Who are the legends of the New England mountains?

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The Willey family of Crawford Notch, who invented the White Mountains in 1826 by rushing out of their house into the path of the fatal mud slide rather than staying put inside and missing it. (Wrong choice.) It put the White Mountains on the front page of newspapers nationwide for days, and soon thereafter the AMC, the USFS, the 4K Club, and VFTT were born.
 
Waumbek said:
The Willey family of Crawford Notch, who invented the White Mountains in 1826 by rushing out of their house into the path of the fatal mud slide rather than staying put inside and missing it. (Wrong choice.) It put the White Mountains on the front page of newspapers nationwide for days, and soon thereafter the AMC, the USFS, the 4K Club, and VFTT were born.
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IIRC, their dog lived, so he must be the one who made it all possible in the memory of his family.
 
This list begins and ends with one name :

Post R. Boy

If you have a problem with that, you'll have to deal me.

Swamp P. Yankee
 
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swamp said:
This list begins and ends with one name :

Post R. Boy

If you have a problem with that, you'll have to deal me.

Swamp P. Yankee
Click to expand...

You beat me to it, Swamp. Wonder what tune he is humming today?
:D
 
"Legends" implies someone you've heard of not necessarily anyone who's done much. Toni Matt is famous for just a few minutes he spent here, and Lizzie Bourne is famous for perhaps the wrong reasons.

Hence the following 3 people who don't post on the Internet and hike their own lists aren't legends although they have far greater accomplishments than many of those mentioned:
* A guy who has climbed over 950 of the New England 1000 Highest
* A guy who has climbed over 3000 different peaks in New England, including more in NH than Gene Daniell and probably more in MA than the entire ~2500 members of VFTT put together
* A guy who has climbed the HP of every town in VT (~254) and hiked the Long Trail in winter maybe 20 years before the second group

And just yesterday I talked to a guy who after suffering severe frostbite came back to finish the NH 4k in winter and is now up to 40 on a round of the NH 4k any-season started on his 70th birthday, sounds like a legend in the making
 
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* A guy who has climbed over 950 of the New England 1000 Highest
* A guy who has climbed over 3000 different peaks in New England, including more in NH than Gene Daniell and probably more in MA than the entire ~2500 members of VFTT put together
* A guy who has climbed the HP of every town in VT (~254) and hiked the Long Trail in winter maybe 20 years before the second group

This person has to be the Peakmaster, n'est-ce-pas?
 
The Fall 2007 issue of "Heart of NH" magazine has an article on Edmands in its Legends and Lore section, so he must be a legend :)

It also has a picture of what older WMG called the stone gateway on the Edmands Path which was the former Fabyan bridle path renamed for him after he directed improvements.

He mostly improved trails rather than laying out new ones and much of the actual work was done by volunteers and paid staff. One feature of his graded trails that is not mentioned in the article is that rather than building stone stairs he usually had the stones laid parallel to the ground surface so that each person could step as far as they liked. See the Westside Trail and the upper Edmands Path for example.
 
I consider the Crawford family very legendary, for their steadfast perserverence, faith, and forsight to be something worthy of admiration. Whenever I pick up Crawfords' History of the White Mountains the rich narritive and story reminds me of why our mountains are like they are today. To this day from reading the book, I would even consider it a good story to read to the family for what it holds to me.
 
Sherman Adams

I'm having trouble finding old material on Google that I previously read, but IIRC Adams was head of the Dartmouth Outing Club, sold plenty of Parker-Young land later to the DOC for trails and cabins on or near Moosilauke, was a proponent of the Weeks Act and sold most of the Pemi land to the WMNF when he closed or sold the mill.
Later, as Eisenhower's chief of staff, he called for national forest, water and land policy. He was then the leader of the group that built Loon Mountain, which has provided recreation for hundreds of thousands of people.
The building atop Mt. Washington is named for him.
The sense I got from reading that material some years ago was that Adams was the right person at the right time to break up a logging company. He could have sold the land for development but instead put it in government protection for recreation.
 
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Sherm Adams was also an early super hiker. He and another Dartmouth student did an 83-mile dayhike (mostly dirt roads) and other serious adventures.
 
jjmcgo said:
I'm having trouble finding old material on Google that I previously read, but IIRC Adams was head of the Dartmouth Outing Club, sold plenty of Parker-Young land later to the DOC for trails and cabins on or near Moosilauke, was a proponent of the Weeks Act and sold most of the Pemi land to the WMNF when he closed or sold the mill.
Later, as Eisenhower's chief of staff, he called for national forest, water and land policy. He was then the leader of the group that built Loon Mountain, which has provided recreation for hundreds of thousands of people.
The building atop Mt. Washington is named for him.
The sense I got from reading that material some years ago was that Adams was the right person at the right time to break up a logging company. He could have sold the land for development but instead put it in government protection for recreation.
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I'd not only call Sherman a Legend but also a Hero! :)
 
Paul Doherty

A Berlin native (now deceased), a fixture in Northern NH during my youth. He was a game warden, head of the fish and game, and founded the New Hampshire Snowmobile Museum.
http://www.ishof.com/php/1993.php

This will likely be an unpopular mention, but Mr Doherty was a true woodsman and conservationist. He spent his entire life in the outdoors, both on foot and snowmobile. Without his influence in legislating the "sport", the woods would be a different place (imagine snowmobiles at Tuck's...). He is a legend of the North Woods.
 
Ned Green!!!

wardsgirl said:
Ned Green, Mick Immonen, and any other dead AMC tentsite caretakers, who showed us what it was like to live in the woods for days at a time, eat peanut butter on tortillas and really appreciate a cold beer without regard for what peaks beckoned in the distance.
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It is so wonderful to think about someone to add to this list and then see someone else thinks this person is legendary enough to be added to this list.

Ned Green was an amazing hiker, caretaker and friend for the short time I knew him. He was one bad ass hiker and deserves to be among the list of Legends of the White Mountains!

RIP Ned I think about you every time I hike and every time I grow my beard out.
 
swamp said:
This list begins and ends with one name :

Post R. Boy

If you have a problem with that, you'll have to deal me.

Swamp P. Yankee
Click to expand...

No way, neighbor dave is the legend - he and post r boy need to settle that themselves
 
For classic legends, I think you have pretty good list of people I hold in high reguard. This could easily and deservedly be a very long list...Joe Dodge and Brad Washburn at the top...and of the not yet said, I would add Guy Shorey and Alex McKenzie, perhaps Toni Matt as well.

Current legends, we have a good list going as well. I'll second/third Mike Pelchat, Rick Wilcox and Steve Smith, and add Dr. Peter Crane, Dick Hamilton, and Guy Gosselin.
 
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Alpine Steward Legends

If you're considering mountain stewards, I'd suggest you check out the list of recent Waterman Fund alpine steward award winners, here:

http://www.watermanfund.org/categories/award/about_steward_award.php

I've had the pleasure to serve on the Waterman Fund board for the past five years, and can say that these winners represent some of the most enduring, heartfelt and committed volunteers of anyone currently out there, today. It's an impressive group, and culled from a long list of worthy nominees. Many more are out there, of course, and the best of them prefer not to draw attention to themselves, but volunteer selflessly.
 
SherpaKroto said:
A Berlin native (now deceased), a fixture in Northern NH during my youth. He was a game warden, head of the fish and game, and founded the New Hampshire Snowmobile Museum.
http://www.ishof.com/php/1993.php

This will likely be an unpopular mention, but Mr Doherty was a true woodsman and conservationist. He spent his entire life in the outdoors, both on foot and snowmobile. Without his influence in legislating the "sport", the woods would be a different place (imagine snowmobiles at Tuck's...). He is a legend of the North Woods.
Click to expand...

He is also the reason that Fish & Game got the statutory responsibility for managing SAR in NH. His clear-headed and effective performance in front of Gov. Hugh Gregg at the DC-3 crash in the Mahoosucs in 1954 impressed the governor greatly.
 
Hey Sherpa,
Is that the Doherty that wrote "Smoke from a Thousand Campfires" ? I've been searching for a copy of that book for years . I think that I've read that Joe Dodge referred to him as the "fish cop".

SherpaKroto said:
A Berlin native (now deceased), a fixture in Northern NH during my youth. He was a game warden, head of the fish and game, and founded the New Hampshire Snowmobile Museum.
http://www.ishof.com/php/1993.php
Click to expand...
 
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