Schussing A Conundrum

Just Where is the Birthplace of Skiing in America?

By Theresa Ludwick

My laptop was firmly in place. I lowered my glasses and gripped my keyboard with the readiness of an Olympian. Before me, clean, pristine whiteness waited for the swish of words as I began my article, to be entitled, The Birthplace of Skiing in New Hampshire. I breathed deeply in preparation of the plunge, my body leaning forward, and at just the right moment, I pushed myself off, schussing down the page in a straightforward line.

Suddenly, I was confronted by one obstacle after another in rapid succession as my course forced me to slalom. I leaned toward the right, passing a flag that said, “North Conway.” I leaned toward the left and “Jackson” came into view. Left again and I read “Hanover.” Right: “Berlin.” Before I reached the bottom, I was on my behind, clinging to my laptop, my fingers splayed over the keyboard helter-skelter, my glasses askew. I rose lamely to my feet and gazed back at the crest of the hill, then settled gingerly on the Delete button, dangling my feet all the way back to the top.

When the question is asked, “Where is the birthplace of skiing in New Hampshire?” a number of respondents raise up proud cries of “Here!” Foremost among them are the aforementioned North Conway, Jackson, Hanover, and Berlin, and indeed, each place has its ski poles firmly planted in the permafrost of New Hampshire skiing lore. Even so, to definitively point to one location as the “birthing room” so to speak, of New Hampshire skiing, is like pointing to where the first snowflake of ski season falls.

It is much easier (and the route this author has chosen) to consider Mt. Washington Valley, overall, as a nursery of sorts to the pastime that has garnered the distinction as New Hampshire’s official sport. Each area contributed to the state’s early schussing movement and, in its own way, was unique and innovative. Their contributions are extensive, and amount to way more than a hill of beans (make that snow).

Long before businessmen in suits and ties got their fingers in the New Hampshire ski resort pie, Scandinavian immigrants in warm woolen layers were playing and competing against one another on these utilitarian apparatuses originally intended for transportation over snow (the oldest ski in existence dates to 2500 BC, pulled out of a peat bog in Sweden). These workers began arriving in Berlin in the 1840s to build the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad. When the logging industry took off there, many chose to stay.

By 1882, the now called Nansen Ski Club had been formed (though unsubstantiated claims put the date 10 years earlier), making Berlin home to the oldest ski club in the country. The club’s name honors Fridtjof Nansen, a nineteenth-century Norwegian Arctic explorer and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Club members took part in cross-country and ski-jumping activities in Norway Village and later at Paine’s Meadow, where jumpers were competing at Berlin’s annual Winter Carnival as early as 1906. Numerous records were set there in the early years of the sport. In 1922, the Nansen club joined with several other clubs to form the Eastern Ski Association.

In 1910, the Dartmouth Outing Club was established in Hanover by a Dartmouth College student named Fred Harris. While today, the DOC is an umbrella organization for the school’s year-round sports, it was originally founded to encourage competitive skiing and snowshoeing. Inspired, other colleges started forming their own ski clubs and intercollegiate competitions soon followed.

The DOC sponsored its first winter carnival in 1911, and has not missed a year since 1918, when a coal shortage decreed its cancellation. In 1935, the DOC introduced the first “J-bar” cable lift to the skiing world.

Jackson claims the distinction of being the first official “ski area” in the state. Originally called Moody Farm, the humble ski lodge now known as the Whitney Inn has been in operation since 1935. To many, it is considered the home sweet home of New Hampshire’s ski resorts. In 1948, the skiing hill was extended and christened, “Black Mountain.” It was here that Carroll Reed, a ski fan and member of the Boston-based White Mountain Ski Runners, conceived and established the Eastern Slope Ski School, which opened in the winter of 1936 (the first US ski school, interestingly, was established by a woman – Katherine Peckett – in 1929 in Franconia). Reed imported ski instructor Benno Rybizka from Hannes Schneider’s St. Anton Ski School in Austria.

The country’s first overhead T-bar cable lift was installed at Black Mountain in 1935, designed by George Morton who later (1938) invented and installed the Skimobile at Mt. Cranmore in North Conway. Two years later, the rope tows were exchanged for shovel handles, making the trip to the summit easier. In 1957, Black Mountain was the first to offer skiers fabricated snow through use of a snowmaking system. In comparison to today’s multi-million dollar resort/recreation establishments, Black Mountain holds its own as a rustic, inviting ski lodge and large slice of New Hampshire skiing history.

In 1939, after moving his ski school to North Conway, Reed imported another Austrian (this time Hannes Schneider himself) to head up the school at Mt. Cranmore. Schneider and his family left Austria after the country was taken over by Nazi Germany and made his home in the North Country, devoting himself to the school and improvement of skiing conditions on Cranmore. In fact, it was Schneider who introduced the idea of “groomed” ski slopes to the area. The year before Schneider arrived, George Morton’s Skimobile was mounted up the side of Mt. Cranmore. This special railway, pulled by strong metal ropes, was a new way to transport skiers to the summit, and was only the second of its kind in the US.

The ever-resourceful Carroll Reed opened his second ski shop (the first was in Jackson) and, with the advent of the ski trains back in 1932, North Conway eventually became the new center of the Mt. Washington Valley ski industry.

Numerous innovations and firsts occurred throughout New Hampshire in the youth of American skiing. For an extensive list of these and other important historical ski dates, check out www.skiinghistory.org/historicdates.

Ed’s Note: We are most grateful to Jeff Leich, Director of the NE Ski Museum in Franconia, NH for helping us to vet the facts in this article and for providing us with these truly memorable photos. If you have never had the chance to see the Ski Museum it is well worth the trip.

The Chapel at Wonalancet

The chapel at Wonalancet is one of the most photographed scenes in the US. Wonalancet was the son of Chief Passaconaway, he was a Sachem of the Penacook tribe (a revered religious figure). After the death of his father, he served as the Chief of the Penacook until his own death in 1697. The townshhip of Wonalancet is a part of the town of Tamworth. The name Wonalancet translates into "Pleasant breathing". 

* Please note, because many of the native peoples did not have written languages, including the Penacook, the spelling of various names sometimes varies because the spelling of their written names were interpreted by white settlers or travelers through the region. Over time, accepted spellings and pronunciations have come to be accepted but may be found in other forms. For example: Wannalancit is the name of an office building in Lowell, Massachusetts, which was an important fishing ground for the Pennacook, it is virtually certain that the name was derived from the same source but the spelling obviously varies.

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The Willeys and the Willey House

The Willeys and the Willey House
Ben George

When my family moved to Bartlett, NH from Oregon in 1946, I had to learn some new words and phrases – in addition to deciphering New England accents. One phrase was "that gives me the willies". I eventually understood from my young friends that the meaning of "the willies" could range from "creepy feeling" to "really scary feeling". Regardless of the intensity of the feeling, it carried a sense of foreboding and suspense.

Clouds over Mt Crawford                         Cards                         Fine Art Prints

Samuel Willey Jr. and Polly Lovejoy grew up in Conway, where their parents were early settlers of the town. He was born in 1788, she in 1791. They married in 1812 and purchased a farm in Lower Bartlett on the West Side Road near Humphrey Ledge. (The property is currently referred to as the Lady Blanche House.) After thirteen years on the farm and five children, they decided to try the inn-keeping business in Crawford Notch. They bought the Notch House, located 2 miles below the Notch Gate. The road through the Notch was opened around 1785 then upgraded to a turnpike (toll road) in 1804 by investors in Portland, ME.

The Notch House, built in 1793, became The Willey House Inn and Tavern in October 1825. That gave Notch travelers a choice of three inns. Able Crawford's Mount Crawford House was 6 miles south of the Willey House and Ethan Crawford's inn was located 8 miles north of the Willey House. The Willey House was a two story house, which Samuel enlarged, with stables and a barn. A traveler described the Notch in 1793 as follows – "The Notch of the White Mountains …is a very narrow defile extending two miles in length between two huge cliffs, apparently rent asunder by some vast convulsion of nature. The entrance to the chasm (from the north) is formed by two huge rocks standing perpendicular twenty two feet apart." The Willey House sat on a meadow, at the foot of one of the "huge cliffs" (later named Mt. Willey), on the west side of the Saco River where the Notch opens to a narrow valley. At that time, the valley was full of sugar maples which provided beautiful fall color and maple syrup.

Farmers from northern New Hampshire and Vermont passed the Willey House on the way to Portland Maine, sometimes as many as 75 horse drawn pungs in caravan. However, these were not the potential customers that the Willeys wanted to shelter and feed. They wanted tourists from Boston, New York and other cities, who were seduced by the artists of the Hudson River School and the travel stories of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and James. They wished for tourists who came to see the pristine, natural beauty of the White Mountains.

In the summer of 1826, the White Mountains suffered a severe drought. Thin mountain soils dried deep to powder and gravel. As the sun was disappearing over Mt. Webster on the evening of August 27, dry leaves began to rustle and the Willey's wheat field chattered. A stiff, cool breeze replaced the heat and humidity of the day. By midnight, the breeze had become an unusual gale force wind, shrieking through the Notch announcing the coming of a storm. By 4:00 AM Monday morning August 28, a steady, heavy rain was heard on the roof of the Willey House which continued all day, climaxing at 11:00 PM with a tremendous cloudburst. Soon after, mountain sides began to rumble and move. By midnight, clouds were replaced by stars in the clear sky, but the rumble of slides and the trembling of the land continued.

The next morning, Ethan Crawford, looking south from Mt. Willard, saw that the Saco River had become a lake of some 200 acres. He later wrote that his father's farm and sawmill, 6 miles below the Willey House, was largely destroyed by the flood. Able Crawford lost 28 sheep, his grain harvest was swept away and a twenty two inch high water mark was left on the Mt. Crawford House. Indeed, many bridges from Crawford Notch to Conway were swept away and many farms were flooded. In the Notch, slides destroyed much of the turnpike and changed the course of the river. Deep gouges and bare rock face adorned the mountainsides, where trees, soil and stone had been stripped away. A merchant named Barker traveled the next day through the Notch to the Willey House. It took him all day to go over and around 6 miles of rubble. He found the Willey House still standing and dry, but deserted. After spending Tuesday night there, he proceeded to Bartlett Wednesday morning and passed along the mysterious news about the Willey family and the general devastation of the Notch land.

A search party was organized in Bartlett, and reached the Willey House Thursday morning, August 31. They also found the house deserted, but Edward Melcher, a member of the party, wrote, "The track of the slide reached to within three feet of the house and carried away one corner of the barn". Amazingly, the house had survived because a large granite outcropping above the house had temporarily divided the slide into two streams, which reunited below the house. A big, partially submerged, rock near the corner of the house blocked the descent of a spruce tree at the front of the slide causing debris to pile up to the roof of the house. The barn wreckage killed two horses and trapped a yoke of oxen. Several sheep and cows had made their way to a small open space in front of the house, which faced the rubble strewn valley floor. The party claimed that the length of the slide was nearly 3 miles to the top of the mountain. Trees, roots, stone and gravel covered their small wheat field, just north of the Willey House.

Thomas Hart and Stephen Willey (Samuel's brother) found Mrs. Willey and David Allen, one of two hired men from Bartlett, by digging into the debris above the house. Their bodies were terribly mangled and battered, lying under shattered trees and stones. Later that day, Samuel's body was found submerged in the river and pinned down by a barn beam. On Sunday, Eliza, age 13 and Sally, three years old, were found. Eliza was under water, with no bruises, presumably drowned. Sally was underneath three feet of rubble below the house, but above the river. The other hired man, David Nickerson, age 21, was finally found on Tuesday. Three Willey children, Jeremiah, eleven; Martha, ten; and Elbridge, seven – were never found.

David Allen was buried in the Bartlett cemetery with a rough stone marker inscribed – "D. Allen Killed at Willey Slide 1826". The Willeys were buried in the family cemetery in North Conway, with a single gravestone listing all names and ages of family members. The inscription reads: "To the memory of the family which was at once destroyed by a slide from the White Mountains on the night of 28 August, 1826". However, their public memorial was the undamaged Willey House. Although it changed ownership several times, the Willey House continued to serve tourists. Writers of the era wrote poetry and stories imagining the creepy, agitated, frantic feelings of the Willeys as they listened to the mountain slide coming to them, dramatizing their nightmarish tragedy. Some wrote of the beauty of nature becoming a deadly force, some wrote romantic fictional stories of the aftermath.

The Willey House was one of the most popular attractions in the White Mountains until 1899. That year, after withstanding wind, rain and mountain slides, tragedy finally captured the 106 year old Willey House, when it was consumed by fire.

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Littleton Profile Part IV Caring for Seniors

Part four of a five part series
Parts [I] [II] [III] [IV] [V]


A Covered Footbridge connects the center of town with Littleton's Senior Center

Caring for Seniors

In building a sense of community Littleton has kept an eye on both its workforce and those who are no longer in the workforce. A beautiful new Senior Center is joined to Main Street by a handicapped accessible covered walking bridge across the Ammonoosuc River, allowing for the movement of people between Main Street and the Senior Center. The bridge is a centerpiece of a larger effort called “Riverwalk” intended to connect the Main Street with the Ammonoosuc River. Through an aggressive effort to secure grants Littleton has pumped more than 1.4 million dollars into this effort. Highlighting the economic efficacy of such investments is the new Riverglen Retirement Complex a beautiful privately owned assisted-living community. One could hardly imagine a better-situated spot for mom or dad when they are no longer capable of living alone. Senior transportation also provides the opportunity to go further a-field.
A new thirty million dollar hospital is also a great source of pride for the community and provides quality healthcare as well as employment opportunities.

Affordable Housing for the Workforce
Private/Public Partnerships and collaboration between nonprofit organizations and businesses also have played an important role in the towns success. In 1991, David Wood, a community activist and social entrepreneur, spearheaded the development of an affordable housing organization called AHEAD (Affordable Housing, Education and Development). In its thirteen years of existence AHEAD has developed or acquired more than 250 units of housing to maintain a stock of affordable housing within the area. Among these is Ammonoosuc Green, a 17 unit building that has gone from eyesore to centerpiece in the development of Littleton’s social capital. Don Jutton, formerly town manager of Littleton and a key player in the Littleton renaissance says of AHEAD, “I really like the way AHEAD provides a hand up, not a handout, to families in need." AHEAD has recently begun to develop more than 100,000 square feet of space in the old Littleton Hospital building employing an entrepreneurial mixture of commercial space and affordable housing to finance its future. Wood says there is still plenty of commercial space for new businesses but they already have 13,000 feet of commercial space rented and are preparing to move forward on a seventeen unit affordable housing project for low income elderly.

Parts [I] [II] [III] [IV] [V]

Littleton Part V A Committment to Learning

Parts [I] [II] [III] [IV] [V]

Part five of a five part series

The Littleton Area Learning Center

In the early 90’s, community leaders, led by Paul McGoldrick, also a Harvard Business School Graduate, who assumed the Chair of LIDC from King Covey in 1986, began to look at the issue of continuing education. This came partly as a result of the advocacy of local insurance agent Bruce Hadlock - who had played an ongoing role in the economic development of Littleton. At the time, post secondary opportunities as well as professional development training for local residents meant driving at least an hour or more. McGoldrick saw an opportunity and he pressed others into action. Paul Denton, President of the Northern Community Investment Corporation and members of the LIDC joined together to craft a proposal that turned an unused building into the Littleton Learning Center. Bringing together the Community Technical College, The University of New Hampshire College for Life Long Learning, and state and local agencies they developed a plan to provide opportunities for improving job skills for existing businesses, providing needed educational opportunities synchronized with local job opportunities and space for specialty classes and continuing education seminars. Today the 30,000 square foot Littleton Area Learning Center is a high tech educational resource center housing the College for Life Long Learning, The NH Community Technical College, The Gregg Public Safety Academy, New Hampshire Works, the North Country Health Consortium, the Northern NH Area Health Education Center and a Teacher Center serving as a professional development resource for teachers from schools in Littleton and the surrounding communities.

The Littleton Area Learning Center proved its worth thirteen days after September 11, 2001, when Hitchner Manufacturing announced that they intended to leave Littleton. Led by Town Manager Don Jutton a “SWAT” team of citizens, including Paul McGoldrick, Brien War, John Simpson, of the US Small Business Development Center, and representatives from the Learning Center’s various resources, swung into action. They met with leaders of the company and determined that the principle issues evolved around the need to increase productivity and enhance their workforce. Together they devised a training program that would meet the company’s needs and on Christmas Eve of 2001 Hitchner announced that they would be remaining in Littleton.

Littleton has come a long way. In 2003 Littleton was named a “Great American Main Street” by Main Street USA Inc. a national nonprofit that works to assist communities with the main street development efforts. Long time resident Bob Copenhaver originally got Littleton into the Main Steet program but years of hardwork by many citizens and an investment of more than 195,000 raised from the town and its businesses, culminated in the award of which they are exceedingly proud.
A National Model

Developing this vision and formula for success was not easy and for Littleton it was an evolutionary process, but being on the vanguard usually is. Today, aside from the success of the industrial park, Littleton has an unemployment rate of 2.0%. It has among the lowest electric rates in all of New England; Its tax base in only ten years has nearly tripled and it has become a national model for small community economic development.

Part of being a true model, however, means that your work is NEVER done. Littleton is not resting on its laurels. It is looking to the future and planning. Right now they are engaged in discussions with Lisbon and Bethlehem about a three-town industrial park, called the “Tri-Town Initiative”; they are also in the Initial stages of the development of the Littleton Arts Museum, highlighting White Mountain Art and Littleton’s historic dominance in the Stereoscopic art industry. Ron Murro, who developed another centerpiece for town, The Grist Mill, is one of twelve citizens working to make it the dream of a museum a reality.
It has not been an easy process, but one thing is clear: It works . . . and it is infectious. A strong sense of community feeds on itself. Littleton seems to have found the formula: Communication, cooperation and investment in both economic infrastructure and people have brought about a town that sparkles in every sense of the word.

To learn more about Littleton visit their Website www.littleton.nh.us
Parts [I] [II] [III] [IV] [V]