srhigham
Member
A 2009 VFTT thread discussed a number of cave related mysteries in Woodstock, N.H. See that thread for background:
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?27171-Summit-Mountain-Woodstock-NH
Check out that old thread…otherwise some of what follows will make little sense.
I recently resolved two of these mysteries by finding the Ice Caves, and showing that these are the same as the Natural Ice Cellar(s).
I started the search for the Ice Caves by checking four ledge outcrops/cliffs along the first quarter-mile of the easternmost edge of Mount Cilley (starting from the north end of the Woodstock Cemetery.) Between the first (northeasternmost) and second of these cliffs, I found several talus caves no longer than about twenty feet each, as well as three shallow shelter caves in the cliffs. In addition, there is a shallow but large-mouthed shelter cave under massive fragments below the first ledge.
Ending just east of the first ledge, and extending north to Mount Cilley Road, is a recent logging road that evidently has a route very similar to that of the path described in 1898. I followed this road north to its intersection with Mount Cilley Road, then I followed it back south while looking to the left as per the old report.
Just east of the road at its closest approach to the first ledge I saw a low-lying, extensive, isolated boulder/slab area. It is undoubtedly the site of the Ice Caves, since it consists (in mid-April) of ice-choked crevices and cave entrances. The longest crevice is about 48 feet, with some minor roofed sections and rocky, icy pits. The longest roofed cave is only about 20 feet in length. One wide, depressed, ice-floored crevice is the best candidate to be called an Ice Cave or Ice House.
My satisfaction at finding the Ice Caves was tempered only hours later when I found (on-line) a detail from H.F. Walling’s ‘Topographical Map of Grafton County New-Hampshire’ (1860). This showed a path starting at Mount Cilley Road and ending at “Natural Ice Cellars.” I had not seen this map during all previous research into these caves. (The better-known D. H. Hurd ‘Town and City Atlas – State of New Hampshire’ (1892) incorrectly located the “Natural Ice Cellar” on the edge of the highway just north of the cemetery.)
As pointed out in the 2009 thread, there are four books published between 1855 and 1869 that contain almost identical passages related to an “Ice House” in Woodstock. The earliest of these is "New Hampshire As It Is" by Edwin A. Charlton (1855): "Near the base of Summit Mountain is a cave, extending under ground several feet, and spacious enough to hold many hundred people. It communicates with various apartments. Its sides and the partition walls are of solid granite; and from the fact that ice, of the greatest purity, may be obtained here through the entire warm season, it is called the Ice House.”
Since Lost River Gorge was not yet widely known at that time, and has never been known as an ice cave, and there are no other candidate sites in Woodstock, it is my theory that the Summit Mountain Ice House reports are merely exaggerated accounts of the Ice Caves on Mount Cilley. (The name “Summit Mountain” is also not known in any other historical sources.)
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?27171-Summit-Mountain-Woodstock-NH
Check out that old thread…otherwise some of what follows will make little sense.
I recently resolved two of these mysteries by finding the Ice Caves, and showing that these are the same as the Natural Ice Cellar(s).
I started the search for the Ice Caves by checking four ledge outcrops/cliffs along the first quarter-mile of the easternmost edge of Mount Cilley (starting from the north end of the Woodstock Cemetery.) Between the first (northeasternmost) and second of these cliffs, I found several talus caves no longer than about twenty feet each, as well as three shallow shelter caves in the cliffs. In addition, there is a shallow but large-mouthed shelter cave under massive fragments below the first ledge.
Ending just east of the first ledge, and extending north to Mount Cilley Road, is a recent logging road that evidently has a route very similar to that of the path described in 1898. I followed this road north to its intersection with Mount Cilley Road, then I followed it back south while looking to the left as per the old report.
Just east of the road at its closest approach to the first ledge I saw a low-lying, extensive, isolated boulder/slab area. It is undoubtedly the site of the Ice Caves, since it consists (in mid-April) of ice-choked crevices and cave entrances. The longest crevice is about 48 feet, with some minor roofed sections and rocky, icy pits. The longest roofed cave is only about 20 feet in length. One wide, depressed, ice-floored crevice is the best candidate to be called an Ice Cave or Ice House.
My satisfaction at finding the Ice Caves was tempered only hours later when I found (on-line) a detail from H.F. Walling’s ‘Topographical Map of Grafton County New-Hampshire’ (1860). This showed a path starting at Mount Cilley Road and ending at “Natural Ice Cellars.” I had not seen this map during all previous research into these caves. (The better-known D. H. Hurd ‘Town and City Atlas – State of New Hampshire’ (1892) incorrectly located the “Natural Ice Cellar” on the edge of the highway just north of the cemetery.)
As pointed out in the 2009 thread, there are four books published between 1855 and 1869 that contain almost identical passages related to an “Ice House” in Woodstock. The earliest of these is "New Hampshire As It Is" by Edwin A. Charlton (1855): "Near the base of Summit Mountain is a cave, extending under ground several feet, and spacious enough to hold many hundred people. It communicates with various apartments. Its sides and the partition walls are of solid granite; and from the fact that ice, of the greatest purity, may be obtained here through the entire warm season, it is called the Ice House.”
Since Lost River Gorge was not yet widely known at that time, and has never been known as an ice cave, and there are no other candidate sites in Woodstock, it is my theory that the Summit Mountain Ice House reports are merely exaggerated accounts of the Ice Caves on Mount Cilley. (The name “Summit Mountain” is also not known in any other historical sources.)
