Thoreau Country: Location Note

Mount Washington (N.H.)

Thoreau's second trip to Mt. Washington:  July 8-12, 1858,
up its east side to botanize at the summit and in Tuckerman's Ravine,
with Edward Hoar, Theo Brown, and Harrison G. O. Blake

[Caption: A view of Mt. Washington from the east showing Tuckerman's Ravine in left center, and Huntington Ravine on right. Pinkham's Notch is hidden in the valley behind the spruce ridge that is in the middle distance. This is the shimmering massif one can see from the coast of Maine as far east as Monhegan Island and the Camden Hills. (Detail from photo by N. Therien.)]

[For an account of his journey in the days just before his ascent, start with page for July 4-5, 1858: Winnepesaukee, Center Harbor, Red Hill, Ossipee Mountains, and Tamworth.]

Thoreau walked and botanized from the Glen House (in the valley to the right of above photo), up the half-completed carriage road, then via a trail (from right edge of photo) to summit.

Thoreau's Journal, July 8-12, 1858: "I got up about a half an hour before my party and enjoyed a good view, though it was hazy, but by the time the rest had arrived a cloud invested us all, a cool driving mist, which wet you considerably, as you squatted behind a rock." (View to west from near summit. 1953 slide is of the cog railway, which was proposed, but not yet built, in Thoreau's time.)

"About 8:15 A.M., being still in dense fog, we started direct [from the summit] for Tuckerman's Ravine, I having taken a bearing of it before the fog ... [botanizing all the way]. We crossed a narrow portion of the snow [in the ravine], but found it unexpectedly hard and dangerous to traverse. I tore up my nails in my efforts to save myself from sliding down its steep surface..."

[Caption: Tuckerman's Ravine, a classic glacial cirque, from Lion's Head. Wm. Howarth (1982) notes that Thoreau wrote 18,000 words about his mountain observations. Howarth adds that mountains had become not only a poet's symbol and a pyramid of inspiration but also a vast realm of knowledge with unexplored meanings. Thoreau and his friends camped in the ravine near Hermit Lake (below) and stayed several days. (Slides ca. 1952.)]

"Walked to the Hermit Lake...This was a cold, clear lake with scarcely a plant in it, of perhaps a half an acre, and from a low ridge east of it was a fine view up the ravine. Hoar tried in vain for trout here...	"Our camp was about on the limit of the trees here...This ravine at the bottom of which we were, looking westward up it, had a rim somewhat like that of the crater of a volcano."

[Caption: Slides by S. Ells in 1950s of the wonderful, "old" Hermit Lake shelter at deep dusk and at lake's dawn the following morning (note the lantern burning). The torrent down the Little Headwall is plainly seen.]

On July 12, 1858, Thoreau and his friends left Mt. Washington and then climbed and botanized on Mt. Lafayette near Franconia Notch before returning to Concord.

[Caption: Some believe the Hudson River School should be called the White Mountain School. This is "Mt. Washington" from the east (with Boott Spur and Tuckerman's Ravine at the left), by an unknown artist about 1850.]

Also, go to | Thoreau's 1839 trip to Mount Washington |

 [Prepared by S. Ells, 2/2002.]
See, <http://homepage.mac.com/sfe/henry/index.html>.]