V 4 o '^V w J- ^ ^ •£^n. °o > ° • * * ^ ^ ■ <^a CV t o " ° * *V> 1 ^ * ^ HIS* ^ ^ oW?» 4> ^ '@li®* at y O N < <0^ c 1 "•££%- The Waterville Valley A HISTORY, DESCRIPTION AND GUIDE BY A. L. GOODRICH Edition 3, Revised 1916 QUI , JUL 13 1916 ( C^ When, all at once, behold ! Beneath our feet, a little lowly vale, A lowly vale, and yet uplifted high Among the mountains ; even as if the spot Had been from eldest time by wish of theirs So placed, to be shut out from all the world ! The Excursion. — Wordsworth. CONTENTS Part I. Descriptive and Historical 9 Part II. The Guide 29 1. Mountains 29 2. Other Objects 39 3. Walks and Trips 57 4. Altitudes 58 NOTE The author desires to ask indulgence for any errors that may be detected. Great care has been taken and much time spent in an endeavor to reach an accurate record and to make a correct map, but it can hardly be expected that mistakes have not crept in. The writer also wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to all who have so kindly furnished him with information and assist- ance ; and in particular to Miss Mary E. Briggs, of affectionate memory, from whom much of the historical data was obtained, and to Mr. N. L. Goodrich, the writer's son. Of the illustrations, the view from Noon Peak was taken by Mr. E. H. Lorenz ; the others are from the author's photos. Auburndale, Mass., April, 1916, PART I Descriptive and Historical The Waterville Valley is a name given to the upper portion of the valley of the Mad River and lies almost entirely in the town of Waterville, N. H. It may be reached by leaving the main line of the Boston and Maine Railroad at Plymouth, N. H., and taking the branch road up the Pemige- wasset valley as far as Campton. The visitor here turns away from the Pemigewasset to the north- east and follows the carriage road into the broad mouth of the Mad River valley. As he advances, the valley closes in, the hills grow higher, the road enters the forest, and continues its upward course close along the banks of the swift, brawling stream whose character has given it the name it bears. About nine miles from the point where he left the train our traveller begins to see signs of a change in the mountain wall on his left. As he catches glimpses through the forest along the stream, or from occasional clearings, he feels that he is ap- proaching a wider, more open valley trending north. He is now on the southern border of the Waterville valley. The high summits on his right have retired some distance only to rise to greater heights in the dome-like double crest of Sandwich Mountain and then to sweep round by the east in a series of lower crests and masses bar- ring farther advance in the direction in which he has come and finally running off to the north in the high ridge of which Snow's Mountain makes the crown. The high mountain wall on his left has turned sharply to the north and runs off in a smooth, splendid, heavily wooded slope till it cul- minates in the bare brow of Mt. Tecumseh. Be- tween these two ridges, that of Snow's Mountain on the east and that of Tecumseh on the west, with a distance of something over three miles from crest to crest, lies the trough-like lower portion of the Waterville valley. At its northern end, four or 'five miles away, apparently closing the gap completely, rises the huge mass of Mt. Osceola. The road we have followed crosses Snow's brook, comes fairly out into the clearing, runs up to Elliott's Hotel, and divides, one fork making a loop in front of the Hotel, the other running past the barn to lose itself in a maze of logging roads. There is no other road in or out. A short dis- tance above the hotel the valley turns rather sharply to the east and immediately divides. The wider part bears to the southeast and runs off to lose itself against the steep westerly flanks of the Tripyramids. The narrower part turns back a little to the north for. a mile or more and then, swinging sharply to the left, runs into a fine moun- 10 < w P4 O o o w ij 1-1 < > o w I— I > tain pass, known as the Mad River Notch, which lies between Mts. Osceola and Kancamagus. The whole valley then is really a bowl-like de- pression with a diameter of about six miles, around the rim of which, going from north round by east, stand the following mountains : — Mt. Osceola with its two peaks, Kancamagus with its five rounded and crowded summits, the four peaks of the Tri- pyramids, the confused mass of doubtful name and still more doubtful topography in the triangu- lar space between the South Tripyramid, White- face and Sandwich Mt., Sandwich Mt. itself with its outlying spurs, and finally Mt. Tecumseh clos- ing the circuit. But the symmetry of this bowl is broken by two projections thrust from the sur- rounding wall toward the centre. From the south- east comes forward fully to the centre of the bowl the large ridge of which Snow's Mt. forms the crest; while from the low fourth, or northwestern, peak of the Tripyramids runs a long ridge ending in "The Scaur" between Slide brook and Flume brook. This valley was first entered by settlers about 1820. It was then included in the Gillis & Foss Grant. Among the settlers of early date were Josiah Gillis, Jr., Moses Foss, Noah Danforth, Benj. Ellis, Frank C. W. Blanchard, William Snow, Nathaniel Greeley, Asa Bryant and Wm. Baird. It was incorporated as the town of Water- ville July 1, 1829 and by the next year ten acres 13 V of land in the vicinity of the "Spruces" had been cleared by Wm. Baird from Dumbarton, N. H. By 1831 seventeen poll taxes were assessed and twenty acres of improved land taxed, but the cold rocky soil of this high, northern valley offered few inducements for farming and by 1833 eleven of the seventeen men, two of the three horses and four of the fourteen cows had disappeared. Mr. Arnold Drake, Sr. (who came in 1838), and Mr. Snow, bought their farms of Nathaniel Greeley. The Drake family has disappeared from the valley ; their farm is now owned by Mrs. Elliott. The best location was doubtless that of Wm. Snow who lived to an advanced age near the foot of the mountain which bears his name. His house was standing on its old site down to a recent date but has now been removed. It stood on the northern side of Snow's brook, about eight rods from the highway, at the point where the road makes its abrupt turn. The early saw mills, though numerous, were short of life. In 1828(9) Wm. Baird built a mill at the "old dam" below the present site of Drake's Mill. Elisha Packard built his mill in 1850 on Snow's brook, 75 or 100 rods below the highway. Danforth Cook built another in 1855 at the point now called "The Steps," and Mr. Drake built his in 1861. Mr. Drake's mill was burned in 1895, the present mill replacing it the same year. Cook's Mill (the "old mill" of the early visitors) was on 14 the west side of Mad River. It was reached by a high bridge which crossed the stream just below the dam. Mr. Cook's house stood about half way between Moody Elliott's house (now Osceola Cottage) and the bridge. The road to Swaseytown and Beckytown fol- lowed the present Swaseytown path to the Cas- cades very closely, crossing Cascade brook a short distance below the point where the present foot- path crosses. Eben Swasey and family lived in Swaseytown from 1842 to 1849; and Beckytown was inhabited by Frank C. W. Blanchard and Rebekah, his wife, between the same dates. Both places have long since been abandoned to the forest which has nearly reclaimed them, and Beckytown in particu- lar has been buried many feet beneath the debris of the great slides from Tripyramid. The old bridle-path to the Saco valley by the way of Greeley Ponds (now lost), was made in 1860; the old Flat Mt. path to Sandwich by way of Snow's brook (now lost), was made in 1860; the North Woodstock path, in 1877 ; the Liver- more trail, in 1879; the Woodbury trail to White- face, in 1902; the Air Line, in 1907; the new Flat Mt. Ponds trail in 1906. The Waterville of to-day owes its character, if not its existence, to Nathaniel Greeley and Nancy, his wife, who came from Salisbury, N. H., among the earliest settlers. 15 Nathaniel and Joseph Greeley were born and reared in Salisbury, N. H., and their father at an early day purchased several hundred acres of land in Waterville and donated it to the two brothers. They entered the valley in the spring of 1831 and found that the larger part and perhaps all of the purchase was on the high lands on the east side of the valley. Joseph, after remaining a few weeks, thinking he could do better elsewhere, went to New York where he remained to the time of his death. Of his share of the land Nathaniel afterward became the owner. At this time, and for a number of years after, there was no wagon road for several miles from the settlement, probably five or six, and all freight necessary for the little colony had to be trans- ported on horse-back or by manual labor. The level lands of the valley had been owned and occupied before the arrival of the Greeleys by two families, one of whom, named Toby, built the old barn which stood just south of the "Spruces." Two or three rods south of this is a slight eleva- tion on which a dilapidated log house stood in 1859; and about a dozen rods east of said barn a small frame building was then standing once owned and occupied by a family named Bryant, in which Mrs. Arnold Drake, Sr., was a child. They claimed to be (perhaps distant!) relations of Wm. Cullen Bryant. For the want of a better place, Mr. Greeley 16 built his small house about three rods below the northwest corner of the orchard ; the cellar is still to be seen partly filled with earth and bushes. He then cut and burned the trees on 100 acres on the mountain side principally, if not entirely, with his own hands ; and his wife has told us more than once how, after the fire had swept over the mass of fallen trees, she used to shut her two little boys in the cabin while she, day after day, gathered and burned such half consumed pieces as she was able to handle. At such expense of care and toil did the elder Greeleys build their small house, and plant their orchard, on a sunny slope at the edge of the for- est, so situated that Noon Peak was exactly south. They were thus in a measure prepared for that which, rather than farming or logging, was to be the productive industry of the place. The first summer boarder came to their home in 1833 and was so well suited that he returned with his wife the following year. He was Ephraim W. Bull of Concord, Mass., known as the producer of the Concord Grape. After living in the original house for sixteen years, they built the little "red cottage," wood-shed and barn which stood at the western end of the hotel until the present dining-room was added. By this time Mr. Greeley had acquired nearly all the valley land and had turned his attention to raising neat stock, while in the winter he materially increased his income by an active lumbering business. 17 In 1859 a hotel 100 x 40 ft., three stories high, with a wing of two-thirds the capacity of the main building was begun. It was located near the site of the old bowling alley. It was finished for the next season and a grand opening held July 4, 1860, at which time there were said to be not less than 1000 people present, forming a procession nearly two miles long. The house was well filled and the first season gave promise of a successful future, but on the morning of June 10, 1861, the cook of the pre- vious year, who with his little family lived in the rear wing, was awakened by the flames and found that nearly the entire attic of the main building was ablaze. The house with almost all its con- tents was soon reduced to ashes, leaving as its only modern vestige a cellar now grown up to trees. After the burning of the hotel some of the guests took rooms at the "red cottage" and for several years this little building was filled with boarders in spite of close quarters and unpleasant barnyard surroundings. "At this time," writes Mr. A. S. Osborne de- scribing his visit in 1862, "Greeley, the elder, was proprietor of the valley and everything in it. He was then about sixty-five years old and appeared to have an iron constitution, although his spare form was somewhat bent and gnarled. His fea- tures were full of odd lines and produced an 18 effect of good natured grotesqueness that was quite taking. He was very bright and quick at retort and had an immense amount of executive energy that he carried into everything." The first addition to the "red cottage" was begun in 1865 and finished ready for the earliest arrivals of 1866, with a capacity for about sixty guests. The property passed subsequently into the hands of Mr. Merrill Greeley, son of Nathaniel, and was by him sold to Mr. Elliott in the fall of 1883. Mr. Elliott enlarged and improved it greatly, and his wife, who undertook the management after his death, has made even more extensive alter- ations. The present parlor was added in 1886, the dining room and ell in 1895, the new barn in 1891, the power house and reservoir in 1901, Tecumseh Lodge, across the road to the west of the hotel, in 1901, and the new bowling alley in 1904. The valley came into repute as a fishing ground long before summer boarders appeared in any numbers. One of the earliest traditions of the place involves a certain Elisha Horton of Canton, Mass., who came every summer to the valley and spent his days in angling. He always wandered away alone and brought back trout of the largest size, but would never reveal to others the where- abouts of his fishing grounds. Among the earliest boarders, so far as we can ascertain, whose names are still remembered, who still come at least occasionally, or whose immedi- ate relatives come, were : — 19 Mr. E. J. Connable, and wife, Jackson, Mich., 1859. Mr. N. S. Bachelder, Concord, N. H., 1862. Prof. George Osborne, Boston, Mass., 1862. Mr. A. S. Osborne, Boston, Mass., 1862. Mrs. M. E. Goodrich, Auburndale, Mass., 1864. Hon. Eben F. Stone, and wife, Newburyport, Mass., 1864. Mr. R. P. Shaw, Cambridge, Mass., 1864. Mr. Theo. M. Osborne, Salem, Mass., 1865. Mrs. H. S. Osborne, Salem, Mass., 1867. Miss H. F. Osborne, Salem, Mass., 1867. Mr. T. M. Stimpson, Peabody, Mass., 1868. Rev. E. E. Hale, Boston, Mass., 1868. Miss Gertrude A. Balch, Newburyport, Mass., 1868. Miss Mary C. Johnson, Newburyport, Mass., 1868. Mrs. S. B. Tobey, and daughter, Providence, R. I., 1868. Mr. Arthur Fletcher, and wife, Concord, N. H., 1870. Miss A. M. Fletcher, Concord, N. H., 1870. Mrs. Mary G. Bachelder, Salem, Mass., 1870. Miss Mary B. Briggs, Dedham, Mass., 1871. Mr. F. C. Briggs, Hampton, Va., 1871. Judge J. W. Bacon, and wife, Natick, Mass., 1872. There are at present (1916) eleven cottages in the valley. Mr. E. J. Connable built his, now 20 owned by Rev. C. H. Patton, in 1863 ; Rev. J. M. Buckley built his, now owned by A. L. Goodrich, in 1877 ; Messrs. J. W. Davis and F. C. Briggs, theirs, now owned by Prof. M. B. Crawford and Mrs. J. E. Leaycraft, in 1880; Rev. F. N. Pelou- bet, his in 1883 ; The Spruces, originally built by Mrs. Mary Taylor in 1860, was remodelled in 1884 and later moved across the road to become The Annex; Mr. C. H. Pond built his cottage, now owned by Mrs. S. L. Woods, in 1886 ; the Osceola cottage was built in 1887 on the frame of a cot- tage originally built by Mr. Moody Elliott. Prof. G. F. Swain built his cottage, now owned by Miss Laura Wheeler, in 1896, and Mr. H. S. Stearns, his in 1900. Mrs. Elliott's cottage was built in 1911, and Mr. C. W. Whittlesey built his in 1910. Thus the visitor of to-day, if he ascends the little slope to the east of the hotel and looks about him with his face to the west finds himself on the eastern side and near the northern end of a small clearing in the middle of a valley five or six miles long by two or three wide, closed at its southern end by the huge mass of Sandwich Mt, and at the north by the still finer peaks of Mt. Osceola, and flanked on the east and west by the summits and ridges of Snow's Mt. and Mt. Tecumseh. Below him lies the hotel ; to right and left, on the low ridge where he is, stand six fine cottages ; in the valley below him are six more; while down the road is the inevitable school-house, now, in default 23 of children, become the Town House for the few legal voters. There is barely cleared land enough for the golf links. All else is wood and stream and mountain air. As to the reasons that might induce a visit, or the pleasures one might expect, they are manifold. In the first place it is retired. It is eleven miles down a narrow valley to the nearest railroad, and there is no other possible approach except through woods and over the mountains. One feels that he has got into a place different from the usual resorts. Distant views are not to be had, of course, except from the mountain tops, but it does not seem shut in ; it is too large, the summits are too far apart, for that. There is plenty of sun- light, of air, of woods, of streams and mountains ; and the world with its cares and troubles is shut out. Then again it is not fashionable. The class of people who take their summer outing by shift- ing from a city to a country drawing room do not go to Waterville. Rest, recreation, and nature are its chief attractions. As to its natural attrac- tions, just run your eye over the map noticing the dotted lines with the multitude of names attached. Those lines represent paths. There are over thirty miles of them in the valley, all well kept. Those who like severer work can find it in abundance by abandoning the paths and taking to the woods in almost any direction. There is plenty of splendid climbing on the slopes of 24 Tecumseh, Sandwich, Osceola, or the Tripyramids from whose northern and southern flanks came the great slides of 1869 and 1885. As to the fish- ing, it is not what it used to be, but count the brooks. Finally, the valley is so placed that it is admirably adapted for use as a starting-point for long trips into all that little-visited region which lies between the Saco on the east and the Profile Notch on the west, and reaches from the Waterville and Albany valleys on the south to the Twin Moun- tains on the north — the heart of the mountain region. 25 NOTE The part that follows is merely a guide. Those who use it are warned that the distances given are approximate only and do not represent, in muscu- lar effort, the same number of miles on a level road. It will be well also to keep in mind what the right bank of a stream is. The heights of the mountains are taken mainly from the lists of the A. M. C. and the U. S. Coast Survey. The bear- ings giving are magnetic. In regard to the mountains, trails, etc., outside the limits of this book, and to the harder or less known trips within the Valley, detailed informa- tion may be found in the trampers' record book kept in the Osceola library. The strong, comfortable seats, conveniently located about the valley, were all designed and made by Mr. W. A. Lorenz, of Hartford, Conn. The pavilion on Bull Hill was built by Mrs. M. E. Mathewson of New Haven, Conn., in 1911. 26 o O w W H O o • , *^* ^ v *• vl> ^6 4° ***°' •^o 1 ^o, ^ ^ r *0 A^ g° n °* ^ * • t "* ^O 4* 4 cu .0° "V * ; - 4 0. o_ * \» - 1 * l v - 1 * DOBBS BROS. LIBRARY BINDING % *6* *b^ 4°, ST. AUGUSTINE