USA > New Hampshire > To Monadnock; the records of a mountain in New Hampshire through three centuries > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
Now you reach the peak, stone hub of a dim blue wheel. No rival mountains close by interrupt the view. Once, when a boy, I had the pleasure of being on the summit on a clear day when mountains of every New England state, and also in New York, were flashing answers to Mr. Dean and Mr. Tal- cott of the Coast Survey on the apex rock and thus triangulat- ing the country [1861]. Of course they had a great instru- ment, but following the hint I have found since then that it is easy with a hand mirror to exchange greetings at a moment agreed upon with invisible friends seven miles away. To those at home it is almost miraculous to see at exactly one o'clock a perfectly clear but very minute flash where friends ambuscade in the pinkish-gray mystery of the mountain slope.
Of course the silver gleams of ponds first attract your eye
226
EDWARD W. EMERSON [1896]
as you look down. The Connecticut River you cannot see, and hardly the Ashuelot, but the westering sun brings out the mountains that fence them in, and at early morning the rivers rise into sight, as it were, by their mists. Beyond Watatic and Wachusett, Massachusetts seems so flat as to make one believe one looks at the sea, but to the north and west are hills and forest enough. Ascutney is a marked feature and is set down as exactly paired off with Monadnock in height, three thousand, one hundred and eighty-six feet. Kearsarge is nearer, and, close by, the beautiful twins called the Pack Monadnock *. . . The great "height o' land" separating the eastern and southern- bound waters stretches northward from Monadnock culminating in Mount Washington, one hundred miles away north by east, to be seen on clear afternoons. . .
Monadnock shares with a few other mountains-Chocorua I think is one-the advantages of having had its noble head cleared of forest and vegetable soil by fire, yet so long ago that the blemishing wreck of fire has disappeared. It is said that early in the century the fire from a brush-burning on a farm on the Troy side spread to the mountain, which burned for three weeks, a glorious beacon for fifty miles around. This burned off the primeval forest and even the soil, largely vegetable, from the upper rocks, which it would require geologic time to replace. , Of course the fire roared up the hollows between the spurs where the trees were largest, and the wind sent this blow-pipe-flame against the precipices above. At two such places enormous slides have occurred, the granite blocks large as cot- tages are piled at the bottom like enormous dice, and among
*[The word "Pack," according to a letter from the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D. C., is of Algonquin provenance and probably signifies "disjoined," and when ap- plied to a river or path, etc., "forked."]
227
TO MONADNOCK
these were to be found red lines of punk of decayed spruces seventy feet long, the ends of the knots charred; and these re- mains of trees actually bitten in between the blocks, which seems good evidence that the ruin was due to the fire. In many places the rock scales off as it does after being burnt.
There is a region above the tree-line and below the crags, sheltered from the north and looking out on the great quadrant towards Wachusett. Here the blue-gray slabs of rock are flatter and between them are spaces carpeted with moss, com- forting to the feet, or filled with the handsome glaucous foliage of rhodora bushes or the pink of sheep-laurel. Here is an ideal camping place when once you learn where the sure spring lies hidden; and if you pass a week here you will carry away memories to brighten a lifetime. The scattered spruces on this plateau afford you bedding and fuel. Blueberries of a quality that lowlanders never know come in June in the lower south- ern forcing-beds and last through the summer; and on the north side of the upper rocks I have picked them from blood- red bushes in October. Of the multitudes who ascend the mountain, hardly one in a hundred leaves the path, so you are not molested. If your home is on the mountain you need not flee as evening or rains come on. The night, the dawn, the evening, the oncoming or breaking away of a storm are the very choicest pageants the mountain has to offer, and you learn that mythology and poetry is all to be written anew and better. There are mornings when you can stand on the peak, the heavens bell-clear above you, and look down on a tossing sea of pale clouds shutting off the world. The sun rising touches these with pink and soon they fade and melt. There are dark nights when wandering on the lesser domes you will see the broken fragments of cloud rush on you like great ghosts or
228
EDWARD W. EMERSON [1896]
reminding you of Kuhleborn in Undine. When on a July day the thunder mutters behind the mountain, if you plan to go to the hotel for shelter you will make a great mistake. Stay rather and sit at ease upon one of the split domes near your camp, like Priam on the walls of Troy (you look down on Troy, by the way), and watch the marshalling of the storm. A column gathers, advances, tarries, divides. You think it will pass round the mountain. No, he will almost surely summon it to bathe his hot rocks and stir him with thunderbolts. The towns below have faded in sheets of rain, and now the great thunderhead sweeps aloft over the sun, and the cold, wet wind rushes upon you. Soon a flash right over the summit and a heavy detonation startles you and the big drops begin. Another crash, this time prolonged by echoes of crags and clouds, shakes down the rain and a deluge falls. Vain to seek shelter in caves of granite blocks; the water drips from above and courses be- low. . .
Now the storm is breaking up. See the beautiful dissolving views of a few blue acres here and there through curtains of pallid cloud, and look at the whole mountainside alive with silver sheets and white singing cataracts. The sun comes out and dries your rocks, and shows you the beautiful fresh green of the spruces and the shining viburnum leaves. Now to the eastward is a rainbow, a complete brilliant arch, but of Moor- ish horseshoe pattern because you are so high. Everything is now soaking wet, but birch bark and spruce knots will burn gloriously and dry your clothes and cook your supper while the hermit or wood thrush's song rings up clear and rich from half a mile below you. The rain has darkened the rusty tripe de roche and the great sierra of the summit stands black against the northwest glow of twilight, or of northern lights which may
229
TO MONADNOCK
follow. Now the night hawks begin to rip the air with their swooping. Far in the east you see the lightning plunging its bolt again and again into Sodoms and Gomorrahs of the plain. Pile your fire high for company. It is well worth while, for be sure the goddess will repay the discomforts of couchant à la belle étoile with sights of her
"Far folded mists and gleaming halls of dawn."
230
RECORDS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
WAHNODNOCK [1903]
Written by William Ruthven Flint and published in The Granite Monthly for April, 1903; republished by courtesy of The Granite Monthly.
I
Oft have I watched thee from the distant height, Wahnodnock, as thy serried crest Behind its craggy bulk has quenched the light Of the long summer's day. The west, With glory haloed by the sunset glow, Has drawn both eye and weary heart to rest Upon the mystery of thy mist-encircled brow.
II
Darkly and silently thy vigil keeping In the fading of the twilight,
Through the storm clouds in their sweeping Hurrying flight up from the southward, Faithful unto Him who bade thee Raise thy rugged head to heaven And in rocky bareness clad thee, Dost thou stand, O bold Wahnodnock !
233
SUNSET ON MONADNOCK [1903]
By Charles N. Holmes. Republished from The Granite Monthly of June, 1903, by courtesy of The Granite Monthly.
Grand, gray-peaked mountain in a crown of flame! O silent hermit looming in the west, The dying sunbeams loiter on thy crest And dew and distance veil thee ; e'er the same, Unchanged art thou, the king of years ago; Thy peak, wedged sharply through the twilight glow, The sun's death glow that dazzles sense and eye With torch-like halos flaming far and nigh In matchless glory over cloud and sky, Unchanged and calm! How quietly there sleep Thy hills and vales within thy shadow deep; What wakeless silence save when night fowls cry! How beautiful,-skilled artist could not paint, And poet-artist's thought is far too faint !
234
MARK TWAIN AT DUBLIN, 1905 and 1906 I
These paragraphs, written by Mark Twain with Monadnock at his "left elbow," were published by Harper & Brothers in Mark Twain's Letters (1917), and are here republished through their courtesy.
Dublin, October 9, 1905.
Last January, when we were beginning to inquire about a home for this summer, I remembered that Abbott Thayer had said, three years before, that the New Hampshire highlands was a good place. He was right-it was a good place. Any place that is good for an artist in paint is good for an artist in morals and ink. Brush is here too ; so is Col. T. W. Higginson ; so is Raphael Pumpelly; so is Mr. Secretary Hitchcock; so is Henderson; so is Learned; so is Sumner; so is Franklin Mac- Veagh; so is Joseph L. Smith; so is Henry Copley Greene, when I am not occupying his house, which I am doing this sea- son. Paint, literature, science, statesmanship, history, profes- sorship, law, morals,-these are all represented here, yet crime is substantially unknown.
The summer homes of these refugees are sprinkled, a mile apart, among the forest-clad hills, with access to each other by firm smooth country roads which are so embowered in dense foliage that it is always twilight in there, and comfortable. The forests are spider-webbed with these good roads, they go everywhere; but for the help of the guide-boards, the stranger would not arrive anywhere.
The village-Dublin-is bunched together in its own place, but a good telephone service makes its markets handy to all those outliars. I have spelt it that way to be witty. The
235
TO MONADNOCK
village executes orders on the Boston plan-promptness and courtesy.
The summer homes are high-perched, as a rule, and have contenting outlooks. The house we occupy has one. Monad- nock, a soaring double hump, rises into the sky at its left elbow-that is to say, it is close at hand. From the base of the long slant of the mountain the valley spreads away to the cir- cling frame of the hills, and beyond the frame the billowy sweep of remote great ranges rises to view and flows, fold upon fold, wave upon wave, soft and blue and unworldly, to the horizon fifty miles away. In these October days Monadnock and the valley and its framing hills make an inspiring picture to look at, for they are sumptuously splashed and mottled and be-torched from sky-line to sky-line with the richest dyes the autumn can furnish; and when they lie flaming in the full drench of the mid-afternoon sun, the sight affects the spectator physically, it stirs his blood like military music. . .
We cannot have this house next season, but I have secured Mrs. Upton's house, which is over in the law and science quarter, two or three miles from here, and about the same distance from the art, literary, and scholastic groups. The science and law quarter has needed improving, this good while.
The nearest railway-station is distant something like an hour's drive; it is three hours from there to Boston, over a branch line. You can go to New York in six hours per branch lines if you change cars every time you think of it, but it is better to go to Boston and stop over and take the trunk line next day, then you do not get lost.
It is claimed that the atmosphere of the New Hampshire highlands is exceptionally bracing and stimulating, and a fine aid to hard and continuous work. It is a just claim, I think. I came in May, and wrought 35 successive days without a break.
236
MARK TWAIN AT DUBLIN, 1905-6
It is possible that I could not have done it elsewhere. I do not know; I have not had any disposition to try it, before. I think I got the disposition out of the atmosphere, this time. I feel quite sure, in fact, that that is where it came from.
II
This paragraph by Albert Bigelow Paine is taken from Mark Twain's Letters, which he edited; by courtesy of the pub- lishers, Harper & Brothers.
There came another summer at Dublin, New Hampshire, this time in the fine Upton residence on the other slope of Monadnock, a place of equally beautiful surroundings, and an even more extended view. Clemens was at this time working steadily on his so-called Autobiography, which was not that, in fact, but a series of remarkable chapters, reminiscent, reflective, commentative, written without any particular sequence as to time or subject-matter. He dictated these chapters to a sten- ographer, usually in the open air, sitting in a comfortable rocker or pacing up and down the long veranda that faced a vast expanse of wooded slope and lake and distant blue moun- tains. It became one of the happiest occupations of his later years.
1
237
MONADNOCK STATE FOREST, 1905-
I
From a pamphlet published by the Monadnock Forestry Association, apparently in 1907.
About three years ago [1904] the forest on Mount Monad- nock was threatened by the sale to lumbermen of the standing timber on 500 acres, high up on the eastern slope, including the finest extended areas of spruce anywhere in this vicinity. This tract is a conspicuous figure in the landscape, directly joining land owned by the Town of Jaffrey. . . [see supra, 1884]. The character and location of this tract, its existing beauty and prominence in the landscape, and the danger that fire and erosion, following the lumbermen's cutting, would con- vert it into a permanent and conspicuous blemish, made this ap- pear to be one of the instances where the interests of the public are greater than those of the individual. Under these circum- stances, the Monadnock Forestry Association was organized to preserve this and other natural attractions in the Monadnock country.
The Association now reports the accomplishment of the prime object of its formation. The rights to the standing timber were purchased from the lumbermen and the cutting stopped, and an effort was also made to purchase the land at private sale, but without success. Recourse was therefore had to the New Hampshire State Forestry Commission, which, acting under laws of the State, has condemned the land ; and its value having been determined by the selectmen of the Town of Jaffrey, as provided by statute, and a portion of the necessary funds having been supplied by the Monadnock Forestry Association and the
238
MONADNOCK STATE FOREST, 1905-
balance borrowed by those most interested, the amount awarded has been paid to the owners.
The timber rights have been transferred to the State by deed of gift. The entire tract of land with its forest covering has thus become the property of the State of New Hampshire, to be held as a perpetual forest reserve for the public benefit. The Monadnock Forestry Association has the right to lay out paths and otherwise improve the land; in fact has practically many of the rights of ownership, while the public has for the first time the right to ascend the mountain without trespassing on private property.
Much interest has been shown in this enterprise as a prac- tical demonstration of the importance and feasibility of pre- serving the forests in places of this nature. This preservation has been accomplished by the co-operation of public-spirited in- dividuals, lovers of Monadnock, whose contributions have come from all parts of the country, and even from beyond its borders. .. . Hearty appreciation is hereby expressed to all who have aided in this important and enduring work.
Respectfully,
MONADNOCK FORESTRY ASSOCIATION.
II
From the Biennial Report of the New Hampshire Forestry Commission, 1905-1906.
In the fall of 1905 the State acquired complete title [to Monadnock State Forest]. . . To have swept away the forests from the site occupied by the reserve would have meant im- measurable disaster to many interests, both sentimentally and materially, and it is a source of great satisfaction that public- spirited citizens and summer residents co-operated so cordially
239
TO MONADNOCK
to secure a preservation of this threatened area. Especial rec- ognition should be made of the interest taken in the Monadnock Reserve by Messrs. Joel H. and Arthur E. Poole of Jaffrey, and by Mr. Isaac Sprague of Boston, a summer resident of Jaffrey, through whose efforts the movement for the establish- ment of the reserve initiated and through whose generous con- tributions the larger part of the fund for its purchase was accumulated. The Monadnock Reserve represents an invest- ment of substantially $8,000 and it has been acquired practically without cost to the State, the only expense thus far incurred having been for incidental expenses of the commissioners in attending hearings, etc. . .
Under the terms of the Forestry Act of 1893, reserves thus acquired are to be forever dedicated to the public for park pur- poses. Accordingly, the Monadnock Reserve has been thrown open to the public use, and regulations simple in their form have been posted upon its boundaries. These regulations apply wholly to the prohibition of the use of fire within the area of the reserve and to the restrictions under which camping parties shall occupy the ground. With these exceptions the reserve is entirely open to public use and is in the care of Mr. Arthur E. Poole, whom the Board has designated as custodian .*
III
From the Biennial Report of the New Hampshire Forestry Commission, 1911-12.
During the summer of 1911, a map, timber estimate and plan of management were made for this reservation. In the follow- ing winter an improvement cutting was made in a very thick,
*[Mr. Arthur E. Poole, "a firm friend of forestry," acted as custodian of Monadnock State Forest until his death in 1912. For a word about the road built in his memory up to this reservation, see post, 1922, page 253.]
240
By courtesy of N. H. Forestry Commission.
Building the telephone line to the Fire Lookout established (1912) by the N. H. Forestry Commission on the Summit of Mount Monadnock.
MONADNOCK STATE FOREST, 1905-
even-aged stand of spruce. Prior to cutting the trees, it was accurately surveyed and the diameters and heights of the trees were recorded. The poorer trees were then removed and the better ones allowed to remain, spaced as evenly as practicable. The slash was burned. While the cutting was going on, cost figures were kept of all the operations, and the cutting paid for itself in the material removed. From time to time measure- ments will be taken on this tract to ascertain how much this cutting has increased the growth of the remaining trees.
The conditions around Monadnock Mountain are favorable to the enlargement of the State's present ownership and to the extension of the forest protection and experiment work begun by the Commission. . . Furthermore, since the State has con- structed a mountain lookout station on Mount Monadnock and will keep a watchman there in the summer, protective and improvement work can be carried on economically together.
241
MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT SERVICE, 1912-
I
From the Biennial Report of the New Hampshire Forestry Commission, 1915-16.
When the fire lookout stations were first started, each was equipped with a topographic map of the surrounding country which the observer could cover. These maps were mounted on a plane table at the observation point and were used in deter- mining the location of fires. But it was found that not all the watchmen could make proper use of such a map because it did not present a picture of the country as it actually appeared to the observer from the lookout point. . .
Five years ago Prof. Frederick B. Knapp of Duxbury, Massachusetts, elaborated on the idea of a panoramic lookout map, and made such a panorama for the lookout station on Pine Mountain in Gorham. This map he presented to the Forestry Commission as a model, and later spent a short time here, attached to the department, instructing some of the regular field men in the making of such maps. Since that time nine field men employed by the Commission. . . have developed Pro- fessor Knapp's idea: Martin G. Ferry, Frederick H. Colburn, Chapin Jones, Benjamin K. Ayers, William M. Falconer, Davis W. Lusk, Emanuel Fritz, E. Stanley Atkinson and Victor A. Beede. Each one of these men has contributed something toward the improvement of the device used for making the panorama. Stuart A. Nims, Assistant Engineer, Public Service Commis- sion, gave his time to prepare the drawings and specifications. . . To Frederick H. Colburn belongs the credit for first suggesting the device which would do a part of the work automatically and all of it more easily. After considerable demand from other states for the use of this instrument, Mr. Colburn had the device
242
MOUNTAIN LOOKOUT SERVICE, 1912-
patented this year and, for the purpose of dedicating its use to the public, had it assigned to Chief Forester H. S. Graves of Washington.
The device, which is now in use in the making and perfecting of lookout maps in New Hampshire, is [known as the relief alidade.] It is used as follows :
On the summit of the mountain from which a panorama is desired, place a drawing board covered with drawing paper, and mounted on a tripod. On this paper a circle with a radius of approximately ten inches is drawn from a point in the center of the board, leaving beyond an outside margin a little over three inches wide. The interior of the circle is for the placing of a plain topographic map of the country around the mountain. The three-inch margin is for drawing the panorama of the country as it appears from the mountain as a center.
The relief alidade is then set up on the drawing board by placing the pivot, which projects from the base of the alidade, in the center hole of the drawing board. The forward arm of the alidade then extends out to the line at which the interior map ends and the panorama begins.
After adjusting the alidade so that it includes vertically all of the country visible from the station, the rear sight is set and kept at the same elevation until the drawing is finished. With the rear sight adjusted, the alidade is then directed at some mountain top or hill which it is desired to show on the pano- rama, and the front sight is raised until it coincides with the line of vision. Then the front arm of the alidade is depressed until the pin on the under side of the arm makes a mark on the paper. This mark is the point on the panorama where the mountain peak or hill top observed will fall. By continuing this for more peaks and slopes, the whole panorama may be filled in correctly as it appears to the observer, and thus a picture of the country under observation may be drawn accurately.
243
TO MONADNOCK
The maps produced by the above methods have been found of great value in accurately locating forest fires. In observing an incipient smoke the watchman can generally tell from the panorama where this smoke is with relation to the hills and ridges which are drawn in relief and named. Besides being of great value in fire protection, these maps are of especial interest to tourists, and since twenty-seven of them are now set up on prominent mountain tops, they have enabled many thousands of people to locate exactly other mountains and landscape features.
II
From the Biennial Report of the New Hampshire Forestry Commission, 1917-18.
[Two years later the New Hampshire Forestry Commission reported further map improvements : ]
A print of [a large map of the State] has been made with azimuth circles around all stations and with threads attached to the centers of the circles. With the proper sections of this map in the hands of each lookout watchman, ready comparison of observations from two or more stations will be possible, and accurate location of a given fire by the intersection of two or more lines of sight can be secured. To use this method the watchman must get in touch with a neighboring lookout when he observes a smoke, and inquire as to the direction of the smoke from his station. Lookout watchman No. 2 can get this reading at once from his panoramic map by the use of the alidade attached, and inform the inquiring watchman accord- ingly. The first observer can then lay off on the map, by the use of the threads, both his own observation and that of lookout watchman No. 2, and the point of intersection of the lines of sight will show closely the location of the smoke. It is believed that the use of this map will increase the efficiency of the moun- tain lookout service.
244
THE MASONIAN RESERVATION ON MONADNOCK, 1913-
I
From the Twelfth Report of the Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests (1913-14), supplemented by a later state- ment of the Society.
Certain descendants of the ancient Masonian Proprietors, who once held the greater portion of southern New Hampshire, requested the Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests to accept and protect the wild land remaining on Monadnock Mountain. The situation was this :
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.