National Park After Dark - What’s In A Name? White Mountain National Forest

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

Our names are an incredibly important piece of our identity. We take pride in them and pass them on to future generations to honor the ones we love that came before. Today we visit our home state of New Hampshire to visit the White Mountain National Forest to investigate some of the darker tales that led to the naming of some of its most celebrated features.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Earth Breeze: Use our link to subscribe and save 40%.BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code NPAD for $20 off your first purchase.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Who are you? One of the most basic questions at face value, but amongst the deepest and most thought-provoking, soul-searching prompts there is. There are many ways to answer. Some may reflect back on their core values, Others may consider their greatest accomplishments or dissect their personality traits. When asked this question, you may contemplate what defines you to answer it,

but most commonly, when you're asked this, you simply respond with your name. Our names are an incredibly important piece of our identity. They can give us a sense of who we are and where we belong, or carry deep family and cultural connections. There is a reason we take offense to someone forgetting our names, mispronouncing them or not caring to learn them at all. Because we are so attached to our names, those acts seem like a personal attack to us as an individual. We take pride in them, and sometimes when they don't align with who we are inside, we change them to reflect our true selves. We pass them on to future generations to honor the ones we love that came before. We put a lot of stock into names. Everyone you have ever met has one,

and so too does almost every place you have ever visited. Someone had to bestow those names to those places, and while many of them are celebrations of wonderful people who lived full and happy lives, some are somber reminders of the darker tales that hide in plain sight. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I have to say for part of that, I felt like you were talking directly to me when you were like, when people can't pronounce your name or get them wrong and you feel personally attacked because the amount of times that I have been called Casey or Kathy or... There's not even a T in your name.

What do you mean? I know. Every time I'm like, hi, what's your name? I'm like, Cassie. They're like, all right, great to meet you, Kathy. I'm like, it's not Kathy. It's Cassie. It's like, do I have a list when I'm speaking?

What is the problem here? When ever I would answer the phone when we work together, I'd be like, thanks for calling. This is Cassie. Like, how can I help you? And it would always be like, thank you, Casey. I would love for your help. And I'm like, all right, I'm already not helping you. I feel personally a doctor now.

Yeah, I'm wounded right now. I'm wounded. My name is clearly Cassie. And they're like, oh, I'm so sorry, Kathy. And I'm like, oh. Well, for the record, I never had a problem with it. And it's so funny, actually, that we're, I'm thinking about this right now. Anytime I'm with like Italian family, like usually on like my, my dad's side or even sometimes my grandmother on my mom's side or when I'm abroad in Europe or somewhere, anytime someone says or sees my name, they say Daniela.

Or they I'm like, hi, I'm Danielle and they're like Daniela. Like they don't say Daniel. And that's fine. Like I'm good with that. That is not correct. That's not correct. But I love it. So that's cool.

But anyways, enough about our names. Today, we are going to be going somewhere that's very near and dear to both of our hearts to talk about some names of some geologic features and features within this national forest. So we're not going to be in a national park. And I spilled the beans to Cassie like an hour before we recorded about what I was doing today. Because I was feeling a little homesick. So we are going to the White Mountains National Forest in New Hampshire. Home Sweet Home.

I'm so excited because I feel like I'm not going to know any of these stories that you're going to tell. I hope not because I did not at all. And there are so many to choose from. I'm like, I had to really, I kind of did an outline of this. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. And I had like a whole list of stories I wanted to research. And once I did, like, I think I have three or four. And at that, I'm like, I need to stop because this is already getting really long.

There are so many stories to tell from within the White Mountain. But okay, so let's get into it. Of course, we're going to New Hampshire to the White Mountains National Forest. This national forest is one of two in all of New England and was established in 1914 with a purchase of just 7,000 acres. But today, the area has expanded, exploded in size. It's over 800,000 acres today. And it spans throughout New Hampshire and a little bit into western Maine.

Hiking through lower elevation areas of the forest, you will be weaving through mixed hardwood. You may stumble upon some old railroad beds, stone walls, logging camps, or foundations, which are all remnants of New Hampshire's past. As you make your way up to higher elevations, in some of the most rugged and challenging terrain in the region, the forest changes to a landscape primarily dominated by hemlock and pine. This national forest is home to some of the highest peaks in all of New England, and if you're from the area and you're involved in the outdoor and hiking community, you're probably familiar with the 48, 4,000 footer challenge.

Sure am. As the name alludes, there are 48 different mountains in the state of New Hampshire that reach 4,000 feet of elevation or more. And at any point in time, there are thousands of hikers out in the forest working towards their goal of summiting them all. How many have you done? Do you keep track? I do.

I would have to look back and see. I think I'm at 21. So I'm almost halfway done. And to be fair, you're no longer in New Hampshire, so take some effort to get over there. But yeah, I say that to myself too, but I actually don't live any farther than I did when I did live in New Hampshire from them. So it's kind of a sorry excuse, yeah. Now that you put it that way. Yeah.

But I've been exploring the Green Mountain Forest instead. Right. The whites, as locals refer to them, are home to species such as Black Bear, Coyotes, Bobcats, Red Fox, Fisher Cats, Porcupine, and allegedly Moose. It's a claim. Allegedly. Also allegedly Mountain Lions. Yes. And I kind of want to do like a whole episode on that. There was a couple people who reached out to us about P-22. Yeah, in California. In California. And while that is very interesting and that would be a great episode, I do kind of want to do an episode on Mountain Lions, Cougars in New England. So that's on my back burner.

161 miles of the AT weave through the state, including Mount Washington, known as the place of the Great Spirit by the indigenous Abenaki people. It is the highest peak in the northeast at over 6,200 feet. And Cassie did a great episode that covered Mount Washington and all of its extreme weather. So I'm really not going to harp on it too much because we've been there. If you want to listen to it, it's still on our feed. Yeah. I don't know what episode. I almost wrote down the episode. I'm like, I have no idea when that was. It's an older episode. It's definitely an older one.

But it's a good one. And although I don't really want to get super into the logistics of that, obviously I did have to mention because since that episode aired, Mount Washington broke another record very recently in February of 2023, set a new record for the coldest wind chill recorded in our nation's history coming in at negative 108 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 77 Celsius. I'm cold. I'm cold just thinking about it. This national forest is within a day's drive from 70 million people

and attracts six million of them to the lakes, ravines, gorges, swimming holes, and the stunning foliage that this forest presents every year. While the whites make headlines for a lot of beautiful reasons, they have also been in the news cycle quite frequently over the last few months particularly, and not for the most uplifting of reasons. Headlines regarding death in these mountains have caught the attention. of the entire country. However, according to officials, although tragic deaths of young hikers have drawn more attention in recent years, there actually has not been a significant increase in actual fatalities.

From 2018 to 2022, there has been an average of 22 fatalities per year, and hundreds of people have lost their lives here throughout documented history. Memories of the people who lose their lives here stay in the hearts and minds of their loved ones forever, but sometimes, times, they stay in the memory of the land as well. Millions of us hike, bike, raft, and recreate in places named in the memory of people who left this world. The presidential range is a great example of this. There's Mount Washington, Adams, Jackson, Eisenhower. Jefferson. You get it. You get the idea. And these mountains all bear the names of noteworthy leaders of our country. But what about Mount Willie? Nancy Brooke, Mount Chakora, or the Cancamongas Highway. Kingamangamangas. Why did I say?

What was that? Angamongous? I'm like, there is no end in there. So I don't know. Am I even a local? I'm ashamed. I'm like, are you from New Hampshire? I'm ashamed.

Cancamongus. I think part of what I want to say is cancamangus because I always say that. But there's no N in there. There's no N. It's it's Kangamangus. Kankamangus, I know. But there's like for some reason I always want to have like a kankamongas. Like there's an N in there and there's not.

Am I saying? that does that come out in my voice? I said kangamongus. There's no N, obviously. Kankamangus. May. Cancamangus Highway. Yeah.

I don't know. I feel like I've always added an N. Kangamangus. There's no N. Cancamangus. Wow, have I been saying it wrong my whole life? I think so. I think we both have.

Oh, man. Kankamagus. Now I'm confused. How do we say this? It's a man. It is, Nick. name the kink probably because people can't fucking say it. Cancamangamangut. There's no end. There's no end, but I think that's still how you say it.

I don't think that's. Canc amagas. That no, it has to mean mangus because hold on. Now I'm looking at us. Many people try and put an N in the word and say kankamangus. This is the most common mistake when pronouncing kankamangus from the Kankamangas highway website. No. How do you pronounce Kankamagus? This has been an ongoing. debate for many years, but if you look at the word closely, letter by letter, while reading it, you will see it really is pronounced the way it looks, with the exception of the A's. The first A is pronounced as A, but the other two's are A's. Many people try to put a second N in the word and say cancamangis. This is the most common mistake when pronouncing it. Also, these same people tend to spell it

wrong as well, adding the N into the word. The correct way to say it is canc ummaugus. Cancumagus. Cancamagas? We're learning something new. I will not accept that personally. I will personally not accept that. So what am I supposed to do for the rest of the episode? Do whatever, say whatever you want, but I will not accept anything but cancamangas. Okay, so for the record, Cassie and I have grown up in New Hampshire and we say cancangas. This is wrong, officially.

officially it's kankamogis and i will do my best to pronounce it the appropriate and correct way but after 31 years of pronouncing it kankamangus there are no promises here okay that's how we're going to move forward i used to serve ice cream and we had an ice cream that was called kangamangus and i'm pretty sure it was spelled with an end okay if there's ice cream shops in new hampshire making up ends and words we can do it too yeah that's right okay even though i just pre-hmmed about how it's really bad and sad when you mispronounce people's names and not know them. Oof. Don't come after me.

I'm fragile. Okay. These are just a few of the features that hold the names of those who lived, worked, and played in the whites like so many of us, but have stories that have a much more somber ending. So we are going to be kind of taking a little tour through the whites and going, to a couple of stops that have some stories behind the names that you hopefully don't know too much about. And first, we are going to Crawford Notch within the whites. I love Crawford Notch.

Often referred to as the first family of Crawford Notch. The Willie family was one of the first non-native families to settle in the area after they arrived from nearby Bartlett, New Hampshire, in the fall of 1825. The Willie family was comprised of Samuel Willie Jr. and his wife, Polly, who were both from Concord and their five children ranging from age two to 12. There was Elbridge, Martha, Jeremiah, Eliza, and Sally. The family bought a house known as the Old Notch House, which was actually one of the first built in the area, the whole area of Crawford Notch, in the year 1793.

For all the non-New Hampshireites out there, the Crawford Notch is nicknamed the Notch, and it's a major pass that runs through the heart of the White Mountain National Forest. And it was named after the Crawford family, which was a pretty famous family of the area during that time. Well, it's also confusing because there's the Franconia notch, which is also nicknamed the notch. Yeah, you don't get it unless you get it. You know what I mean? Yeah. At the time, the notch held the only East-West route through the whites, and the house was in a perfect location to take advantage of that. When they arrived, the property needed some love.

It was vacant for a couple of months by the time they arrived. and with the help of two hired men, within the first year of their move, they had transformed their entire two-story home and surrounding land. They repaired the house, enlarged the stables, built a barn, winterized the home, and transformed part of the land

into a small wheat farm. Their home then opened as the Willie housed Inn and Tavern, and it served as a welcome resting spot for early European New Hampshire explorers that were traveling through that route in the spring of 1826. An issue of the New Hampshire Sentinel from that year wrote about the Willie House, saying, quote,

At the conclusion of this six miles, the eye is greeted with the appearance of a small but comfortable dwelling house, owned and occupied by a Mr. Willie, who has taken advantage of a very small interval, where the bases of two mountains seem to have paused and receded to erect his lone habitation. Rude and uninviting as the spot appears, he has contrived to gather around it the necessaries, if not conveniences of life. We were furnished, with a dinner of ham, eggs, and the usual accompaniments, such as a meal in a country tavern. The interior of the house exhibited a neatness

that might well become some inns that we have seen of more frequent resort, and the faces of parents and children were the pictures of content. Can philosophy or conjecture account for or explain the motives that can induce a man thus to plant himself at a distance of six miles from the habitation of any of his race

And in a spot where it is next to impossible, he can ever have a nearer neighbor. So basically it's saying he's way out there. He's six miles away from his nearest neighbor. And the place was great. He loved it. You know, like the family was inviting. They served him a nice meal. The place was comfortable.

Like for being so out there and away from luxuries. It was homie. It was a great experience. And the other thing that the article described is where the house was positioned. It was at the base of a steep slope on a narrow strip of ground with the mountain behind it. The Soco River was also nearby on the property in front of the house and on the other side of the road. And this makes for a beautiful site, but a pretty dangerous place to be in case of emergency. The area was very vulnerable to landslides, and the family saw it firsthand their first summer there.

A landslide came tumbling down the notch, covering a mile within minutes. The debris came within 200 feet of their house and covered about an acre's worth of their property with rubble. And in another article from the time from the farmer's cabinet said of that landslide event, on the 26th of June, there was a tremendous avalanche or slide, as it is called, from the mountain which makes the southern wall of the passage. An immense mass of earth and rock from the side of the mountain was loosened from its resting place and began to slide towards the bottom. In its course, it divided into three portions, each coming down with amazing velocity into the road

and sweeping before it shrubs, trees, and rocks, and filling up the road beyond all possibility of it being recovered. The place from which this slide or slip was loosened is directly in the rear of Mr. Willie's house. They heard the noise when it first began to move and ran to the door. In terror and amazement, they beheld the mountain in motion. But what can human power affect in such an emergency? before they could think of retreating or ascertain which way to escape, the danger was passed. So essentially, they saw it happening and before they could even think it was over. And they were very lucky that time because it narrowly missed their house.

The slide was a huge wake-up call to the danger in this very beautiful but dangerous location that they had chosen to put down roots. And at first, Mr. Willie debated moving entirely. He wanted to, he toyed around with the idea of relocating entirely, but I mean, they had put a lot of work into this property. They have a whole family. And he debated it for a while, but ultimately decided to stay. He actually told his brother Benjamin, quote, such an event we know has not happened here for a very long time. And another of its kind is not likely to occur for an equally long time to come.

So famous last words. Yeah, they're like, it won't happen again. Don't worry. Yeah. Like, done, done, done, what are the chances? Oh, yeah, and then he finished it by saying, Taking Things Past in This View, I am not afraid. This episode is brought to you by Prime.

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Prime. So he said he wasn't afraid and maybe he wasn't enough to leave entirely, but he was shaken up enough to make some precautions. Soon after this initial slide, he built a cave-like structure near the inn with intentions of it being kind of a safe house or safe shelter in the event of another worst-case scenario, somewhere that he and his family could escape to to safety. And that event came only two months later. In the months between the two events, the state was experiencing a severe drought. It dried the soil to a greater depth than usual, and the drought abruptly came to an end on the night of August 28th, when one of the most severe storms in New Hampshire State history slammed into the notch. The skies opened and the torrential rain flooded the area, destroying all the bridges and rose the

Saco River by 20 feet in one night. Oh my gosh. The dry earth made the ground especially susceptible to landslides, which is exactly what happened, and the destruction slid down the notch directly towards the willy house. Days passed. The storm came to an end, but no one had seen or heard from the willies. Remember how remote their location is. They're in. There's not a lot of foot travel. People can't just look out their window and check in on their neighbors. So after a few days, and still no word from them, they haven't seen them around. Friends and family really started getting worried. So they went to investigate. Navigating almost six miles of rubble leading to the home to their amazement, the enormous landslide that barreled down the pass had demolished everything in

its path except the Willie home. That's lucky. There is artist's renditions of this that it is literally just think of the destruction path of a landslide, just the utter, like there's nothing left. And it's literally just this tiny dot of the house. Everything else is obliterated. The falling debris encountered a Rocky Ridge right above the house, causing the single stream of the landslide to split into two, hurtling past the home on either side. It pummeled through the stables and all of the farm before rejoining again around the house on the other side and forming another single stream and continuing on. There wasn't even a single window damaged on the home. Their relation and complete amazement turned to concern when they entered the house to investigate further. They opened the door to find it completely

disheveled inside. The beds were unmade, belongings were strewn about, and an open Bible was on the table, and their family dog was barking. The family had clearly fled. A search party was sent out in hopes of finding them in the shelter that Mr. Willie had created. Unfortunately, it was apparent that the family didn't make it in time. The bodies of Polly and David Allen, one of their hired men, were found badly mangled in the debris directly below the home. The bodies of Samuel, who's Mr. Willie, and his three-year-old daughter Sally were found next. Five days later, the remains of David Nicholson, the other hired men were located, followed by the next day, the discovery of Eliza, one of their children, far from the house on the opposite side of the Saco River. Jeremiah, Martha, and Elbridge were never found.

So the entire family perished. That's so sad. And obviously, there's no way to know that they would have been safe in their home. And especially, I imagine they just look out their window like they had before saw it happening and was like get to the shelter. Exactly. Exactly. And then life is such a weird way. Just like you're fine in the home. I'm glad the dog survived. Yeah. No further information on the dog. I don't know what happened to him or her. The devastation that the landslide created and the story of the Willie family and their home spread like wildfire throughout the nation. It attracted the attention of notable artists like Thomas Cole known for his dramatic landscape drawings to the area. Ministers use the disaster as a basis for their sermons, and poets were inspired to write long poems about the incident

as well. It also caught the attention of Salem, Massachusetts resident Nathaniel Hawthorne. Most famous for his novel, The Scarlet Letter, or his other novel, The House of the Seven Gables. Might have heard of him once or twice. Once or twice. I looked up his body of work. He has so many books. He has so many books. Does he? I'm like, what did this guy do other than write? Like, did he do anything else? answer that. I know probably a lot. He also was known for his work titled The Ambitious Guest. And that story was based on and inspired by the Willie family and what happened to them and their home. Although there's obviously some details in the story that diverge from the actual story. It's not completely historically accurate. It is the basis of that novel. Even Edward Melcher, the last survivor of the party who went out to search for the Willie family, he wrote a book. and published the novel about his experiences in 1881. So there are a lot of people talking about this. And because the structure was still standing,

the Willie Inn and Tavern remained open for years, obviously functioning under new ownership and management. And thanks largely in part to the widespread publicity surrounding the disaster, the loss of life, and the survival of the structure, people flocked to the white mountains. People love a morbid story. It's literally the OG morbid, yeah, story.

of colonial New England. Yeah. Up until this era and history, not many people traveled for pleasure. The reasons vary from the time to travel, financial ability to travel, and actual ability to travel. The first travelers to the area

were usually people either on business, scientists coming to conduct research, or people with extreme amounts of wealth. There's an account from 1799 when a French nobleman journeyed to the whites and all the locals kind of looked at them like, the hell are you doing here? Like, what? Like, are you not, you're not on business and you're not buying property? Like, why are you here for fun?

That doesn't make sense. It was a foreign concept at the time. And the Duke later said of his trip, quote, We were asked everywhere whether we traveled with a view to buy lands. And when we told them that we were traveling with no other purpose than to gratify our curiosity, they thought we were fools or at best, liars. They wondered, why would people travel to the mountains for pleasure? Yeah, that's so odd. Why would people that. It's just so crazy to see the difference now. Large swaths of the state were not easily accessed, and even the roads in place were extremely treacherous. With the arrival of the railroad in the area in the 1850s, the White Mountains were open to a larger amount of people, and the average tourist was born. A man named Daniel Wadsworth, a wealthy art dealer from Connecticut, ventured to the

whites in the summer after the Willie disaster, after learning about it. He said after a dreary and uninteresting ride from Boston. He suddenly found himself surrounded by an ocean of beauty and magnificence. It is here, he said, in such sublime scenes that the man sees his own nothingness. The scene was far beyond my expectation and is the finest one I have ever beheld. How kind has the creator been to us? Nature opens her treasures and a rich banquet is ever spread for our enjoyment. So people are catching on to like, well, there's actually something up here, worthwhile. New Hampshire's kind of cool. Yeah, except for that dreary and uninteresting ride, apparently. I mean, to be fair, it is a little flat in southern New Hampshire. Okay, but he's from

Connecticut. Like, it's not that different. He's not coming from the Rockies. You know what I mean? That's true. It was his first visit, but it wouldn't be his last. He returned the following year with friends on a painting trip after regaling them with stories about how beautiful the whites were. They visited Franconia and Crawford Notch, the northern presidential range, what obviously they're known as now, Lake Winapasaki, and of course, the Willie Disaster Site. As a response to the influx of visitors, hotels began popping up throughout the mountains, including one directly next to the Willie House. The property was purchased by a man named Horace Fabian. He built, purchased, and managed grand hotels in the area, including one called the old Moose Horn Tavern that was previously owned and run by Ethan Crawford. It's all connected. There's another Crawford. He constructed the new building and named it the

Willie Hotel. So at this point, there's the original Willie House and then literally directly next to it, like you could reach out and touch it, was this new hotel. So no one cares about the landslides that happened here? No, people care a lot. People are coming to see. It's a morbid attraction, essentially. This is a couple years later. Yeah, but they're building a, they're building a hotel in the path of where a landslide hit. Oh, yeah. That's what I'm, that's what I mean. Oh, okay. No one cares. No one cares. No one cares, is the question is the answer to that question. But also I think of like obviously the chances of a landslide happening is greater than some of the examples I'm thinking of. But people build and live on pretty active fault lines or volcanoes and live pretty close to some things that are kind of ticking time bombs. So I think

that people live in the present and think that the present is more worthwhile than something that could potentially happen in the future. And this is like, there's a lot of money involved in the hotel biz right now. Money talks for sure. Sure does. This new hotel drew tourists from far and wide and the site became, like I said, one of the OG dark tourism spots for New England and people continued to flock to the area before the hotel was destroyed in a fire in 1890. The Willie House remained unscathed, but as interest in the site and the story started to dwindle, so too did the attention to keeping the home preserved. The Willie House is currently no longer standing, but the land it stood on is commemorated within Crawford Notch State Park within the National Forest. The Willie's name lives on in features

surrounding the site, including Willie Pond, Mount Willie, the 4,225 foot peak on the western side of the notch, and of course, the Willie House historic site that functions as an interpretive Center on the site of the disaster within the state park. So you can go visit the site. There's a memorial there where the house stood and you can see it for yourself. Cool. I don't think I've ever actually been there. So next time I'm up in Crawford Notch, I'll check it out. Awesome. Next, we are going to the winter of 1778. Nancy Barton was 16 years old at this time. She was employed as a servant for Colonel Joseph Whipple in Jefferson, New Hampshire. And when she first laid eyes on another co-worker named Jim Swindle, who worked as a farm hand for Colonel Whipple. It was all over.

Love at first sight. As time passed, Nancy fell harder and harder for Jim. She spoke with her neighbors about her newfound love and how they felt for each other was mutual and how they wanted the same things out of life, you know, just basically spilling your guts about her new love interest. Jim proposed and she was elated. Their plan was to get hitched and to start their life together in Portsman. To prepare for this, she entrusted Jim with the wages that she had accumulated while working for Colonel Whipple, which just so happened to be her entire life savings. She gave her entire life savings to this man? Her fiance, yeah. Her betrothed.

Just the way you're talking about him, I feel like this isn't going to go well. It's not. There are a couple of different versions as to what happened next, and the truth is kind of lost to history. During this time in which Nancy was busy planning their future together, one story of the version is that Colonel Whipple and Jim were conspiring against Nancy. Colonel Whipple was a strong supporter of the colonies during the Revolutionary War, and it's rumored that he convinced Jim to use the money that he was entrusted with from Nancy to join the colonist army. And there's rumors that he spent that money on like a uniform and stuff for the military,

which is like a dick move. Obviously. Certainly. And I want to say there's like New Hampshire education coming back to me right now. I'm pretty sure William Whipple, who obviously has to be related to this guy because he is one of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence and I've been to his house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Oh, very cool. Yeah. There's like something about like a big like chestnut tree that he planted there and now it's huge and you can go visit it.

Cool tie in. Yeah. I hope I'm getting that right. But I was also like 10. Did Nancy pay for that tree? She may have, literally. It's fucked up. It is fucked up.

The other version of the story is that the colonel just straight up disapproved of the match and sent Jim away. Why he would be so personally invested in the love lives of his employees is, I'm not really sure. But that's just another version of the story. And then the third version of the story is that Jim just simply took all her money and set off her portsmith on his own. So there's kind of three different versions of that middle part of him stealing her money. Mm-hmm. But the beginning and the end is verified. So regardless of what caused Jim to leave, Nancy was absolutely devastated and she wasn't going

to let him go that easy. She had heard that he would be in the coastal town of Portsmouth, which was over 130 miles away. So she set out to find him on foot. She walked to Portsmouth. She tried to walk to Portsmouth. This is the middle of the winter in the 1700s. She's a 16-year-old girl going through the White Mountains.

I don't know. According to her neighbors, she was adamant that she would kill. confront Jim and they would come to an understanding and they would return to Jefferson together and kind of just glaze it over. It's a mystery as to what her thought process was, but she hastily threw together a small bag with just a handful of clothes. She didn't bring any food or other provisions at all. And she made it almost 20 miles before she stopped to rest. But back in Jefferson, her neighbors had rallied together. There was a big group of concerned townspeople and her friends that were like, hey, like, we need to go get her.

This is not safe. It's the middle of winter. She's in dangerous places. So they formed a search party that same day and ventured out to find her. But Nancy was pressing on. She was deep within Crawford Notch at this point. She was cold, fatigued, and probably hungry. Losing steam and balance, she stumbled into a brook and fell in.

She soaked her dress through and through with the frigid water. She pulled herself out and into a little rock outcropping on the side of the river. She was chilled to the bone and exhausted. She sat there, probably just trying to gather herself. The search party was close behind her. They were following her tracks in the snow to where her location was, and they did find her. They found her on that rock. Her head was resting on one hand and over a walking stick that she was using. Her wet dress was frozen stiff, and she did not stir as they approached and called out her name. Nancy at this point was deceased. It wasn't long until the area and beyond heard the news. According to Marianne O'Connor's book,

Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire, when Jim heard about what happened to Nancy, he was overcome with remorse and guilt and yada, yada, and he experienced some struggles with mental health soon after. And he actually passed away in a psychiatric hospital, although the exact cause of his death is unclear. Well, at least, I mean, if he was in a psychiatric hospital, clearly he was feeling some type of way, which he should have, because he robbed her and broke her heart and left to do whatever. Yeah. He ghosted her, literally.

He ghosted her. Yeah, 1700s ghosting. Soon after her passing, locals began referring to a nearby mountain as Mount Nancy and the name stuck. For a brief time in the made 1880s, a Harvard professor suggested changing the name from Mount Nancy to Mount Amorigis Lowe. For what? It's a combination of two different Latin words, meaning the frost of love. And it never stuck. Locals are like, we're going to head out. Like, we're not doing that. Yeah. It's like, one, we can't

pronounce it. And two, it's Mount Nancy. No. It was obviously, like, he was trying to do something with her story, you know. It's like kind of seems like a poetic name to add. But like, I don't know, it seems a little inappropriate since she died from it. And it's not like it was two lovers up there, like she was abandoned and she was out to search for someone who left her. Right. So that never really gained any steam. It was just kind of thrown out there. And over time, the locals designation for the peak gained recognition.

It won approval from the U.S. Board of Geographic Names in 1890 and has officially been Mount Nancy ever since. Nancy was buried next to the brook where her body was found. A sign once posted at the location read, of Jefferson, New Hampshire, perished here in 1778, following the wild path of the notch for 30 miles and a vain attempt to overtake her faithless lover. She perished in a snowstorm by this stream and is buried here. Nancy was the second woman to go through the notch pass. And obviously, this sign was constructed in the 1930s, hence the lack of second documented non-indigenous woman to pass through the notch. But it was erected at the site that her body was found. And her burial site

is actually now located on a 100-acre property of like a classic New England romantic inn. It's called the Notchland Inn. So it's on that property. Wait, they moved her? No, that property is 100 acres. So it's on private property now. Oh, I thought you were saying they moved her burial. No, no.

To this place. Okay. Nearby, the Nancy Brook Trail can be hiked to access Mount Nancy amongst the Nancy Cascade Range, Nancy Pond, Nancy Pond Trail, and the Nancy Cascades, Lower Falls are also named in her honor, and the entire area within the National Forest is known as the Nancy Brooke scenic area. Nancy was very loved. I'm really liking this episode because these are places I haven't been in the White Mountains and now I'm like, I'm mentally jotting all these down like, okay, I'm going to go here next time I go. I'm going to go here next time I go.

You may have been to this next place. I certainly have. And we are going to Mount Chakora. I haven't. You haven't hiked Chakora, really? No, I haven't. It's one of the 48 that I have not done. Well, it is actually one of the states most frequently hiked and well-known mountains coming in, well, comes in at just shy of the 4,000 footmark. So I don't know what's one of the 48. Maybe that's why it hasn't been on my list. That's probably why you haven't been there.

Honestly, because whenever I look, I look at the list of the 48. And I'm like, okay, which one haven't I done yet? So that makes sense of why I haven't hiked it. The Appalachian Mountain Club reports it as one of the most photographed mountains in the entire world. It has a distinct rocky summit, and although it isn't one of the 48 challenge hikes, I wrote this literally this morning. Like, how have I forgotten this information? I'm like, wow, interesting. Learning something new. I've never heard this before. Like, oh, I literally wrote this. I wrote this. The trailheads are located at lower elevations than many of the other surrounding mountains. So it makes

the hike just as strenuous as some of the other mountains on the 48 list. I've heard it's a hard I had a very difficult time. So I think I actually have, maybe I'll try and find it. I have a really cute picture of blue on top of it. Like with this little ear bent over in the wind, it's so cute. Full disclosure, the details of this story, this legend of how this mountain got its name has been documented, written, told, and retold in a lot of different forms. And there is very little historical evidence of its accuracy. But I chose this story because it's really well known. throughout the area. So we're going to go over it. Even if it's not true. It is now. Chief Chikora, who is believed to have been a chief of the Ossipee tribe, lived in what is now Tamworth in the early 1700s. A peaceful leader, he was known to be friendly with settlers, but particularly with a man named Cornelius Campbell and his family. One day, Chikora was pulled away for business purposes and entrusted the Campbell family with his young son. His wife had

allegedly passed away, hence why his wife wasn't caring for the son. When he returned, he arrived to the news that his son had died. Apparently, he had gotten into poison meant to eliminate fox and wolves. Overcome with grief and rage, he pledged to get revenge on the Campbell family. Not long after, Cornelius returned to his home to find his wife and his children murdered. Suspecting that Chachora was to blame, because he literally said he was going to get revenge on him, He chased Chikora up a nearby mountain. Chikora climbed to the highest boulder at the summit, raised his arms toward the sky, and yelled,

A curse upon ye, white man. May the great spirit curse ye when he speaks in the clouds, and his words are fire. Chikora had a son, and ye killed him while the sky looked bright. Lightning blast your crops. Wind and fire destroy your dwellings. The evil spirit breathe the death upon your cattle. Your graves lie in the warpath of the Indian.

Panthers howl and wolves fatten over your bones. Shakora goes to the great spirit. His curse stays with the white man. Which is, seems a little much, number one. But number two, obviously, like, it's like, did he really think, like, word for word? He's like, I remember what he said. And I don't think he was saying ye either. Like, that's such a English.

Yeah, I'm a little suspicious of the translation or the wording or. It seems a little embellished. Yeah, probably said something like a short curse of like, I curse you to be on this mountain or something. And then he's like, he said all of these things. Right, yeah. And then promptly after this, he apparently leapt off the mountain and fell to his death on the boulders below.

And like I said, there are many different variations of this story. And there's also evidence that it may have been completely made up and not real literally at all, which is a classic example of revisionist history. but it does persist to this day as the story behind how Mount Chakora got its name. And if you're like for some reason really interested in this particular story and how it got embellished and kind of warped over time, I found this really cool. It's like I think it might be a dissertation, but it's a paper about this. And it's called Chikora Redue, Revisionous History of a Name. And it was published in 2019 and I linked it in our sources information.

And it's actually a really interesting read, especially from your. if you're from New Hampshire. Okay. And now on to the last story I have for you. Cool. Have I been to this location? You sure have. And we can't pronounce it, apparently.

Ah, is it the Kangamangas? It is the Kangamangas. It's actually not that hard now that I'm saying it. Cancumagus. Maybe it is. I'm thinking about it too hard is what's happening. The Kangamangas Highway. Beautiful scenic road throughout northern New Hampshire.

Links to you from Lincoln, New Hampshire to Conway, New Hampshire. Is that it? I'm like, you can go on. you can keep going. I just tell the whole history. No, go ahead. Please. All right.

Lastly, on to one of the most, if not the most popular attraction in the whites, the Cancamaegas Highway. Nearly 800,000 people experienced this road every year, also nickname the Kank, which is a breathtaking 34.5 mile scenic drive along New Hampshire's Route 112. The road winds through the national forest, with long portions of the road comprising of long stretches of no businesses, no homes, no restaurants, or gas stations. just the woods. There's scenic pull-offs and campgrounds and trailheads that lead to waterfalls and the gorges and different summits. It's absolutely beautiful. It's also known as one of the best foliage viewing

spots in all of New England. And obviously New England is like the crown jewel of foliage. So it's the place to be. Fun fact, I have crashed my car on that highway. When? Years ago. It was 2014, I think. I was working for this job. I worked for a pre-employment screening company. And basically my job was to go to different courthouses and get people's criminal records that were applying for jobs. So I would do this. And my route was in northern New Hampshire. And I was out there one day during a snowstorm. And I drove a Honda Accord. I remember it well. I drove a Honda Accord for like nine years. But I didn't have snow tires. It was a full blizzard. And to cut across, using the Kangamagos Highway was way faster than going around like out like two hours faster than

the other direction. So I was like, okay, I'm going to go up this. I'm driving up this road. And I am telling you, it was a full on blizzard. I saw no other cars. The only other vehicle I saw on the road was a snowmobile. Were you like I made an error? Yeah, well, kind of. But I was already like pretty deep on the road. So I'm like, all right, I have to go one way or the other. And I was going up this hill. and around a corner and my whole car spun out. I did like a 360 turn with my car. It hit the guardrail, but the guardrail was covered in snow. So I bounced off the card rail. It turned my car again around and turned me in the opposite direction I was driving to go back down the hill and towards town that I was in before. And I was just like, well, if this isn't a sign that I shouldn't be here, I don't know what is. So I

drive back to town. I didn't even stop. It literally just turned my car around. put me in that direction and I was like, okay, guess I'm going this way. And I was like, I'm not going to get out because if I stopped moving, I didn't think I would get enough traction to move again. And I had no cell phone reception. There's no reception out there. So I drive back and I stop right at the entrance of the highway. There was a convenience store and a gas station and I pull into that gas station. And I get out of my car to see that my exhaust had been dragging along the road the entire time after that. What a shit show.

I was such a shit show. Oh, my God. And I had to call my work and tell them. And luckily, this guy was there and he saw me and he was like, are you okay? And I showed him my exhaust. And he actually grabbed a bungee cord and like put it up for me so I could drive home without it dragging on the ground anymore, which was really nice. So you've experienced the joys.

So I've experienced. Yeah. This highway. I've crashed on the highway. It means business, especially in the winter. Yeah, many people have. It's a super windy, scenic road. It can be treacherous, especially in the winter. Yeah. So obviously, this place is slammed in the fall. I mean, pretty much all of New England is, especially northern New England. And we call them peepers, like people who come. Leaf peepers, the people who come from out of the woodwork to come see the beautiful foliage that our state has to all. offer the burst of the orange and red and gold and all of that fun stuff. See, this is what makes me homesick.

Like, that makes me homesick. And then once I get home, I'm like, okay, I'm good after like one day. If it makes you feel better, there's no foliage here that you're missing right now. Well, obviously, but. And while this road is known for its beauty, the way it received its name has a really ugly story. Cancamaegas was one of the most notable and also the last chief of the Pentecook, known as the Fearless one, he was the grandson of another really well-known leader of the area Pasacanoi, in which Conway, New Hampshire, is named after.

Pasoenoway, also known as Child of the Bear, is well-remembered for uniting 17 tribes within Central New England in the 1600s. This unification formed what was later known as the Pentecook Confederacy, which he led until his death. Cancumagus was later named chief of the Pentecooks in 1685. There was someone else in between there, but that was his grandpa. And he tried really hard to follow his grandfather's footsteps of peace, but encountered some trouble when European settlers brought war, violence, and false promises to the area.

Enter Major Richard Waldron of Dover, New Hampshire. He was a really prominent government official at the time. His family controlled a lot of the local native trade in the area, and he was a pretty influential member of colonial New Hampshire. He was also known for trickery and deceit, especially regarding relations within indigenous tribes. Under the false guys of helping refugee members of an Abinaki tribe, he offered them housing and meals after the Massachusetts Bay Colony militia waged violence against them as part of the larger issue, which was the King Philip War, he actually took them prisoner. He executed some of them

and others were sold into slavery. So he basically was like, oh yeah, I'll give you food and shelter and help you and so sorry for all this and then killed them. He was one of them. Ripped apart families. sold several members of that group into slavery, even shipping them as far away as the Barbados. Like, it was not great. That's awful. Years passed after that incident, but the memory of that and other ones that were very similar to it, that wasn't an isolated incident. That was just an example of one.

The memory of those things did not pass in the minds of the indigenous people. Several years later, it was kind of a common practice for Pentecook women to be allowed into the home of troops when they requested shelter. Some of the settlers were really nervous about this and raised concern to Waldron about it, but their worries were dismissed. He was like, what are they going to do? They're women and, like, they're indigenous people. Like, we have the upper hand.

And he vastly underestimated them. On the night of June 27, 1689, the women staying in the garrisoned homes unlocked the front doors. And there were warriors from their tribes waiting in the woods. until night fell. They came up to the doors that were left unlocked by their women, and they attacked. Chief King of Angus was the leader of this attack, and by the time everything was said and done the following day, which happened in what is now downtown Dover, a quarter of the colonists were gone. 23 of them were killed and 29 of them were captured and held his prisoner. Wow, that's a lot. However, the icing on the cake here is what happened to Waldron. He was quickly

captured and singled out for some special treatment. He was strapped to his own dining room table and each warrior took turns mutilating him, slicing his body with their weapons and saying, I cross out my account with each swipe. So they were getting retaliation for what he did to their families. Yeah. He was ultimately killed and his house was burned down. And his house was burned down, as well as a few different houses in the area. The well-planned out and executed plan showed how skilled Kankomagus was as a leader and how vastly underestimated he was. And I think a lot of the thought was, well, he's been peaceful in the past and they just took advantage of him and underestimated his limits, essentially. After the attack on Dover, several others ensued in this back and forth

ambush attack, ambush attack between the tribes and the settlers with even more death and even more violence. And details of what ultimately happened to the leader is pretty foggy because there's very little written about his later years in life and the end of his life. But it's thought that he took his family and what remained of the Pentecook Confederacy to what is now the Canadian border region of New Hampshire to live out the rest of his life. The Kangamagus Highway was completed and open to through traffic in 1959 and is now designated as one of three national scenic byways in the state. To be considered for or awarded that specific designation, the byway must meet at least one of six qualities, either archaeological, cultural, historical, natural, recreational, or scenic. And in my humble

opinion, this highway meets pretty much all of them. When it was officially named in 1957, some New Hampshire legislators objected it completely saying that Cancamaegas murdered major Waldron and should not be commemorated in this way or celebrated at all. But we have Mount Washington. As yes, I know, and more. And more. That's just one. But Cancamaegas was defended by a Hanover representative named Robert Monaghan saying that Kankamangas was a faithful man that was provoked to war.

Also adding that even though the name was somewhat difficult, like kind of a mouthful, it was easier to spell than Winapasaki and easier to pronounce than Chikora. So that's how we got the name. Debatamagus. Along the highway, you will find informational postings about the area, as well as the rich indigenous cultural history that the White Mountains hold. And this highway is also known for a hotspot for moose. So if you believe in moose, I guess. Allegedly.

Be careful when you're driving. If you believe in moose. And that's it. That's the little charcutory board of New Hampshire places I have for today. Cool. That was really fun. I mean, it was really fun for me because I go there and love there. So I hope that other people who are around the area are more inspired to go check it out.

And people who haven't been to the White Mountains should just get up there because it's, there's just something about the White Mountains. There really is. And it's just such a magical area. I think everyone should go. Yeah. I'm trying to think of like the next time I'm going to be home and have like a chance to, like I'm visiting in a month or so to do some wedding things for friends.

end, but other than that, like, I'm not going to get into the whites. Like, I'm thinking the next time, like, I'm really going to be up there. And it's been a long time. I think the last, I'm pretty sure, the last time I was there is when we hiked Mount Pierce. That's wild to me. That was like four years ago. Five years, five years ago. Was it?

No, no, it wasn't. Four. No. When was it? It was after my transplant. And my transplant was three years ago. It was, like, pretty soon after that, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I think it was the summer after, because that's when I was hiking.

like every day pretty much. Yeah. It was that summer. So it was 2020, the summer of 2020. Yeah, there you go. It seems like a lifetime ago. But yeah. So hopefully you get out there, visit the Willie family house site and do some research into the places that you're visiting because there's more often than not a really interesting story behind their names. So. Yeah. It makes me want to look up names of things more now. Awesome. Well, we'll see you guys next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you back. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week.

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