Mt Washington Master Plan Hearing

[peakbagger]

https://indepthnh.org/2022/06/10/mount-washington-state-park-subject-of-summer-master-plan-hearings/

Interesting discussion about possible summit access restrictions.

 

[Tom Rankin]

The few times I have been there, (aside from winter), cars and trains accounted for the majority of the people present. I can't see how they could limit hiker traffic, given all the routes up the mountain.

 

[maineguy]

This is from the June 1957 issue of Appalachia. The article recounts the plan around 1911 to build a trolley to the summit of Mt Washington. It was to start at Fabyan's then head over to Jefferson Notch and climb Mt Jefferson via loops and tunnels! It would then head over to the hotel. The establishment of the Week's Act thankfully stopped this project.

 

[peakbagger]

There was also a plan to extend the carriage road south along along the ridge to Crawford Notch.

 

[skiguy]

View attachment 6841

This is from the June 1957 issue of Appalachia. The article recounts the plan around 1911 to build a trolley to the summit of Mt Washington. It was to start at Fabyan's then head over to Jefferson Notch and climb Mt Jefferson via loops and tunnels! It would then head over to the hotel. The establishment of the Week's Act thankfully stopped this project.

Most excellent image. I believe to have posted similar images here before. The publication I own is Copyrighted 1912.

 

[JustJoe]

https://indepthnh.org/2022/06/10/mount-washington-state-park-subject-of-summer-master-plan-hearings/

Interesting discussion about possible summit access restrictions.

There was a lot of discussion about restrictions but in the end, isn't this the bottom line?

"Based on the rights of the summit partners, there cannot be any limitations on the number of visitors in the park boundary. The only constraint on visitors is the life safety capacity for the Sherman Adams Building,” which holds 495 people on the main floor and 298 on the ground floor."

I know it's only 60.3 acres and looked for a boundary map. Found this on Wikipedia. Does this look right? And as mentioned, there's no way they could control the number of hikers from entering the park. Can only limit access to the Sherman Adams building as best I can tell.

 

[peakbagger]

My belief is that the state now owns and controls the "summit circle" in its entirety so just gray out everything in the circle. The rectangular area is also state owned. Note that does not mean various entities do not claim rights to being able to do things within the state land. During the attempt to extend and expand the cogs facilities within the summit circle 3 years ago, the planning board stopped the process until the actual owner, of the land, the State of NH signed off on the permit, which did not happen. During the recent presentation to the planning board for the new accommodations adjacent to the summit, the Cog claimed that they were going to sign off various claimed rights on the summit in exchange for approval of the project. They also mentioned that they had talked to the state about buying the former air force property (the rectangle that currently holds the fuel tanks and I believe the wastewater disposal system). I guess is that sale would be controversial as I expect other entities might want to buy real estate on the top of Mt Washington.

Note that the Cog claims special rights in the summit circle as the Cog is railroad covered by federal standards that give them special rights that even a state cannot take away. They recently claimed that they have never given a right of way for trails to cross their property and technically they could prevent anyone from crossing their owned lands although they claim to have never done so.