which plays fantastic tricks with the sunshine and shadow, and towards sunset assumes the tenderest tints of deep amethyst.’
Lancaster is an important trading center for a large area and with its county Courthouse considers itself the civic hub of Coos County, even if the hub is off-center and has to share the honor with Berlin. It carries about it a distinctive air of the past mingled with not too obtrusive evidences of a modern, alert and comfortable undercurrent of life. Mt. Cabot (alt. 4080), named in honor of Sebastian Cabot, the 16th-century English pilot, lifts its summit above the other peaks of the range. On the west, Lancaster borrows the beauty of Lunenberg Heights (alt. 1700) across the river in Vermont, to add to its own encircling peaks.
In 1762, David Page of Petersham, Mass., and others who had become discontented with a parcel of land granted at Haverhill made application to Governor Wentworth for a charter for a town in ‘upper Coos’ in the rich lands which now had become a virtual obsession with many adventurers. The charter was granted in July, 1763, and the following September David Page, Jr., and Emmons Stockwell, who were acting for David Page, Sr., cut a path from Haverhill, N.H., through the forest, set up a camp and took possession of the new plantation named Lancaster. After spending a long, arduous winter they were relieved to be joined in the spring of 1764 by David Page, Sr., Edwards Bucknam, Timothy Nash, and George Wheeler. A few months later, Ruth Page, a heroine of eighteen, joined the company. Lancaster owes its existence to her persistent pleading and encouragement almost as much as to the heroic efforts of the men. Stockwell was the hero who braved it out, while all the others deserted the settlement for the safety of other towns. His courageous example had its effect in gradually drawing the deserters back to form a more permanent settlement. Settlement on any significant scale, however, did not begin until after the Revolution. Among these later settlers was Captain John Weeks (1787), grandfather of ex-Senator John W. Weeks.
Wheat played a large part in Lancaster’s early history, every town appropriation being expressed in that commodity rather than money. The preacher, says Somers (‘History of Lancaster’), was paid in wheat and ‘five bushels’ was the price for a day’s preaching. A day’s preaching included two sermons, of almost interminable length. In the first record of town support for schools, an appropriation of 30 bushels of wheat was voted.
Up to 1791, Lancaster and all the other towns in the ‘North Country’ were parts of Grafton County, but in that year, because of the extreme difficulties in road communication (‘the roads to Haverhill, our nearest shire town, are exceeding bad and at some seasons of the year impassable’), they petitioned the General Court to set up a new county to be known as Coos. After several such petitions and the energetic work of one of Lancaster’s early lawyers, Richard Claire Everett, the request was granted in 1802 and Lancaster was made the county seat.
Business enterprise was limited to the blacksmith, the tanner, the carpenter, and the shoemaker for the first 50 years, but since 1830 manufacturing has had little place in the community. The town’s most rapid growth began with the coming of the railroad in 1870. Although Lancaster is the northern seat of legal lore and the home of many of the county’s distinguished professional men and women, its outskirts are still agricultural.
In Centennial Park, established at the town’s centennial in 1864, is a Monument of a bronze fox poised on a boulder. The monument, set there in 1914 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the town, commemorates the men and women ‘who redeemed Lancaster from the wilderness.’ Among the delightful old houses along the main street is the Holton Home (open), at the northern end, which has been occupied continuously by descendants of one of the early settlers who built it in 1780.
A conspicuous structure is the House of Seven Gables (not open) (it actually has nine), near the Methodist church. This house was built in 1859 by John S. Wells, a lawyer at a time when Lancaster had among its residents 22 others of his profession. The Stone House (not open), beside the Catholic church, has a large amount of hand-carving in its interior woodwork; it was built in 1837. The ‘hanging’ circular staircase is beautiful; every fourth upright is of iron and the newel post has an ivory knob. Queer-shaped and oddly placed cupboards and closets are numerous.
A beautiful Scenic Spot is near the bridge spanning the Connecticut with a foreground of green meadows extending northward. Beyond rise Cape Horn, the twin Percy Peaks, and the summits of Pilot Range.
The noted humorist of the 19th century, Charles Farrar Browne, better known as Artemus Ward, spent his apprenticeship as a newspaperman on the Coos County Democrat in Lancaster (see Literature).
At the northern entrance to Lancaster are the Coos and Essex Agricultural Society grounds where an annual old-time fair is held.
Right from Lancaster on a dirt road is LOST NATION, 6 m. A handful of houses, it is far from being a nation or lost. It is a region of valley and highland farms. A popular tradition states that in the days of traveling preachers, one came to this part of the country and called the people together for worship. Only one man appeared. This provoked the preacher who likened the people to the lost tribe of Israel. As the episode was related over and over, this section came to be known as ‘Lost Nation.’ Another tradition states that a pack peddler came through this section and found it so difficult because of the lack of roads that he called it the ‘Lost Nation.’
At 20.3 m. is a colony of recently built log cabins. Weary of town life with its high rents, uncertain occupation and general atmosphere, a group of families started this little community as an experimental return to primitive life, with refinements.
NORTHUMBERLAND (alt. 869, town pop. 2360), 23.5 m., limited accommodations. The township has two settled mill sections, Northumberland Village and Groveton. Northumberland Village consists of one long and unimpressive street bordering the river, with the mill of the Wyoming Valley Paper Company just below the dam and bridge across the Connecticut. The better houses of the villagers are across the river in Guildhall, Vermont, reached by a bridge.
In 1755, Fort Wentworth was built at the mouth of the Ammonoosuc by Captain Robert Rogers and named in honor of Governor Wentworth. It was long used as a refuge from the Indians and was the rendezvous for Rogers’ Rangers on their return from the sack of St. Francis. It was occupied during the Revolutionary War by Colonel Bedell until 1778, and was still in use as late as 1782. A boulder between the Potter House and the cemetery monument marks the site. Granted as Stonington in 1761, settlements were made by two families in 1767, the wife of one of them being, it is said, a descendant of Hannah Dustin (see Tour 3, sec. b). Thomas Burnside, another settler, was one of Rogers’ Rangers. The town was regranted under its present name in 1771 and incorporated in 1779. Communication with the outside world was established when a ‘good’ road was built in 1784, with bridges and corduroy over swampy places. In 1786, a ferry ‘over Connecticute River and a branch thereof Called amminooSuck River which Runs in to Connecticute River in Northumberland’ was approved and authority given to defray the expenses by a lottery. In 1791, a bridge was authorized over Little Falls on the Connecticut, and in 1799 another bridge built across the Ammonoosuc River was destroyed by a freshet the same year.
GROVETON, 27 m., on the flat ground of the river valley near the junction of the upper Ammonoosuc and Connecticut Rivers, is the business center for the township of Northumberland. It is an oddly shaped village with wide, tree-lined streets and comfortable dwellings, dominated by the large plant of the Groveton Paper Company. With the arrival of the two railroads, the Grand Trunk in 1850 and the Boston and Maine in 1874, Groveton achieved importance. A large paper mill replaced the sawmills and is still the major industry of the town. The starch mills, leather goods, and woodworking industries are things of the past, but the pulp-wood industry still thrives. At the southern end of the village by the old wooden bridge is a fine view of the Percy Peaks.
Right from Groveton on a dirt road, the Beaver Falls, 1.5 m., are impressive.
At Groveton is a junction with State 110 (see Tour 6).
NORTH STRATFORD (alt. 950, town pop. 918), 37.6 m., is a group of small houses on a plateau above the Connecticut. Stratford was granted in 1773, and shortly afterward settlers began to make their way here. These adventurers had their difficulties with the Indians as evidenced by an early appeal to the Council and House of Representatives in 1779, the year of the town’s incorporation: ‘A party of Indians about fifteen in Number Commanded by A French man, came into Stratford took two Prisners Plundered two Families of everything Valuable which they had.’ The following year they petitioned for a guard:
having our houses Plundered and Sum of our men Captivated by the Indeans and hearing of their threatning to Come to this River this winter Give us apprehension of imeadeate Danger therefore we Pray your Honrn to take our Case into your wise Consideration and Relieve our Present fears by Sending of us help Either by Sending a Draught of the millitia or that your Hons would wright to Some General oficer for a Detachment of Continantal Soldiers we Supose about 100 men might be a suficent Number at Present.
In 1781, two captives were redeemed, the early records stating that
oure friend Indians brought in Prisoners of our men which desarted from Canady which Sd Indians found in the woods and brought in which Sd Prisoners Promised to Pay Sd Indians 30 Dollors a Pece which Prisoners was not able to Pay and one Elijah Blogget Paid the Sd Sum to Sd Indians for the Redemtion of Gilberd Borged & Josiah Blogget which was 60 Dollors.
COLEBROOK (alt. 1033, town pop. 1937), 51 m., good accommodations, is a village on broad fields at the confluence of the Mohawk and Connecticut Rivers. Surrounded by low hills, it borrows its greatest scenic glory from Mt. Monadnock, across the Connecticut in Vermont, bearing a conspicuous scar left by former gold-mining operations. Its wide tree-lined main street is a gathering place for shoppers from a large surrounding territory.
The town was first granted with Stewartstown and Columbia in 1770 to Sir George Colebrook, Sir James Cockburn, and John Stuart (Stewart) of London and John Nelson of the island of Granada in the West Indies, and was given the name Colebrook when it was incorporated in 1796. Among the early settlers was Eleazar Rosebrook, in later life associated with the opening of Crawford Notch, who came here with his family through the woods from Haverhill about the year 1775. At one time in order to get salt Rosebrook walked to Haverhill, a round trip of 80 miles, and brought back a bushel of salt on his back.
In 1804, a road was opened from Colebrook through Dixville Notch, making the market at Portland much more accessible (see Tour 5).
The town grew rapidly and became the wealthiest town in proportion to its population within the State. In years long past it produced one-twentieth of all the starch in the country, or about 1500 tons annually. Today the main occupations are dairying, potato-raising, lumbering, and catering to tourists.
Among her native sons Colebrook includes Horace White (1834–1916), editor of the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. Beloit, Wisconsin, owes its existence to a group of a dozen families that left Colebrook in 1846 and founded the city and college.
Right from Colebrook on State 26 is Dixville Notch, 11 m. (see Tour 5).
WEST STEWARTSTOWN, 59 m., a settlement of the frontier type directly opposite the village of Canaan, Vermont, is situated in the broad fields of the Connecticut Valley with low hills in the background. It is the larger of two villages in the township of Stewartstown (alt. 1050, town pop. 1148).
First granted as Stewartstown December 1, 1770, to Sir James Cockburn, Sir George Colebrook, and John Stuart of London and John Nelson of the island of Granada, it was first incorporated in 1795 under the name of Stuart, but since there was some doubt of the legality of the act it was again incorporated in 1799 and named Stewartstown. The settlement was rapid from 1800 to 1810, but the hardships experienced because of Indians and cold weather were almost unbelievable. In the severely cold season of 1817, no grain was raised and it had to be brought 50 miles.
The building of the Upper Coos Railroad in December, 1887 (since leased to the Maine Central), proved a great boon to the town. Potatoes are the principal product here, as in Upper Coos, which is becoming a modest potato-growing rival of Aroostook County, Maine.
Left from West Stewartstown on a dirt road is the Connecticut River and the Vermont State Line, 0.5 m. east of Canaan, Vermont.
The narrowness of the highway between Colebrook and West Stewartstown is more than compensated by alluring glimpses of the Connecticut River in its early stages, a silver stream between green fields.
At 23.4 m. is a junction with a road.
Left on this road 0.5 m. is the Connecticut River, the Vermont State Line, 0.1 m. from Beecher Falls, Vermont.
The highway follows the windings of the Connecticut River through wide stretches of intervale where farms are few and far between. When seen they are conspicuous for their large red barns and well-kept dwellings. It is a fertile region, but farming is rapidly disappearing because of poor marketing conditions. Lumbering and logging, which once played a prominent part, have also disappeared.
At 64.8 m. Indian Stream, which has its source in the northern tip of the State, is crossed by a small covered wooden bridge. This stream gave its name to the Republic of Indian Stream (see below).
The highway cuts through a wide intervale skirting (L) the lower section of Shatney Mountain (alt. 2140), where it tapers down to the general level of the region.
PITTSBURG (alt. 1331, town pop. 671), 68.9 m., with meager accommodations, is a frontier hamlet of simple little houses, with only one house of pretense, on a bluff above the Connecticut. Conspicuous is the brick schoolhouse, the only modern touch. Curiosity is aroused by the high woven-wire fence which completely encircles the school grounds, erected, they say, to protect the school children from traffic on the highway which passes in front of it!
Pittsburg is the northernmost and the largest township in area in the State, and includes the tracts of Carlisle, Hubbard, and Webster. For many years after the Revolution this Connecticut Lake region was claimed by both the United States and Canada. The settlers formed their own local government, and about 1829 the section became known as Indian Stream Territory. On July 9, 1832, the inhabitants organized the ‘Republic of Indian Stream,’ with a written constitution, council, assembly, and courts. The tiny State existed for three years, its career ending in the ‘Indian Stream’ (1835–36), when after a dispute with the Canadian authorities the territory was occupied by New Hampshire Militia (see History). Incorporated as Pittsburg in 1840, the north and west lines were established in 1841, and by the Ashburton Treaty (1842) the region was awarded to New Hampshire.
At 71.2 m., the highway turns sharply from the Connecticut River Valley and enters a wide swath in the sparse forest. The highway continues high above the river, where is a wide view of cleared fields with the stream winding through them.
At 72.8 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is an attractive little body of water known as Back Lake (alt. 1575), 0.6 m., with bathing facilities.
At 74.5 m. is a huddled group of houses called HAPPY CORNERS. The name is said to have come to it from the fact that its store was a rendezvous for a group of men in the vicinity who whiled away the hours with cards and jovial fellowship.
The highway now continues through forests of hardwoods, above which appear the delicate, symmetrical tips of firs, justifying the title ‘land of the pointed firs.’
At 75.9 m. is the large cement Dam at the lower end of First Connecticut Lake (alt. 1631), constructed on heavy lines to hold back not only the waters of this lake, but of the three other Connecticut Lakes farther north. The spillway, with a length of 387 feet, was built in 1930 to provide a storage capacity of 3,838,000 cubic feet. Including abutments the total length of the dike is 1127 feet, and the maximum height 47 feet. The drainage area of the lake is 83 square miles. The dam is owned and operated by the New England Power Company. The wildness of the Connecticut River in this section can be visualized from the gorge just below the spillway.
First Connecticut Lake, largest of the four, is 4 miles long, with an area of 3 square miles. Having an irregular shoreline, it is one of the most beautiful sheets of water in the State. Its northern and eastern shores are unbroken forests. On the western shore are a few farms with pasturelands extending down to the lake. Since many of the surrounding trees are deciduous, the effect in autumn is brilliant, especially with the mottling by evergreens. Farther back from the shores are mountains of unusual symmetry. Conspicuous to the eastward is wooded Magalloway Mountain (alt. 3360) with its fire tower.
Trails to Magalloway Mountain can be picked up on the eastern side of the lake, but minute directions should be secured from persons living near the lake; a guide is generally considered necessary.
The lake is stocked with Atlantic, landlocked and Chinook salmon, lake, rainbow, and brook trout. Near the highway are numerous camps for fishermen and hunters.
At 81.9 m. is the Dam at the southern end of Second Lake. The spillway, built in 1934, has a length of 118 feet. The dam, owned and operated by the New England Power Company, has a maximum height of 30 feet, providing a storage capacity of 506,000 cubic feet. The lake has a drainage area of 48 square miles.
Primeval birches are numerous along the road, their rugged and grayed trunks revealing their antiquity. Wooded Mt. Prospect (alt. 2100) appears (L) from time to time.
At 82.9 m. is a junction with a road constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (to be completed by the fall of 1939 to Chartiersville, Que.).
Left on this road 2.5 m. and by trail is Third Lake (alt. 2191), 7.5 m., 1 mile long, with an area of 0.75 square miles. This lake, known by the Canadians as Lake St. Sophia, is surrounded by hills, those on the north shore extending into the Canadian territory. Its isolation gives it a wild beauty. It is stocked with brook trout.
The same road and trail from Third Lake continues to Fourth Lake (alt. 2600), 9 m., a tiny tarn on the side of Mt. Prospect, within half a mile of the Canadian border. Surrounded by dense forests of evergreen, it is only 75 feet below the summit of the mountain.
Since these two lakes can only be reached by foot trails it is advisable to ask for information and obtain guides at Pittsburg or Camp Idlewild.
Camp Idlewild, 83.4 m., on the western side of the Second Lake, is the only settlement on this body of water and is at present (1937) the northern end of US 3.
Second Lake (alt. 1871), formerly known as Lake Carmel, from a mountain northeast of the lake, has a length of 2.75 miles with an area of 1.75 square miles. The graceful contour of its shore and the receding forested hills create a picture of unsullied serenity. Eastward some 8 miles across the lake is broad-backed Bosebuck Mountain (alt. 3149), and about the same distance northeast, flat Rump Mountain (alt. 3647), with its fire tower, dominates the horizon.
