Thoreau Country: Location Note

New Hampshire's Mount Chocorua

(From Henry Thoreau's journal about his 1858 trip to the White Mountains.)

Table of Contents July 4-6, 1858.

Previous page: July 4 & 5, 1858. Lake Winnepesaukee, Center Harbor, Red Hill, Sandwich Range, the Ossipee Mountains, to Tamworth.

Below: July 6 am. Mount Chocorua.

Next page: July 6 pm. Conway, the Saco River, the Intervale, and towards Mount Washington.

[A separate page briefly covers his ascent of Washington July 8-12 on this trip.]

July 6, 1858 A.M.  Passing Mt. Chocorua

"5:35 A. M.--Keep on through North Tamworth, and breakfast by shore of one of the Ossipee Lakes. Chocorua north-northwest. Hear and see loons and see a peetweet's egg washed up. A shallow-shored pond, too shallow for fishing, with a few breams seen near shore; some pontederia and targetweed in it.

[Caption: Mt. Chocorua across Lake Chocorua. I'm not yet sure of Thoreau's exact route between Tamworth and Conway and which ponds he saw, breakfasted by, and fished in. Howarth (1982) believes he breakfasted by Silver Lake and saw a mountain prospect from 3/4 mi. west, on the road over Deer Hill. (?)]

"Travelling thus toward the White Mountains, the mountains fairly begin with Red Hill and Ossipee Mountain, but the White Mountain scenery proper on the high hillside road in Madison before entering Conway, where you see Chocorua on the left, Mote Mountain ahead, Doublehead, and some of the White Mountains proper beyond, i. e., a sharp peak. We fished in vain in a small clear pond by the roadside in Madison.

[Caption: Chocorua Lake summer meadow. Detail of image by R. Dietrich. Laura and Guy Waterman have commented fondly in Forest and Crag about those of the White Mountains with personalities of their own, including "glamorous little Chocorua (3,475 ft.), whose rocky spire must adorn more calendars and post cards than any other peak in New England."]

Thoreau continues. "Chocorua is as interesting a peak as any to remember. You may be jogging along steadily for a day before you get round it and leave it behind, first seeing it on the north, then northwest, then west, and at last southwesterly, ever stern, rugged and inaccessible, and omnipresent. It was seen from Gilmanton to Conway, and from Moultonboro was the ruling feature." [End of this page's journal entry. Please go to next page (see below).]

[Caption: "Mt. Chocorua" by William H. Titcomb (1824-1888) (private collection). Thoreau described its aspect as being "in some respects the wildest and most imposing of all the White Mountain peaks." It certainly is satisfying to look at. The river is probably the Bearcamp.]

Caption below: I find it interesting that the painting below was done about the year Thoreau passed nearby, near the foot of Lake Chocorua. ("Mount Chocorua" by Alvan Fisher, c. 1858, in the collection of Heritage Museum of Sandwich, Mass.):

And below is a sunny painting done three years earlier by Shattuck: "Chocorua Mountain and Lake" (1855).

To go to previous page: July 4-5. Winnepesaukee, Center Harbor, Red Hill, Ossipee Mountains, and Tamworth.

Go to next page: July 6 p.m. Conway, the Saco River, the Conway Intervale, and towards Mount Washington.

[A separate page briefly covers his ascent of Washington July 8-12 on this trip.]

[Prepared by S. Ells, February, 2002.
See, <http://homepage.mac.com/sfe/henry/index.html>]