White Mountains (New Hampshire)

White Mountains
Looking south on the Franconia Ridge Trail towards Mount Flume (left) and Mount Liberty (center)
Highest point
Peak	Mount Washington
Elevation	6,288 ft (1,917 m)
Coordinates	44°16′15″N 71°18′12.5″W / 44.27083°N 71.303472°W / 44.27083; -71.303472
Geography
Country	United States
States	New Hampshire and Maine
Region	New England
Range coordinates	44°16′N 71°19′W / 44.27°N 71.31°W / 44.27; -71.31Coordinates: 44°16′N 71°19′W / 44.27°N 71.31°W / 44.27; -71.31
Parent range	Appalachian Mountains

The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. They are part of the northern Appalachian Mountains and the most rugged mountains in New England. The range is heavily visited due to its proximity to Boston and, to a lesser extent, New York City and Montreal.

Most of the area is public land, including the White Mountain National Forest and a number of state parks. Its most famous mountain is 6,288-foot (1,917 m) Mount Washington, which is the highest peak in the Northeastern U.S. and which held the record for fastest surface wind gust (231 miles per hour (372 km/h), over 100 m/s, in 1934) in the world for 76 years. Mount Washington is part of a line of summits, the Presidential Range, that are named after U.S. presidents and other prominent Americans.

The White Mountains also include the Franconia Range, Sandwich Range, Carter-Moriah Range and Kinsman Range in New Hampshire, and the Mahoosuc Range straddling the border between it and Maine. In all, there are 48 peaks over 4,000 feet (1,200 m), known as the Four-thousand footers.

The Whites are known for a system of alpine huts for hikers operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The Appalachian Trail crosses the area from southwest to northeast.

Origin of name

It is not clear where the name "White Mountains" came from. There is no record of what Native Americans called the range, although pre-Colonial names for many individual peaks are known.^[1] The name and similar ones such as "White Hills" or "Wine Hills" are found in literature from Colonial times. According to tradition, the mountains were first sighted from shipboard off the coast near the Piscataqua estuary. The highest peaks would often be snow-capped, appearing white. An alternate theory is that the mica-laden granite of the summits looked white to observers. Another alternate theory according to mountain man Christopher Corr is that the name is due to the amount of birch trees seen throughout.

Geology and physiography

Map of the main regions of the northeast Appalachians.

The White Mountains are a physiographic section of the larger New England province, which in turn is part of the larger Appalachian physiographic division.^[2]

The magma intrusions forming the White Mountains today were created 124 to 100 million years ago as the North American Plate moved westward over the New England hotspot.

Widespread evidence of glaciation may be seen in the U-shaped form of various notches, or mountain passes. Glacial cirques form the heads of Tuckerman Ravine on Mt. Washington and King Ravine on Mt. Adams. Glacial striations are visible at numerous locations, including on the exposed rocks at the summit of Pine Mountain in Gorham.

Attractions

Tourists take in the Flume Gorge, part of Franconia Notch State Park in the White Mountains.

The Mount Washington Auto Road and the historic Mount Washington Cog Railway ascend the range's highest peak. Heavily visited Arethusa Falls, the second tallest waterfall in New Hampshire, lies on a southwest flank of Crawford Notch. The Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation on Cannon Mountain that resembled the craggy profile of a man's face, was a White Mountain landmark until it fell in May 2003. It remains the state symbol of New Hampshire. The range also includes a natural feature dubbed "The Basin", consisting of a granite bowl, 20 feet (6 m) in diameter, fed by a waterfall, worn smooth by the Pemigewasset River. The areas around The Basin are popular spots for swimming in the ice-cold mountain-fed water.

The range is crossed north–south by U.S. Route 3 and Interstate 93 through Franconia Notch and New Hampshire Route 16 through Pinkham Notch, and east–west by the Kancamagus Highway (part of New Hampshire Route 112) through Kancamagus Pass and U.S. Route 302 through Crawford Notch.

Maps

Map of the White Mountains, Franklin Leavitt, 1871

Some of the earliest maps of the White Mountains were produced as tourist maps and not topographical maps. One of the first two tourist maps of the mountains was that produced by Franklin Leavitt, a self-taught artist born near Lancaster, New Hampshire in 1824.^[3] Leavitt's hand-drawn map, today in the collection of Harvard University, is largely folk art, but does convey some of the region's features.^[4] Leavitt drew several versions of his map, beginning in 1852. The fourth version, printed in 1871, was printed at Boston and carried a retail price of one dollar.^[5] Other early maps of the region were drawn by H. Conant and by Harvard astronomer George Phillips Bond, who published the first topographical map of the region in 1853.^[6]

Art

Main article: White Mountain art

As the most ruggedly picturesque area in the northeast U.S., the White Mountains drew hundreds of painters during the 19th century. This group of artists is sometimes referred to as belonging to the "White Mountain school" of art. Others dispute the notion that these painters were a "school", since they did not all paint in the same style as, for example, those artists of the Hudson River School.

Peaks of the Franconia Range of the White Mountains as viewed from Loon Mountain resort after an October snowfall, looking to the north.

In literature and drama

Nathaniel Hawthorne chose the White Mountains as the setting for his short story, "The Great Carbuncle". Other White Mountain tales by Hawthorne include "The Ambitious Guest", "Sketches from Memory" and "The Great Stone Face". The White Mountain region also figures prominently in the writings of Louisa May Alcott, including the novel Eight Cousins and its sequel, Rose in Bloom.

In the final two episodes of Breaking Bad, Walter White hides out in the fictional Crawford County within the White Mountains. The county's name perhaps refers to the real-life Crawford Notch.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to White Mountains (New Hampshire).

4000-foot mountains of New England

Maine

Baxter State Park	Katahdin (Baxter) Katahdin (Hamlin) North Brother

High Peaks	Abraham Crocker Redington Saddleback Saddleback, The Horn South Crocker Spaulding Sugarloaf

Bigelow Range	Bigelow (Avery) Bigelow (West)

Eastern White Mountains	Old Speck

New Hampshire

Northern ranges	Cabot Waumbek

Carter-Moriah Range	Carter Dome Middle Carter Moriah South Carter Wildcat (A) Wildcat (D)

Presidential Range	Adams Eisenhower Isolation Jackson Jefferson Madison Monroe Pierce Washington

Crawford Notch area	Field Tom Willey

Twin Range	Bond Bond (West) Bondcliff Galehead Hale North Twin South Twin Zealand

Pemigewasset Wilderness	Carrigain Hancock (North) Hancock (South) Owl's Head

Sandwich Range	Osceola Osceola (East) Tripyramid (Middle) Tripyramid (North) Passaconaway Tecumseh Whiteface

Franconia Range	Flume Garfield Lafayette Liberty Lincoln

Western White Mountains	Cannon Kinsman (North) Kinsman (South) Moosilauke

Vermont

Green Mountains	Abraham Camel's Hump Ellen Killington Mansfield

State of New Hampshire

Concord (capital)

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Androscoggin River Watershed

Tributaries	Alder River Bear River Cathance River Chickwolnepy Stream Clear Stream Concord River Cupsuptic River Dead Cambridge River Dead Diamond River Dead River (ME) Dead River (NH) Dead River (Sabattus) East Branch Cupsuptic River East Branch Dead Diamond River East Branch Nezinscot River East Branch Pleasant River East Branch Swift River Ellis River First East Branch Magalloway River Kennebago River Little Androscoggin River Little Dead Diamond River Little East Branch Cupsuptic River Little Magalloway River Little River Magalloway River Middle Branch Dead Diamond River Middle Branch Little Magalloway River Mollidgewock Brook Moose Brook Moose River Muddy River Nezinscot River Peabody River Pleasant River Rangeley River Rapid River Rattle River Sabattus River Sanborn River Second East Branch Magalloway River South Branch Little Dead Diamond River South Branch Sunday River Sunday River Swift Cambridge River Swift Diamond River Swift River Third East Branch Magalloway River Webb River West Branch Dead Diamond River West Branch Ellis River West Branch Little Dead Diamond River West Branch Little Magalloway River West Branch Magalloway River West Branch Nezinscot River West Branch Peabody River West Branch Pleasant River West Branch Swift River Wild River

Lakes	Akers Pond Androscoggin Lake Lake Auburn Aziscohos Lake Echo Lake Greenough Pond Mooselookmeguntic Lake Parker Pond Pontook Reservoir Rangeley Lake Richardson Lakes Thompson Lake Success Pond Umbagog Lake Webb Lake

Towns	Albany Andover Auburn Berlin Bethel Bowdoin Brunswick Buckfield Byron Cambridge Canton Carthage Chesterville Dixfield Dummer Durham Errol Fayette Gilead Gorham Greene Greenwood Hanover Hartford Hebron Jay Leeds Lewiston Lisbon Livermore Livermore Falls Mechanic Falls Mexico Minot Monmouth Mount Vernon Newry Norway Otisfield Oxford Paris Peru Pittsburg Poland Randolph Rangeley Readfield Roxbury Rumford Sabattus Shelburne Stewartstown Sumner Topsham Turner Upton Vienna Wales Wayne Weld Wentworth's Location West Paris Woodstock

Landmarks	Brown Company Maine Central Railroad Old Speck Mountain Rumford Mill St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad White Mountains

Saco River Watershed

Tributaries	Bearcamp River Beech River Charles River Chocorua River Cold River Cold River (Bearcamp) Cutler River Dan Hole River Deer River Dry River East Branch Saco River East Branch Whiteface River East Fork East Branch Saco River Ellis River Kezar River Little Cold River Little Ossipee River Little River Little Saco River Lovell River Mad River Middle Branch Mad River Mill Brook New River Old Course Saco River Ossipee River Pequawket Brook Pine River Rocky Branch Sawyer River Shepards River South Branch Mad River South River Swift River Swift River (Bearcamp) Tenmile River West Branch West Branch Tenmile River Whiteface River Wonalancet River

Lakes	Lake Arrowhead Balch Pond Broad Bay Chocorua Lake Conway Lake Dan Hole Pond Echo Lake Lovewell Pond Moose Pond Ossipee Lake Pine River Pond Province Lake Silver Lake Skelton Dam

Towns	Acton Arundel Baldwin Bartlett Biddeford Bridgton Brownfield Buxton Chocorua Conway Cornish Dayton Denmark Eaton Effingham Freedom Fryeburg Hart's Location Hiram Hollis Limerick Limington Lovell Lyman Madison Newfield Ossipee Parsonsfield Porter Saco Sebago Shapleigh Standish Stoneham Stow Sweden Tamworth Tuftonboro Wakefield Waterboro Waterford

Landmarks	Crawford Notch Maine Central Railroad U.S. Route 302 White Mountains

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