Ghost towns

Howdy!

Can any of you history buffs out there give me info, websites, or the names of books pertaining to old logging towns ect. in NH. I played around with Google and came up with very little.


Thanks.

This Book has quite a bit of info. I bet if you encourage people to share some knowledge of these towns here in addition to book rec'ds you'll get even more.

-Dr. Wu

I second Wu's book recommendation. Fascinating read, and gives you a great perspective on how some trails were built. Where to look for interesting archeological finds. It also makes one think about the true 'dangers' of logging and the industry.

dug said:

I second Wu's book recommendation. Fascinating read, and gives you a great perspective on how some trails were built. Where to look for interesting archeological finds. It also makes one think about the true 'dangers' of logging and the industry.

Click to expand...

You mention "interesting archeological finds", I hope that no one is out collecting. Leaving things as we find them is important so that the next person gets the same experience that you do. Also, its illegal on Federal Land to take things, and especially archeological relics, etc.

Go ahead and let me have it for preaching.

bb27. Thanks for the reminder. There are postersin ,many of the huts in the whites stating this law. They are protected sites. I was in the Pemi wilderness two weeks ago and found an ox show, nuts and bolts, a shovel (no handle of course) sleigh runners. These are the things that make the area a special place.

bb27 said:

You mention "interesting archeological finds", I hope that no one is out collecting. Leaving things as we find them is important so that the next person gets the same experience that you do. Also, its illegal on Federal Land to take things, and especially archeological relics, etc.

Go ahead and let me have it for preaching.

Click to expand...

What you are posting it the Law and not your personal opinion. You are absolutely correct in what you are saying.

I think the relics of the logging past are in addition an important reminder that 80 years ago the mountains were far different than how we know them today.

-Dr. Wu

I wholeheartedly agree with leaving artifacts where they are meant to be, I think interesting finds give a new perspective to history of a place and adds to the ambience. They are exciting discoveries when they are found but by no means take them...

Back to ghost towns: Livermore is one. I have never personally been there but I was told that it was the only officially disbanded town in New Hampshire. There is bound to be some interesting sights, let alone spoooooookiness , to be found there. It is off of Sawyer River Rd. which branches off of 302 about three miles before the entrance to Crawford Notch.

There are also some abandoned Lumber Camps along the Franconia Brook, Wilderness, and Thoreau Falls trails.

GorpBurp

The only real "ghost town" in NH in the sense of a full self-governing entity (= Town, which is different than villages) was Livermore, which was incorporated in July 1876 and disincorporated in August 1951. Both were by act of the NH legislature... in 1951 there wasn't anyone living there anymore. Some of this is in Fran Belcher's "Logging RR's" which was referenced above by Dr. Wu.

I know there are some other lost villages (I believe Monson Village in Milford/Amherst? and Landaff has something where a village disappeared, also most/all the logging camps on the old USGS maps & in Belcher's book) but these are just villages w/o any kind of a government. Livermore had an interesting history, again I think it was referenced in Belcher's book, basically there were "voting wars" between the handful of residents in the Saunders logging company vs. those in the Henry logging company who owned the western half of the town. (I'm not telling this right & really should find a proper reference. It's either in Belcher's book or George F. Morris' autobiography "Reminiscences of a Yankee Jurist", which Belcher quotes extensively, and is an excellent read in its own right, though out of print.) The last residents left sometime in the 1930's - 1940's after most of the town was acquired by the USFS, small pieces of it were (and I think at least one still is!) private property until recently (e.g. 1980-2000, there were some WMNF acquisitions in Livermore.)

I've never tried snooping around to see if there are still ruined buildings around, though I've heard they're there.

I've tried to get more info on Livermore, have found a few leads in the NH state archives & NH state library, but my interest in unincorporated townships has been at the bottom of my priority totem pole in recent years. If anyone finds anything interesting, please post (or PM me) ... please cite references if at all possible.

[ GorpBurp beat me to it with some of this. ]

In Maine there is Batchelder's Grant (the village of Hastings), probably of similar stature to Livermore in terms of population + infrastructure, though I'm not sure it was ever incorporated. Also mentioned in Belcher's Logging RR's as well as "Wild River Wilderness" by D B Wight.

(tangent unrelated to ghost towns: Centerville in southeastern Maine, near Machias, voted to disincorporate itself within the last year or two, I believe there are some other small Maine towns that have done likewise in the past few decades. Hale's Location in NH is unincorporated but the portion of it outside the WMNF is essentially a country-club community and has enough people now that Carroll County commissioners kind of want them to incorporate & pay for their own services.)

Try this
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cach...stices/livermores.html+samuel+livermore&hl=en

and http://seacoastnh.com/framers/livermore.html

William Bingham was also the 1st millionaire in the U.S. He owned one third of Maine in the last decade of the 18th century. He saved the lottery of land in what is now Washington County, Me. He bought up much land there and in Moosehead Lake Region. Mr. Bingham is also a charecter in my book AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL.

Zealand Village

There is another "ghost town" that hasn't been mentioned...Zealand Village. It was originally built by J.E. Henry when his first (before his Pemi operation)logging operation went through where present-day Zealand Rd. is. The town was built to house loggers and there are rumors abound that cellar holes still exist.

GorpBurp

ps Arghman, the bottom of your priority totem pole is very lofty because I didn't know half the stuf you said.

And then the women and children left...

If I recall correctly, many years ago after reading the book "The Road Through Sandwich Notch". There was a thriving settlement in there before the Civil War. Most of the townsmen joined the same Civil War Unit. (First NH Vols?) Tragically most of the men didn't return from the war. Desparate, their families abandoned the fields and cabins and moved elsewhere. Now all that is left is a sole remaining house, grown up fields, and many celler holes. There must be a few ghosts of soldiers wandering around looking for their loved ones.

Geeze, sorry. I always thought it was neat to see a wood stove 8 miles from the road. I didn't mean you should take it.....

This list might be of interest.

Thanks for all the responses. Lots of help.

The only "Ghost town" Ive ever been to is old Hill Village. The town was moved in the early 1900's when they built the dam in Franklin. There are posts that have been put to tell you what used to be there(church, hotels ect).

There used to be a lecture series on "Abandoned Places in New Hampshire" by a Plymouth State history professor (William Taylor?) who is now deceased although another professor continued it for awhile. In addition to the logging towns and villages moved for flood control there was at least one former mining village in his talk.

For abandoned towns located in the National Forest, the best place to start is often the local USFS District Ranger Station. They often have information.

Livermore is easy to find; the foundations are visible form Sawyer River Rd. Peeling, abandoned around the time of the Civil War, is in the Woodstock area and is more of a hike. And as mentioned, there are many, many, many smaller settlements. Normally they weren't their own incorporated towns, but were small villages with boarding houses, (small) schools, etc.

No info on Livermore, but I found a pretty interesting site.

Click below for a bit more info on old Hill village. If you decide to check this out, take the time to visit nearby Profile Falls. It's a short walk, but worth it.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nh/hill.html

It is not an old logging village, but Monson village in Milford was a fun visit. Info on how to get there is at:

http://www.oldnh.com/monsongt.html

There is a nice self guided tour of all the old cellar holes still there. It is obvious that some historical groups have put alot of effort into maintaining the history of the site, worth a visit.

Someone may have already listed this link, but here is a link to some NH ghost town sites:
http://www.oldnh.com/NHghosttowns.html

A professor I had for my "White Mountain Region" class took us on a field trip to the Waterville Valley area. We went up the Smarts Brook trail but branched off to the onto a couple snowmobile/X-country ski trails and took us to a couple cellar holes surrounded by clearings and old apple trees.

Things like this are pretty common in NH because farmers in the 1800s began to realize that farming in NH just wasn't worth it, too rocky, and moved on to VT or ME.

There were also a couple grave sites along one of the ski trails marked by surveyors flourescent tape, very cool. The dates on the stones were from the mid-1800s, and they were still clear enough to get a rub from them, as a couple students did. At one site there were at least 5 or 6 stones still standing. It's pretty interesting finding cellar holes, grave sites in the middle of the forest.