11 Great New Hampshire Hikes for Kids

11 Great New Hampshire Hikes for Kids                    
By Fred Shirley and Wayne King        

The Lone Chief 

There is a lot we adults can (re)learn from children, and among the best places for doing that are the woods and mountains. Approaching the outdoors experience from a childlike- perspective can renew your mind, body and spirit. So even if you don’t have a child of your own, grab one (with permission of course) and try a few of these great hikes in NH.

Pitcher Mt. 

Welch and Dickey Loop: Located on the southern portion of the Waterville Range, Welch and Dickey mountains are an easy day hike for the family. A short hike with big mountain experiences. The shoulder and summit of Welch are bare as a result of an old wildfire that stipped most of the trees and shrubs from the summit creating multiple opportunities for a rest with a view. A four mile loop makes this a challenge that even younger children can handle. Don’t miss the chance to spot the Lone Chief of the Valley at the summit!

Pitcher Mountain is located in southern NH near the town of Stoddard, about 50 miles west of Manchester. This is one of our favorite mountains because it is a relatively easy climb to a picturesque summit with a fire lookout tower. If you happen to be here when a fire warden is present, you may get invited up into the lookout cabin; otherwise, you will have to be satisfied with the view from the stairway just below. The NH Division of Forests and Lands promotes a Fire Lookout Tower Quest program, of which this tower is a participant. You can find more information about mountain towers on the NH Mountain Hiking website (www.nhmountainhiking.com), via the Hikes to Towers Cross-reference Mountain List.


Mount Cardigan is located in Alexandria, NH not far from the shores of Newfound Lake. It too is one of the few mountains in NH with an operational firetower. For a very short hike approach the mountain from the west side through Canaan and take the 1.5 mile West Side Trail to the summit. For a different and more challenging approach, try the Holt Trail from the east. The Holt trail is not recommended for your descent as the top part is steep and dangerous going down.

Mt Cardigan View

Little Monadnock Mountain is located in southwest NH near the town of Fitzwilliam, not too far from its famous big brother Grand Monadnock Mountain. The hiking trail starts within Rhododendron State Park, which provides a bonus attraction in July when these gorgeous flowers are in bloom. This, the largest grove of wild rhododendrons (Rhododendron maximum) in northern New England, has been designated a National Natural Landmark. Beyond the park, the Little Monadnock Trail meanders peacefully up the mountainside through second-growth woods – with opportunities to discover flowers and critters – up to a ledge outlook.

Mount Willard, strategically located at the top of Crawford Notch, is promoted as having the best view-for-effort in the entire White Mountains. Folks even get married here! If you were a pirate captain, this could be your lookout to spy on traffic driving up Route 302 toward your secret hideaway. There are some extraordinary buildings to explore near the trailhead, including Crawford Depot – a railway station from a bygone era – and the Mount Washington Hotel – one of NH’s few remaining “grand hotels” built a century ago.

View From Mt. Willard

A Spring Symphony of Lupine        Cards       Fine Art Print

Continued

A.  Photos/Captions:

pitcher.jpg (Fred Shirley Photo)
Kate hangs on tight descending Pitcher Mountain’s fire lookout tower.

osceola.jpg (Fred Shirley Photo)
A mom-and-son hiker pair checks out the awesome view from Mount Osceola.

BlueberryMtBentonTowardMoosilaukee65.jpg (Wayne King Photo)
A stone bench made by hikers looks from Blueberry Mountain to Mt Moosilaukee.


Resources:
www.nhmountainhiking.com Each mountain listed here has a hotlink to photos and driving/hiking directions. Or, see the website’s Hikes by Location list to find mountains near where you may be staying. This set of lists includes a difficulty color code, with mountains in green text being the easiest and therefore most suitable for kids.



Ed's Note: from www.HeartofNH.com used with permission

11 Great Hikes for Kids Part 2

Continued from Page 1

West Rattlesnake Mountain, Holderness, where children are the only thing we have ever seen crawling on their bellies, rises easily over the north end of Squam Lake. This is a great location for a picnic lunch, using the mountain’s ledge as a picnic table and the broad expanse of the lake for the perfect view. Most people hike up the Old Bridle Path of Rte. 113, a well-worn trail with an easy grade.

Artist’s Bluff is a very short hike at the top of Franconia Notch. Now that the Old Man has fallen, this may be the best view in the area. From the ledge perch you can see Route 93 winding through the notch, with Mount Lafayette and Franconia Ridge to the left and Cannon Mountain and its downhill ski area to the right. The hike up is steep and rocky, but quite short. After enjoying the view, you can extend your hike if you wish by hiking over to nearby Bald Mountain and returning via a loop trail.

Artists Bluff

Pack Monadnock Mountain is located in southern NH near the town of Peterborough. There are actually two mountains here: Pack Monadnock and North Pack Monadnock. Either mountain is a pleasurable hike in itself, or you can leave a car at the far end and traverse over both peaks via the northernmost segment of the Wapack Trail. Pack Monadnock has a road to the summit – which originates within Miller State Park – as well as foot trails. You have to pay a fee to park at the base or to drive up the road. On top is a fire tower, shelter and picnic tables. North Pack Monadnock is roadless and therefore has more of a “wilderness” feel. It also has a magnificent ledge lookout with a scary drop-off – not recommended for those who fear heights.

Mount Osceola is the most difficult hike mentioned in this article. But if you are up for a little more strenuous workout, this is a popular hike in the Waterville Valley area with a rewarding big-mountain view on top. On a good day looking out from the old fire tower site (now only the cement foundations remain), you might imagine being an airplane pilot surveying the surrounding mountains and the land far below.

Osceola From Kancamagus Highway

Enjoying the View from Osceola

Blueberry Mountain is a sweet, meandering and beautiful two-mile hike in the township of Glenncliff, in Warren, NH. Before the actual summit – which is somewhat anti-climactic - you’ll find a peaceful little spot where other hikers have created a stone bench facing the majestic Mount Moosilaukee. You can actually make this your final stop before descending on the same trail. The Blueberry Mountain trail begins at a parking area along the Long Pond Road in Glenncliff. If you have time after your hike, take the drive to Long Pond, a beautiful protected mountain lake in the town of Benton.

Hand made bench on Bluebarry Gazes to Moosilaukee

Madame Sherri’s Castle in Chesterfield, NH can be found in the Connecticut River Valley section of Cheshire County. This hike offers great views and natural experiences coupled with compelling ruins that stir the imagination. The 488-acre Madame Sherri Forest was donated to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests by one of NH's great conservationists and philanthropists, Anne Stokes. Named for the eccentric costume designer Madame Antoinette Sherri, who worked for the Zigfield Follies in the 1920s it was on this property that Madame Sherri built the home that came to be known as her country "Castle". She became famous (or infamous) for the parties she threw for visitors from the city, and was said to have driven about the town during the summer wearing a fur coat and nothing else.  The home was destroyed by fire in 1962 and Madame Sherri died in 1965 at the age of 84. Today, the foundation, chimneys and a grand stone staircase from the once-magnificent house alone survive and can be seen adjacent to the Madame Sherri Forest on a side trail close to the entrance off the Gulf Road.

SidebarHike like a Child
Some advice for adults seeking their inner child.

The summit is not the goal. Don’t hike like a peak-bagger!
This is not a race or a forced march. Hiking is most likely to become a life-long love when it is a Zen-like experience. Your children will come to love hiking if the summit of the mountain is simply one awesome stop along the journey. Well-planned hikes, under normal circumstances, should have plenty of time for child-like lollygagging. There’s no hurry. Take the guidebook time and double it!

Don’t hoard the water
Bring plenty of water and don’t hoard it. For health reasons and for the pure joy of the experience there should be plenty of water and snacks.

Stop and smell the balsam.
Take the time to truly enjoy the experience. If you know the plants and trees of the forest and alpine zone, share your knowledge with a child. If you don’t, bring along a few guidebooks and learn together.

The Lone Chief of The Valley - Welch Mountain

Lone Chief of the Valley                    Cards                      Fine Art Prints

The Lone Chief of The Valley
Wayne D. King

There have been numerous articles written since the fall of the Old Man of the Mountain detailing the other stone faces and images in New Hampshire but none have spied the Lone Chief of Welch Mountain in the Waterville Range of the White Mountains.

Standing at the summit and looking south the Lone Chief can easily be spotted by his Roman nose jutting out prominently.

If you look closely, you will see that he is looking over a piece of rock shaped just like Vermont (or NH upside down), so it could be said that he is watching over both NH and Vermont as well which after all would have both been a part of his hunting grounds.

Thomas Gustave Plant - "Enlightened" Capitalist & Builder of Castle in the Clouds

Legends and Lore

Thomas Gustave Plant 

"Enlightened" Capitalist & Builder of Castle in the Clouds

Born in 1859 to Antoine Plant(e) and Sophie Rodrigue, recent emigres from Canada, Thomas Plant grew up in a working class family in Bath, Maine, in a French-Canadian neighborhood known as "French Hill". Father, Antoine, had been a seaman, as well as common laborer in town and volunteered for duty in the Union Army in the Civil War. Antoine was wounded during an infantry charge against a Confederate position in Virginia. He was taken prisoner, and later exchanged for a Confederate Soldier.

In the late 1800's few children from working class families "wasted" much time on education - their focus was one directed toward employment, usually as a laborer. Thomas left school at age fourteen, during the depression of 1873, and took work as a boilermaker and an ice cutter. According to the Plant family biography "at this time Massachusetts shoe manufacturers had begun to establish factories in Maine as a strikebreaking tactic against their home shops and Tom became an apprentice shoe laster in one of these "country factories"". In 1880 he moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, then known as the "shoe-making capital of the world" to work in a shoe factory.

Plant Shoe Factory

Working conditions for laborers in those days were deplorable and many workers suffered ill effects from toxins and machinery not equipped with the safety devices now employed in such shops. Thomas Plant was no exception. Within three years of venturing to Lynn, Plant left for California to recuperate with relatives from eyesight damaged by working conditions in the Lynn factory.

While in California, legend has it that Plant won a bet over a baseball game that was to provide the seed money to begin his own business and at 25 he returned to Lynn and entered into a cooperative venture that would ultimately evolve into a partnership and then his own private company in 1891.

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Over the next twenty years, the Thomas G. Plant Company of Boston grew into what was claimed to be the world's largest shoe factory. He built his factory in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. Though is it unclear whether all of the design work for the factory and grounds were planned by the same firm, the thirteen-acre grounds, and possibly the six-story building itself, were designed by the distinguished architectural firm of Frederick Law Olmsted of Brookline, Massachusetts. Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), one of the nation's leading landscape architects, designed Central Park in New York City and the Fenway and other parks in Boston.

Having grown up in poverty and experienced the depravations of unsafe working conditions and long hours, Thomas Plant was not satisfied to run his business as others did, embracing many early reforms including shorter working hours and creating a company gym for the fitness and well being of employees. Plant was on the leading edge of a reform movement known as "enlightened" capitalism and a supporter of Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Party.

Such progressive beliefs earned him the respect of employees but also the enmity of competitors. In 1910 after years of litigation and industrial confrontation, Plant sold his factory to United Shoe Machinery Company and retired as one of the wealthiest Franco-American of his era at the age of 51. Adding what is said to be a 16 million dollar price tag for the business to his already growing personal fortune.

Plant was married twice. His first marriage ending in a divorce that is the subject of anecdotal legend. According to a former tour guide at the "Castle in the Clouds" estate, Plant and first wife, Caroline A. Griggs, 'lived in a beautiful house in Mass. They had a very rocky marriage, but did stay married for quite a while. Mr Plant went away on a trip to France, and asked Caroline to go with him, however she declined. While in France, Mr. Plant met Olive Cornelia Dewey, of California. Olive was a banker's daughter and many years younger, and they fell in love. After he returned to the states, Caroline came down to breakfast one day to find a million dollar check in her napkin roll and Thomas walking out the front door.' The divorce was said to be quick and relatively painless.

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Had Plant simply lived his life in quiet wealth after the sale of his business and his remarriage, his story would have largely ended here, but Plant was a dreamer and planned to make the transition from Industrialist to Financier, a transition that did not go well.

In 1912 Plant purchased a tract of land known as Ossipee Mountain Park as well as some additional acreage around it and in 1913 began construction on what was to be his most abiding legacy, a 6500 acre estate in Moultonborough NH dubbed "Lucknow" for city in India where Thomas Plant at one point thought he might like to build his retirement estate. Today known as "Castle in the Clouds" the Plant estate is a major tourist attraction and architectural mecca for those interested in the "Arts and Crafts" movement from which the house's architectural design sprang.

The stone exterior is made from Granite cut from the surrounding mountains. The stones were hand carved by Italian stone masons who, it is said, on a good day could cut and lay in place no more than three stones. Plant ordered that the stones be shaped primarily as pentagons, symbolizing the five great powers of the world. The lumber for the exterior and interior woodwork was cut from the property and hand hewn in the shipyards of Bath, Maine before being shipped back to the site by railroad, boat and horse.

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Lucknow was one of the first homes to have a phone, and electricity, which was powered by its own water powered generator. Plant is also reputed to have had the first fire truck in Moultonborough, as well as fire hydrants inside the house. He also had a central vacum system, a self cleaning stove, and a brine cooled refrigerator. Designed by the architectural firm of J. Williams Beal & Sons of Boston, the house exhibits skilled hand craftsmanship in every aspect of its interior and exterior, including abslutely stunning stained glass work, and a number of other technological innovations of the early 20th Century. At the height of construction on the castle it is said there were as many as 1000 workers on the property at one time.

A short man, standing only 5'4", Thomas Plant admired other energetic short men, including Napoleon, the French emperor, and Teddy Roosevelt. Like Roosevelt, Plant also had a love of horses. In constructing his estate he built a carriage house and stable for ten horses and cut 30 miles of carriage roads through the forest for private driving. Mountain fields provided summer pastures and a golf course.

Teddy Roosevelt, whom Plant had both admired and supported was a regular visitor to Lucknow. Some sources even attribute at least some of the bad financial advice that led to Plant's downfall to quiet investment advice from his trusted friend Roosevelt. In any case the investments Plant made including a large investment in Russian Bonds just prior to the Russian Revolution and sugar, prior to a collapse of the sugar market after World War I, would lead to his financial ruin.

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After this series of failed investments, Plant attempted, from the mid-1920s through the era of the Great Depression, to sell the mountaintop estate.  However, no buyer was found, and the Plant's continued to live at Lucknow until Tom Plant’s death.

Thomas Plant died broke, in 1941, just before creditors auctioned off everything he owned. It is said that a collection had to be taken among neighbors and friends to simply pay his burial expenses.

Daring Adventure Poster            Helen Keller Quote

Flame of Love – The Ruth Colbath Story

Legends and Lore

The Colbath House

Flame of Love – The Ruth Colbath Story

by Theresa Ludwick

There is no human experience that can hold a candle to love. Hearts are enslaved by it, thrones are abdicated for it, and without it, poets would have nothing to say. In the Bible’s Song of Solomon, love is described as “stronger than death.” Yes, love burns. Just ask (if you could) the late Ruth Colbath of Passaconaway, New Hampshire, in whose case love burned for 39 years in the form of a light kept lit each night after her husband left home and failed to return.   

Ruth Priscilla Colbath was one of five daughters born to Amzi and Eliza Russell who, in 1831, purchased five 100-acre lots in the town of Passaconaway. The Russell clan were true original pioneers of New Hampshire’s north country, living off the land and what they could gain from their sawmill and store.

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Ruth met and married Thomas Alden Colbath and together they farmed the land. When Colbath left his wife, she was 41 years of age. No children are recorded as having been born to the couple.

   

When Ruth’s father, Amzi, died in 1877, much of the land was sold to pay off the mortgage and back taxes, but the original home and some acreage remained in the family. In 1887, Ruth’s elderly mother transferred ownership of the farm and land to Ruth and Thomas and the three of them resided there together.

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            One might wonder at the motivation which led Thomas Colbath to leave the farm one day in 1891. Was his mother-in-law a nag? Was life on the farm a difficult drudgery? Was his wife ugly? Whatever the reason, Colbath said to Ruth, “I’ll be back in a little while,” and left, not to return in his wife’s lifetime.

             True to love’s form, Ruth is said to have left a light on for her husband in hopes of his return. For 39 years, she waited, in the meantime caring for her mother, running the farm and becoming the first postmistress of the Passaconaway Post Office, a position she held from 1891 to 1906. In 1905, Mother Eliza passed away, and Ruth kept up her lonely vigil, struggling to get along as best she could. 

            Finally, in 1930 at the age of 80, Ruth Priscilla Colbath’s life and light were extinguished. She never saw her dear Thomas again, never bore his children, and never got the chance to cuss him out for leaving. Surprisingly, however, Colbath did return three years after her death (knowingly or unknowingly) only to find an empty house and land that had been divided and bequeathed to four of Ruth’s cousins.

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            Thomas Colbath gave no rational explanation for his departure 42 years earlier. He claimed to have remained in the Passaconaway Valley for about a year, and then begun to wander farther away. With the passage of time, ashamed and embarrassed, he could not bring himself to go back to his wife. His return in 1933 was as mysterious as his departure and, after a little while, he left again for parts unknown.

            Ruth Priscilla Colbath was buried in the village cemetery along with the rest of her family, not far from the house. Did Thomas ever visit her grave? Did he ever kneel beside it and speak penitently to his faithful, wounded wife? Was he ever sorry that he abandoned so true a partner and so potential a love? Lastly, did he ever consider the cost, in kerosene, of her devotion? Let’s hope so, the rat.

(The Russell-Colbath House is located on the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountains and is a registered historical site. Admission is free, though donations for its upkeep are accepted and appreciated.). 

Ed's note: Provided by Heart of New Hampshire magazine and published here to assure that the work not be lost. 

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Sylvester Marsh - Inventor, Innovator, Engineer and Creator of the Cog Railway

Legends & Lore of the White Mountains
Sylvester Marsh - Inventor, Innovator, Engineer and Creator of the Cog Railway

Sylvester Marsh was born in Campton, New Hampshire, in 1803;  In 1826 he established himself as a provision-dealer in Boston, and later was engaged in Ashtabula, Ohio, in supplying Boston and New York with beef and pork.
In 1833 he moved to Chicago and established a similar business which folded in 1837, the result of a nation wide financial. But his time in Chicago was far from wasted. His business acumen increased substantially and his involvement in the community firmly established him as a founder of that great city.

Picking up his life again he began a career in the grain business, and acquired a substantial fortune.

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Marshes understanding of the power of steam would not only lead to his most notable New Hampshire achievement but would also play a role in many other aspects of his reputation for being an innovator. He is credited as the "originator" of the meat-packing industry and he invented many appliances that were incidental to its success, especially those utilizing steam as a source of power. He invented the dried-meal process, and "Marsh's caloric dried meal" is still an article of commerce.

In 1864 he settled in Littleton, New Hampshire, and after 1879 made Concord, New Hampshire, his residence.

While climbing Mount Washington in 1852 he lost his way. As a result of this misadventure he conceived the idea of building a railroad to its summit, believing that such an enterprise could be made profitable. In 1858 he obtained a charter for the road but the Civil War delayed his dream until 1866.

The construction of such a railroad was regarded as impossible, and he became known as " Crazy Marsh"; the legislature, in granting him a charter, further expressed their willingness to grant a "charter to the moon" if he wished.

Mount Washington Hotel                   Cards and Posters                Fine Art Prints

Marsh persisted in building the railroad, relying largely on his own finances as few were willing to risk money on the project.

Part of the reason that financiers were reluctant to aid in the construction was their understanding that a traditional railroad would not be able to scale terrain this steep. But Marsh had something else entirely in mind and invented a special locomotive and "cog-rails". He even invented special brakes for the train. The cog-rail consists of two pieces of wrought-iron, parallel to each other and connected by strong pins. The teeth of the driving wheel of the engine fit into the spaces of these bolts, and, as it revolves, the engine climbs or descends, resting on the outer rails. For stopping the trains and controlling their descent, both friction and atmospheric brakes were employed. 

The railroad was formally opened to the point known as Jacob's Ladder in August of 1868. It was completed in its entirety in July 1869 ascending more than 3,600 feet over a course of 2.81 miles. In that same year President Ulysses S. Grant made the trip to the summit. Alas it seems that there is no record of whether he was accompanied by any of those legislators who had openly laughed at Marsh ten years earlier.

New Hampshire Cards and Poster

The engines weighed about six and a half tons, and were rated at fifty horse-power, but by their gearing Marsh made a trade off of speed for power choosing to have the trains maximum speed about 2 MPH in exchange for the reliability of their power.

Total cost of construction was $139,000.

Sylvester Marsh died in Concord, New Hampshire, 30 December, 1884 but his legend lives on as one of New Hampshires great dreamers who endured the  scorn of critics and created a lasting legacy of innovation and achievement.

Legends and Lore of the Saco River

Legends and Lore of the Saco River

By Theresa Ludwick

Time is like a river: always passing, never still. So, in a way, stepping into a river can

be like stepping into time. Now, with this line of thinking, imagine if one could reverse the course of a river. Would it not equate to the turning back of time? Humor this author if you will, and let us do just that, and not just with any river, but with the mighty Saco River of New Hampshire and (grudgingly) Maine.

           Born in northeastern New Hampshire, the Saco River is the child of Saco Lake in the White Mountains’ Crawford Notch. Several major tributaries (including the swift and cold) Swift and Cold Rivers, contribute to the growth of this wild child as it runs south-southwest for 134 miles, through the towns of Bartlett and Conway, New Hampshire. The Saco River then leaves the granite state for York County, Maine, where it passes between the towns of Saco and Biddeford on its way to its ultimate destiny, the Atlantic Ocean.

           See the river flowing upstream now, several hundred years to another birthplace: that of legends, for the surging life-force of a river such as the Saco cannot help but give rise to such things. The following legend is just one of many stories of Gluscabe, whom New England’s Abenakis considered the creator of all things.

Gluscabe and the Mighty Magicians

Gluscabe had been the friend, when he was young, of a family of powerful magical giants. As the years passed, rumors abounded that this family of giants was evil, killing and eating people indiscriminately. Now Gluscabe, who was himself a magician, set out to find the truth. Disguising himself, he went among the family of giants found along the Saco River between Mt. Kearsarge and Cathedral Rocks, near today’s “Dianna’s Bath.”

Suspicious of him, the family tested Gluscabe severely, aiming to destroy him. Yet with each attempt, Gluscabe overpowered them, until finally, he stamped his feet on the sandy shore of the Saco River and water came gushing down from the mountains, carrying the family downstream. Gluscabe sang a magic song and the evil magician/giants became fish and were washed away to sea. As the legend goes, these bad guys were wearing wampum collars that “may still be seen today.”

In my research, I discovered that the Collared (sometimes called the Necklaced) Carpet Shark is indigenous to Atlantic waters. Hmm…

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Squando’s Curse

Research on this next legend turned up various versions of what prompted a New England Native American chief to put a curse on the Saco River. In one version, his daughter was kidnapped by white men. In another, he had been friends with the white men who caused his infant son’s death. In still another, the deed was done by sailors, who killed both his wife and his son. Perhaps it doesn’t really matter which version is embraced, as death occurred in every case.

Chief Squando was a family man until the fateful day he lost his family – namely, his wife and son. It is said that the family lived along the Saco River, near Saco Island in Maine. The wife of Chief Squando was paddling along the river with her infant son one day, when several feisty sailors came exploring up the river. Spying Squando’s wife canoeing with her child, the sailors began to torment her. Wondering if it was true that Native American children were natural swimmers from birth, they snatched the baby from his mother’s arms and tossed him into the river.

Needless to say, the child sank. Diving in after her son, Squando’s wife also perished. Grief-stricken, Squando turned against the white men that day with a curse. From then on, he claimed, the Saco River would take the lives of three white men every year.

It is said that this story did not begin to surface until about 100 years or so after the supposed incident. Some think it the wild conjecture of a publicity seeker. It is true, however, that in both New Hampshire and Maine, while on its long, meandering journey to the sea, the Saco River claims lives every year.

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The Rotten Squatter

Though not a legend than a ghost story, this last story is repeated because of its association with the Saco River and Saco Bay in Maine.

One night, in the early 1890s on Wood Island, where the Saco River empties into Saco Bay, a drunken young squatter who lived on the island returned from a night of carousal on the mainland. In his stupor, he was carelessly wielding his rifle. Confronted by another Wood Island resident, a lobsterman and part-time special policeman, the drunkard shot and killed him.

Afterward, the young man staggered to the island lighthouse, where the keeper advised him to turn himself in. Now distraught, the killer went back to his shack on the western part of the island and did himself in. People insist that the ghost of the murdered lobsterman is still on the island, and is responsible for many strange happenings that have occurred there over the years. It is thought by some that he is looking for the rotter that took his life near the water, not knowing he’s a goner. He really oughter - be informed, that is.  

Ed's note: Provided by Heart of New Hampshire magazine and published here to assure that the work not be lost.
             

Robert Rogers – Frontier Hero – White Devil

Legends & Lore: Robert Rogers – Frontier Hero – White Devil

Robert Rogers, or Rodgers (7 November 1731 – 18 May 1795), was a New Hampshire resident and colonial frontiersman. Born in November of 1781 in Methuen, Mass, his family soon moved north to what is now New Hampshire settling in a town Roger's refers to in his writing as Mountalona and today encompassing the towns of Dunbarton and Bow.

His service to the people of New England, particularly in the war known in the colonies as the French & Indian War (in Europe the Seven Years War) is well documented and a study in the fame and controversy that surrounded this remarkable man. Many military historians attribute the seeds of the American Revolution to the ideology, tactics and strategies of the famed Roger's Rangers, started under his leadership. Indeed, one of his favored rangers was John Stark who would later set aside his "Ranger temperament" to become a General in the Colonial Army and utter the famed phrase "Live Free or Die". 

Legend has it - though no documented evidence exists - that, after a brief stint in England where he was feted as a British hero of the frontier, Rogers returned to America and offered his services to George Washington who turned him down for fear that he was a loyalist spy. Rogers in spite joined the British and fought as a loyalist.

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We will, likely, never know if Washington was right about Rogers and the legend may, in fact, be nothing more than revisionist history fostered by the likes of the peripatetic historian Francis Parkman  who  nearly one hundred years after Rogers day, set his sights on rehabilitating Rogers in the eyes of a public that remembered only his final betrayal in his service to the army of King George.

Yet, the legend of Washington's actions - true or not - and certainly the work of Parkman, may contain the seeds of Roger's historic rehabilitation. After all, today Rogers is revered as the father of the Rangers and the Green Berets, while his fellow loyalist Benedict Arnold's name has become synonymous with treachery and betrayal.

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Lest we fall into the Parkman trap of romanticizing the frontiersman, it should be pointed out that Native American’s of the time – with the exception of a few sub-groupings of Algonquin and Iroquois who sometimes fought beside him or served as scouts – referred to him as Wobomagonda, translated to “White Devil” because Rogers and his Rangers could be every bit as treacherous and vicious as any of their rivals - Native or European.

The truth about Rogers probably lays somewhere in between. The Rangers may have been pitted by history against the native indigenous people – but they drew much of their strategies, dress and temperament from the very same people and many historic documents evidence their admiration of their foes.

After the Revolution Rogers returned to England where he died unappreciated and impoverished in London - far from his family and the woods and mountains of his native New England that he loved so much.

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