USA > New Hampshire > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, New Hampshire > Part 14
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Ossipee Park. - This lovely spot has been created by the artistic taste of B. F. Shaw, developing and harmonizing art with nature. This estate is 750 feet above Lake Winnipiseogee, and 1,233 above the sea. On a lawn of five acres fronting the lake is the Hall, a select house of entertainment. A mountain brook falls 250 feet in one mile, as it passes through the grounds, affording most exquisite cascades and natural beauties.
Ossipee Falls, or "Falls of Song," shoot down 35 feet over rough, black rock into a deep pool of great transparency. The width of the stream is here about 18 feet, and a tradition is preserved that John Chamberlain, who after- ward killed the great chief Paugus in the Pequawket fight where Captain Lovewell was killed, was fleeing from a band of Indians. They had almost reached him, and knew that he could not escape them, as the gulf of nearly twenty feet in width would be impassable. To their astonishment he made a leap, cleared the chasm, and bounded away unharmed. His leading pursuer undertook the same feat, fell short, and was found a lifeless corpse at the bottom.
Whittier Peak, a northern summit of the Ossipees, was given this name by M. F. Sweetser, the cultured editor of Osgood's " White Mountain Guide," in honor of the venerable Quaker poet, whose gifted muse has so often sung of these mountains and the valley at its base. " It is composed of a succession of highly inclined ledges, ascending so continuously that the forest cannot obtain lodgment, and only a few small trees are scattered along the slope." It is easy of access, 1,000 feet above the sea, commands a rich and extensive view, and is near the north line of the town of Ossipee. "The crest is clear and sharp, formed by two low ramparts of rock, between which is a tiny grassy hollow."
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Ossipee Mountain is the name applied to the high range on the northeast of the Ossipee range, and is often visited by tourists from West Ossipee and Bear Camp valley.
Uncle Tom's Hill (Moultonborough) presents a fine view of rich pastoral beauty, lovely lake scenery, and sweeping mountain conformations.
Red Hill. - This is a noted and beautiful eminence, commanding a varied and enchanting prospect of Lake Winnipiseogee and the surrounding country, which Barstow describes thus : -
Scarcely a stone's throw from the summit is the little Lake Squam, its waters clear as crystal and sprinkled with green islands, some of them no wider than a small grass-plot, some spreading out into fields and pastures, with hills that send forth many a rivulet into the bosom of the lake. Ascending towards the summit of the mountain, the trees appear slender and graceful, and seem to stand for ornament amidst, the blueberry and sweetfern, which bear their fruit and fragrance almost to the mountain's top. The traveler daily and hourly discovers some new attraction in these sweet abodes of nature. To-day a clear atmosphere presents a change of hue, and flings over all a new enchantment.
Nothing can exceed the splendor of sunrise on this mountain, in a calm summer's morning. The stillness of the place, the placid serenity of Winnipiseogee, the varying positions of objects, as the morning mists rise, and change, and pass before the sun, now brooding low on the waters, now sailing slowly over the islands, and wreathed in ever-varied forms around their green promontories, - these and other features present a view abounding in wild beauty which exists where art has not usurped dominion over nature. Here some bright basin is seen to gleam. and anon the eye catches some islet, half-veiled in mist and reddening with the first blush of morning. Sometimes, by a pleasing delusion, the clouds become stationary, and the island seems to move and to be slowly receding from the veil of mist. The eye dwells with delight on the villages of the wide country and the hundreds of farms and orchards which adorn the whole extent of the landscape. The fertile islands of the lake are scattered, and when clothed in the deep green of summer, or waving with luxuriant harvest, they appear like floating gardens mirrored in the waters. The hills and woods, the shores and eddies, the coves and green recesses, the farms and houses, sometimes retiring from the waters, sometimes approaching to the margin of the lake, all form a picture for the lover of nature to gaze upon with delight. Italian, Alpine, or Highland scenery can hardly surpass this magnificent view.
Mount Israel, 2,380 feet, is northwest of Centre Sandwich, and is composed largely of ledges of a high inclination. The United States Coast Survey has a post of observation here. From Mt Israel is given one of the most lovely of views, including as it does the ever-beautiful Squam lake on the south, or rather, west of south, and Winnipiseogee on the southeast.
Sandwich Dome, lying partially in the west part of Sandwich, has long been popularly called " Black Mountain." As this possesses no individuality, the later name has been generally accepted. Its flattened dome rises 4,000 feet above the sea. On its topmost crest stands a beacon marking it as a station of the United States Coast Survey. The long upper ridges are bare of trees, and swell into minor elevations, between which are stony levels and tangled thickets. " From its position in regard to the White and Franconia mountains and the level stretches of the lake country, Sandwich Dome commands one of
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the grandest and most fascinating panoramas in New England." The ascent is not easily made, but the prospect well rewards the labor.
Mount Whiteface takes its name from the white rocks on its southern side, marking the track of a great landslide which took the earthy covering down into the valley in 1820. All the other sides are dark with foliage of the dense woods that cover them. Lumbermen are now removing the birch and spruce, and their roads will aid the traveler in his ascent. Whiteface is one of the principal peaks of the Sandwich range, having an elevation of 4,007 feet at the United States Coast Survey station. Beyond and above this, the mountain rises from 150 to 200 feet, reaching probably a height of 4,175 feet. The view from the summit, which bears a large pile of great white stones, is of un- surpassed beauty even among mountain prospects. Parties sometimes camp overnight on the summit, where water and wood are easily obtained, to enjoy its charming sunrise and sunset views.
Passaconaway, one mile and a half northeast of Whiteface, is connected with it by a high ridge. It preserves the memory of the most venerated of the old Indian chieftains of New Hampshire, and its finely modeled dome attracts attention from every point of observation. It towers above Whiteface and Chocorua, " remote, inaccessible, silent, and lone." Thick woods cover it to the summit and tourists do not frequently ascend it.
The Potash, near the foot of Passaconaway, is easily ascended, and affords a fine view to the north and northeast. The white granite of which the top of this mountain is composed attracts attention to it from a long distance.
Mount Paugus commemorates the gallant chief of the Pequawkets who fell in Lovewell's fight. It lies, low and massive, between Passaconaway and Chocorua. It formerly was called various names, such as Hunchback, Deer, Frog, Middle, Berry, and Bald.
Mount Wonalancet, thus christened by Lucy Larcom, commemorates the son of Passaconaway, who succeeded him as bashaba of the confederated Indian tribes. Wonalancet is a small, well-formed cone southwest of Paugus.
Mount Chocorua, grandest of New England mountains after the Presidential range, and in many ways superior to them. No other peak has been so sung in song, celebrated in legend and story, or, from its form, would attract such quick attention. Starr King fairly revels in delight as he pours out expression after expression, never tiring or halting in the artistic enthusiasm called forth by this grim citadel of nature. "It is everything that a New Hampshire mountain should be. It bears the name of an Indian chief. It is invested with traditional and poetic interest. In form it is massive and symmetrical. The forests of its lower slopes are crowned with rock that is sculptured into a peak with lines full of haughty energy, in whose gorges huge shadows are entrapped, and whose cliffs blaze with morning gold."
Chocorua stands on the site of one of those islands of porphyritic gneiss
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which was the first dry land in this state, shooting up from the ocean and forming the base of all our geologie history. The present peak is but the pigmy remains of the mighty shaft that towered here before the glacier drift, but it now has a sternness and a grandeur which gives a witchery to the ascent. The view from Chocorua is one of the noblest seen in New England, rivaling that from Mt Washington, Kearsarge, Carrigain, and, to many, is unsurpassed anywhere.
Encircled by rare scenery, with a beautiful lake of sylvan loveliness at its base, where immense pines tower in dark-green splendor, Chocorna, in its lonely solitude and exquisite quietude, possesses peculiar elements of attraction. Seen from Tamworth, the mountain presents a green ridge surmounted by one of white, both stretching eastward : between these a deep ravine, along which a path leads up to the summit. Above, the whole zone of the upper mountain is bare to desolation; nothing growing except in the hollows between the lower peaks. Many years ago the enormous conieal crag was marred and torn by lightning, and but a few charred trunks remained from the fire thus kindled in its gigantic primeval forest.
Various versions of the death of the mysterious chieftain from whom the mountain derives its name, and of the legends connected with the peak and lake, will be found in another chapter. The venerable Joseph Gilman, of Tamworth, says he used often to converse with an old settler who knew Chocorua well. Ile was a real person, and not a mere myth.
APOSTROPHE TO CHOCORUA.
Trou lone and shattered column! Thou dost stand In mournful grandeur gazing o'er the land ; A gloomy past behind thee; and before, In distance vast, the sullen surges roar. Thy silence and thy aspect correspond, And indicate a weird and ghostly bond, Whereby thy stern black peak feels human woe, Thy lava veins with human passions flow.
The mountains in the west have thrust thee out From their companionship, and all about They keep a solemn watch that thou dost stay An exile from their grim and awful company. For what fell deed or what mysterious erime Did these huge forms call thee to court sublime? Didst thou above them daringly aspire And first receive the lightning's lurid fire?
No answer comes. Chocorua silent stands Forever gazing out across the lands Where once the Indian chieftain roved Who gave it name, and its stern wildness loved.
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ـري -
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Gow Hill, the site of the first settlement in Madison, is a minor elevation furnishing an admirable view.
Bear Mountain is a long line of heavy ridges in Albany and Bartlett, between Swift and Saco rivers. The height is probably 3,000 feet. It is a wild section of heavy forests, and few have ventured to ascend the height. Those who do this will obtain, in fine weather, a magnificent view of Mt Washington and surrounding peaks. It is best reached from Upper Bartlett.
Table Mountain, a level, wooded elevation, lies between Bear and Mote mountains.
Mote. (Moat) Mountain is about three miles long, with a north and a south peak of considerable altitude, connected by a ridge along which are several rocky elevations. The north peak is 3,170 feet high, the south 2,740, Red-ridge peak 2,760, Bear-ridge peak 2,790. The west spur of the mountain consists of four peaks about 2,900 feet high. This mountain is geologically the newest one of the White Mountains. Its base is surrounded by half-detached hills with steep rocky sides, and from their fanciful appearances they have acquired peculiar cognomens. On the south are Eagle ledge and Haystack ; on the east, on the Conway line, are White-horse and Cathedral ledges. These last are singular and regularly arching cliffs facing North Conway village. The White-horse bears a very curious resemblance to a white horse in the act of rearing. This is occasioned by the intrusion of white rock in the face of the ledge. This ledge is 960 feet in height. The Cathedral is just north of the last, and is 700 feet high. It receives its name from a curious rock cavity 100 feet above the meadows at the foot. This cave is about sixty feet high and forty feet in length. The arched roof sweeps up with the grace and regular curvature of a model Gothic cathedral of the Middle Ages.
The Devil's Den, in the lower part of the same cliff, is formed by a huge piece of the face of the rock falling upon other detached fragments in such a way as to leave an opening large enough for fifty persons. A ponderous mass divides the cavern into two parts -one light, airy, and spacious, the other gloomy and contracted.
Mount Attitash is the name applied to the tall north spur of Mote mountain, from which Humphrey's ledge is projected into the Saco valley. The name is given from its luxuriant growth of blueberries, which the Indians called "attitash."
Conway's Green Hills need no description at our hands, for tourists and summer tarriers in the Saco valley have climbed them for the past eighty years, and admired the loveliness of the scene presented, and the wonderful gradations and exhibitions of color in the air and foliage. They cover an area of near sixteen square miles, and show eight well-defined summits, the highest one reaching to 2,390 feet above the sea. The view from Artist's Hill has elicited much praise. Higher than this rises Peaked mountain, a
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narrow ridge of rocks and a fine view-point. Black-head, or Black-cap, the highest of the peaks, is not a good point of observation. Green and Rattlesnake mountains are names given to other peaks. Middle mountain is the pleasantest peak to visit, as a walk of little more than a mile from North Conway brings one to the top. An extended view of great attractiveness is here spread out.
Mount Keursarge (Kiarsarge), or Pequawket, is yearly visited by thousands of people. Its form is a sharp, symmetrical cone, rising to 3,251 feet above the sea. Starr King called it the "queenly mountain," and wished to name it " Martha Washington." The view is but little inferior to that from Mt Washington, and equals any mountain of its altitude in New England. The United States sloop-of-war "Kearsarge," which sunk the Confederate steamer " Alabama " in the Great Rebellion, took its name from this mountain.
Thorn Mountain (Bartlett) is a high and rocky knoll at the south end of the ridge on which Tin mountain is located. It is one of the easiest ascents to make, and the view is splendid from its top.
Range after range sublimely piled on high, Yon lofty mountains prop the incumbent sky. Such countless tops ascend, so vast the heap, As if when gushed the deluge from the deep, The rushing torrents wrecked the guilty world, And all the rocky fragments thither whirl'd.
Iron Mountain (formerly Bald or Bald-face) is in the northwest part of Bartlett and southeast part of Jackson. It is a heavy, low eminence, containing immense bodies of iron of rich commercial value. The State Geological survey made its height 2,000 feet. It commands a fine view of the Presidential range.
Double-head is the name given to two flat-topped peaks in the east part of Jackson from the earliest days. A fine prospect is presented to those who take the trouble to make the somewhat difficult ascent.
Spruce mountain is the summit of the low range called Fugle mountains from the number of eagles that formerly frequented them.
Black and Sable mountains, also in Jackson, present fine views. Wild Cat (Highit's) and Carter's mountains are classed with Jackson scenery in the guide-books, and are partially in that town.
Baldface (Chatham) is a frowning mountain 3,600 feet high, so called from the white character of the five-grained rock forming its upper portion. Connected with this on the west is " Mount Sable," spoken of above, and Mts Eastman and Slope on the southeast. Mt Eastman was covered with forests, on which Iumbermen are rapidly at work. It is about 3,000 feet in height.
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Lyman, Glines, and Cragged mountains lie on the western side of Eaton, are of inferior elevation, with views of considerable merit, but not to be compared to many of the others we have mentioned.
One of the mountains of Albany was named a few years since Hibbard mountain in honor of Judge E. A. Hibbard, of Laconia. It is the second elevation east of Passaconaway, and is 3,200 feet high.
These are the chief observation points outside of the White Mountain Notch, the scenery of which is noted elsewhere in this volume. We have described but one or two of the prospects afforded from these eminences, as this belongs more appropriately to the guide-books, among which Osgood's and Eastman's stand in the front rank, giving full information.
CHAPTER XV.
SCENERY, ATTRACTIONS, TRADITIONS AND LEGENDS OF CARROLL, CONTINUED.
Character of First Settlers - Lake Winnipiseogee - Squam Lake - Squaw Cove - Sandwich Notch - Chocorua - Paugus.
W E of to-day have little comprehension of the first settlers. Strong, long-limbed, stalwart, and vigorous, they were for the most part men of physical prowess and activity, but unlearned, and mere children in all that appertained to intellectual culture and attainments. They had been reared in an atmosphere clouded with witchcraft, in a period when learned ministers of the gospel believed in visible appearances of Satan and his messengers, and accounted for all matters apparently mysterious by the direct intervention of the devil, who, to their abnormal imaginations, possessed vastly more power than all the hosts of heaven. The old hunters were men of credulous superstition, and around each locality of the new country lingered weird legends of the Indian occupancy, which found congenial resting-places in the wondering minds of the new inhabitants. Of a truth, these were as true children of nature as those aborigines whose dwelling-places they occupied, and along whose trails they chased the bear and moose. "They were simple and open as children, yet with the depth and strength of men. Nature had as yet no name to them. To these wild, deep-hearted men all was new, not veiled under names or formulas; it stood naked, flashing in on them there,
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beautiful, awful, unspeakable." Nature was to them what to the thinker and prophet it forever is, preter-natural. And so, mingled with their belief in their Bible and its appearances of spirits and devils, were their beliefs in the spirits around them, malignant and friendly, in the evil eye and the powers of witchcraft, and they clung to them with the earnestness of the martyrs of the early Christian era ; to them they were eternal verities and actualities.
Remembering this, we will here, associated with scenery and attractions, transcribe some of the legends handed down from their day, and although we inay smile at them from the sublime heights of our critical and philosophical wisdom, let us treat them tenderly as valuable pictures of the mental moods and characters of those who carved the way for us to walk in to-day.
THE WINNIPISEOGEE LAKE DISTRICT. - This consists largely of the hydrographie basin of Winnipiseogee lake, with sandy plains carrying the tributaries of the Saco. It is normally a plain with four isolated mountain masses imposed upon it. These are the Gunstock and Belknap mountains, Red hill, Ossipee mountains, and Green mountain in Effingham. All of these mountains are composed of igneous material, which seems to have been poured out over an uneven floor deposited in the Montalban period. This hydrographic basin comprises about three hundred and fifty square miles. Its farthest points are nowhere more than seven miles distant from the lake, while the height of the divide separating it from the Cocheco valley is only seventy-two feet at the lowest place. The hills around the lake are steeper than is common in other parts of New Hampshire.
Luke Winnipiseogee lies in Belknap and Carroll counties, is quite irregular in form, nineteen miles long, with a breadth of from one to eight and one- fourth miles. According to the Lake Company's survey, there are 267 islands, ten of them exceeding one hundred acres in area, some thickly settled, with productive farms. The area of the lake, exclusive of its islands, is sixty-nine and eight-tenths square miles. By the Lake Company's dam at the outlet of the lake, a depth of six feet is made available in dry seasons for the use of manufacturing companies below. The top of this dam is 502 feet above tide- water. The lake forms a valuable economic factor in the prosperity of the whole state, as it is a natural reservoir of stored power for the millions of spindles along the Merrimack.
Winnipiseogee is quite irregular in outline. Its general course is south, 25° east, with several long bays or arms. The broken shore-line trends in various directions, enclosing broad expanses of water among its numerous islands. There are two parts which are locally called " The Broads." From Centre Harbor there is a straight waterway of nearly twenty miles. "The Broads " merging with each other in the middle of the lake, with the long bays and smaller coves spreading irregularly on all sides, cause the map or view of the lake to suggest a huge crab with broad back and long and short
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claws. There are three great bays. Northwest Cove, or Meredith bay, is on the west side ; Moultonborough bay, on the east or " back " side, is larger than some lakes ; Merry Meeting, or Alton, bay, is the extreme southeastern part of the lake.
Lake Winnipiseogee, according to modern philologists, takes its name from the Algonquin words winne, beautiful, nipi, water, kees, high, auke, place. The Indian pronunciation, in their deep guttural and strong nasal tones would be merely, " whin-nip-ee-soog-kwa." According to B. D. Eastman, a competent authority in the signification of Algonquin words, the best translation of the words would be, "Good water with large pour-out place," or, "with abundant outlet." This would appear to be more in harmony with fact than either "The beautiful water of the high place," or " The smile of the Great Spirit."
To the Indian this lake was a much-traveled thoroughfare in winter, and in summer a granary affording him easily acquired food, while the rich land along its shore, cultivated by the squaws, provided corn and beans for his sustenance when fish and game were scarce. It was a neutral ground, on and around which met and congregated the aborigines as do the whites of this generation. It is generally shallow, while islands of varying size and appearance, from wild, gloomy-foliaged Rattlesnake, to sharp, jutting rocks just large enough to furnish room for a small cottage or tent, dot its surface.
Under the shimmering summer sun some of these lie like bits of tropic scenery with their towering forest trees, wild in matted and tangled under- growth, and great moss-covered rocks on which golden and black rattlesnakes bask in the glowing heat; on the largest of others are farms of excellent and highly cultivated land ; others, long since cleared, are used solely for pasturage, and herds of cattle and sheep are finely kept on them; others are used as resorts of picnic and excursion parties, which come from near and far to worship nature in one of her loveliest temples; others are the summer resort of loons, ducks, geese, herons, and other wild fowl.
In early days, when their progress was unimpeded, salmon and shad came up the Merrimack until they reached the mouth of Winnipiseogee river, when they would separate, the salmon going up the Pemigewasset, and the shad up the Winnipiseogee to the lake, where they swarmed in countless myriads. Many were caught in the "ah-que-dau-ken-ash " or weirs made by the Indians at the foot of the lake. The shad are here no longer, but lake-trout, pickerel, cusk, perch, are present in large quantities. The trout ranges in weight from three to thirty pounds, but the pickerel is the most numerous and most valuable of the lake fishes.
For its size, Winnipiseogee has an extremely limited watershed, and it has been considered a wonder that it could maintain so steadily its maximum depth. No stream of any magnitude finds its way into it, while it discharges
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an important river, and constantly maintains full banks. The steady flow of its waters evidently comes from powerful and numerous springs boiling up from its bottom. Its depth was measured by the Lake Company when the survey was made. The deepest place was off the east shore of Rattlesnake island, opposite to its southern and lowest peak. Here it was over 200 feet deep. Between Rattlesnake and Diamond islands sounding's were made with bottom at 190 feet : opposite Fort and Gerrish points in Alton bay, 100 feet ; in " The Broads " between Rattlesnake and Cow islands, from 100 to 150 feet ; between Cow island and Centre Harbor from 50 to 75 feet.
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