Crawford Notch
Crawford Notch | |
---|---|
White Mountains | |
Coordinates | 44°13′7″N 71°24′42″W / 44.21861°N 71.41167°W |
Topo map | USGS Crawford Notch, Stairs Mountain, Bartlett |
Crawford Notch is a major
The notch is traversed by U.S. Route 302, which closely follows the Saco River southeast to North Conway and less closely follows the Ammonoosuc River northwest to Littleton.
History
Originally called White Mountain Notch, it became known to European settlers when found by Timothy Nash in 1771.
A well-documented historic event within the notch was a rockslide that killed the entire Samuel Willey family in August 1826. The family fled their home during the storm to a prepared shelter but were buried by the slide and died in a mass of stone and rubble. Their home was untouched. Mount Willey, on the west side of the notch, is named in their memory.[5] The event in part inspired a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne titled The Ambitious Guest.[6] Further down the notch, Nancy Brook and Mount Nancy are named for an earlier tragedy.[5]
In the Carroll portion of the notch, the Appalachian Mountain Club has built and operates the Highland Center Lodge and Conference Center (on the site of the Crawford House Hotel, a 19th-century grand hotel that burned in 1972), and has renovated the Queen Anne style Victorian-era Crawford Notch Maine Central train depot as a bookstore. The depot remains a stop on the scenic "Notch Train" of the Conway Scenic Railroad, operated seasonally from North Conway.
Points of interest
- Grave of Samuel Bemis, first photographer of the American landscape
- Mount Willard, open summit near center of notch with views of the notch's structure
See also
- List of mountain passes in New Hampshire
- Nash & Sawyer Location, New Hampshire
- New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 30: The Crawford Family
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-87451-638-8.
- ISBN 978-1-58465-461-2.
- ISBN 978-1-58729-714-4.
- ^ Johnson, Ron Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division p.9
- ^ ISBN 978-1-58465-461-2.
- JSTOR 2925848.