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History

Visitors in the late 1800's came in droves to New Hampshire's North Country to experience a completely different way of life within a short train ride of Boston. Peppered across the mountainous and forested landscape were over 200 hotels, inns and boarding houses ready to welcome their visitors and offer them a change of pace for the summer months.

Women and children typically played croquet, rode horses and swam while the men took part in polo, golf, and an occasional hunting expedition. Northern New Hampshire offered a perfect social and sophisticated get-a-way from the hustle and bustle of the cities.

The invention of the automobile in the early 1900's opened up the country to another type of travel. Instead of going on a train to specified destinations, an automobile would allow a family to go wherever the roads would take them. City visitors started taking vacations in places other than northern New Hampshire.

A series of fires demolished a majority of the Grand Hotels, while others were abandoned with the lack of visitors and left to be taken down several years later. The locals now turned to the lucrative paper industry and focused on farming the forest. Men told stories of working in the forests and enhanced the legends of men that preceded them. The desire to see the majesty of the region became only increased as word spread that there were jobs in the north. At one point, Berlin was the second largest city in New Hampshire, with its premier location on the Androscoggin River for logging and travel and bustling Main Street. Boom piers, man-made islands, were used to secure chains of logs, which divided the river between the two logging companies. The piers still stand in the river today and are ceremoniously set ablaze for the spectacular "River Fire" event in October.

Visitors fond of the rustic and majestic feel of the area continue to travel to the region to experience another way of life. The majority of the the vintage hunting lodges that once occupied the shores of the Connecticut Lakes have since disappeared, though anglers and hunters still journey to those remaining for the experience of catching an enormous land-locked salmon on the "Trophy Stretch" or finding the perfect eight-point buck. Hikers transcend into another world alltogether as they travel across the Presidential Mountain Range, where the first view of sunrise can be seen every morning.

No matter which region of Northern New Hampshire, there is a piece of folklore from history experienced long ago. Learn the magic of this rugged place and experience the awe of a new adventure and a story all your own.


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