Lost Town of Livermore

[ChrisB]

The summer NH Chapter newsletter has a nice article about the lost town of Livermore. Interesting reading for you history buffs.

Also an article about the construction of Mad hut with some great donkey pics . Those poor critters could each haul two 2x8 roof rafters!

 

[peakbagger]

Livermore is best visited in winter, the underbrush obscures a lot of the development once a snowpack if formed its a lot easier to see the old building lots and foundations.

With respect to the burros, not sure if they still are active https://www.whitemountainjackass.org/ Doug Mayer was one of the folks behind it and I think his Run The Alps https://runthealps.com/ business takes precedence.

 

[JustJoe]

The audio slide show is pretty cool.
https://whitemountainhistory.org/Livermore.html

 

[Salty]

Probably already known by most folks:

I love this article with an interview with the Shackfords, who own the house there now, about the 2000 census showing 3 residents:
https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2017-0...happened-to-the-people-in-that-n-h-ghost-town

Another good article. Interestingly the map shows the Zealand RR going all the way to Ethan Pond, but I have yet to find any other corroborating evidence.
https://www.bartletthistory.org/bartletthistory/livermoreYankeePg1.html

The Bartlett history site about Livermore in general:
https://www.bartletthistory.org/bartletthistory/livermore.html

All the maps with the "new" borders of Livermore seem to keep forgetting this bit:
https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=44.1822,-71.52748&z=14&b=f16a

 

[JoshandBaron]

Probably already known by most folks:


Another good article. Interestingly the map shows the Zealand RR going all the way to Ethan Pond, but I have yet to find any other corroborating evidence.
https://www.bartletthistory.org/bartletthistory/livermoreYankeePg1.html

Howe's Pond was another name for Shoal Pond.

 

[Hillwalker]

I have been up to the Abandoned town of Peeling a few times just to wander around and explore. Has anything been written about that location. Also, if I recall correctly, there was once a town just down the hill from Franconia Notch, somewhere on the north side of the highway toward Twin Mtn.

 

[TEO]

Interestingly the map shows the Zealand RR going all the way to Ethan Pond, but I have yet to find any other corroborating evidence.
https://www.bartletthistory.org/bartletthistory/livermoreYankeePg1.html

Here is Bill Gove's map (p. 18) from his book J.E. Henry's Logging Railroads (1998).


On p. 21 Gove writes:

The eventual length of the road when it was extended through [Zealand] Notch, into the town of Livermore, and on to Ethan Pond (formerly Willey Pond) was about 11 miles, with another half-mile long branch to Shoal Pond.

 

[Salty]

Here is Bill Gove's map (p. 18) from his book J.E. Henry's Logging Railroads (1998).
View attachment 6857

On p. 21 Gove writes:

The eventual length of the road when it was extended through [Zealand] Notch, into the town of Livermore, and on to Ethan Pond (formerly Willey Pond) was about 11 miles, with another half-mile long branch to Shoal Pond.

I've got Gove's books (and others). How the heck did I miss that? (whacks self in head)

Thanks TEO.

 

[JoshandBaron]

Here is Bill Gove's map (p. 18) from his book J.E. Henry's Logging Railroads (1998).
View attachment 6857

On p. 21 Gove writes:

The eventual length of the road when it was extended through [Zealand] Notch, into the town of Livermore, and on to Ethan Pond (formerly Willey Pond) was about 11 miles, with another half-mile long branch to Shoal Pond.

Interestingly, the map in the Belcher book shows a line paralleling the main branch west of Whitewall Brook all the way to the confluence.

 

[Salty]

Interestingly, the map in the Belcher book shows a line paralleling the main branch west of Whitewall Brook all the way to the confluence.

I haven't recon'ed it yet, but I'm pretty sure that is indeed an RR bed in there.

 

[egilbe]

I haven't recon'ed it yet, but I'm pretty sure that is indeed an RR bed in there.

Doesn't the AT generally follow the railroad bed to Zealand falls? When I hiked that section, I was loving the gentle grades of the trail. It felt very much like a railroad bed.

 

[peakbagger]

I agree that at least a portion of the AT follows an old rail grade between Ethan Pond and Zealand falls. If I remember correctly its decidedly wet

 

[Salty]

Doesn't the AT generally follow the railroad bed to Zealand falls? When I hiked that section, I was loving the gentle grades of the trail. It felt very much like a railroad bed.

I keep wondering that as well, but that section just doesn't "feel" like a RR bed to me, and I know that's extremely subjective. Old AMC guides (which to be fair were written at least 20 years after the fact), always seem to mention when coming from the pond that it joins the RR grade a short ways from the Shoal Pond trail.

Zealand is a tough one because of its age. I do recall reading in Gove's book that Camp 21-A logged up near the sides of Willey, so I'm suspicious that they logged up that far before that.

 

[Salty]

1909 AMC Guide, pp. 151-2, available here: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=UJwSAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA152

"The next two miles , until the remains of the Zealand Notch lumber railroad are reached between the Notch and Shoal Pond , are steadily down hill through a barren , burned country , there being little live wood on which even to blaze the trail , though it is at all times made un mistakable by ample signs . Soon after crossing a branch of the N. Fork the railroad bed is reached and followed to the point where it formerly crossed the N. Fork on its way through Zealand Notch ."

 

[Salty]

Sorry, one more post, I had forgotten one of the most prescient passages on page 152: The trail from Thoreau Falls to the Junction is all the way in virgin forest , containing many fine old cedars and white pines , doubtless doomed to early destruction by the lumbermen .