Book #1

A Mix of Years

William S. Morse · 1998
Click the book above to flip it!

Contents

Early Years

Commentary — Jere R. Daniell

  • Yankee
  • Hutchinson
  • Stephen
  • Caleb
  • Forty Foot
  • Rhubarbs
  • Walls

Country Years

Commentary — Willem Lange

  • Materiel Medica
  • City
  • Beans
  • Blacksmith
  • Telephone
  • Country Store
  • Railroad
  • Hard Sledding
  • Country Years

Mountain Years

Commentary — Stearns A. Morse

  • Moosilauke

Forest Years

Commentary — Paul T. Doherty

  • Ai
  • Big Wind
  • Watermen
  • Bears
  • Camps
  • Labor
  • Haircut
  • Men
  • Past and Present

We made our first ascent of the mountain early in May in 1915, and I imagine that my parents had second thoughts about their agreement to manage the place.

Our route was by the carriage road that ran from Breezy Point, a resort at the foot of the mountain in Warren, to the top, which is in Benton. It was supposed to be five miles, but few ever hiked it who thought it was less than eight. I remember that ascent very well, for we began to think that we would never reach the top.

We occasionally got a glimpse of the top and the house, and each time that we did, they seemed to be as far away as they had been an hour before. The road was built in 1870, for the purpose of transporting guests and supplies up the mountain, and in our time it was showing its age. It was traveled by a stage, which was a two-seated contraption called a buckboard that was pulled by a pair of horses.

Early accounts, which were probably publicity splurges generated by the railroad, praised the stage as a pleasant way of getting to the top of the mountain. Whoever wrote them must have done so with his tongue in his cheek.

— Mountain Years
A Mix of Years, p. 111–113