Jericho Mountain, also known locally as Black Mountain, is a mountain in
Coös County,
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It has an elevation of .
Description
Jericho Mountain is flanked by
Mount Forist to the northeast, and to the southwest by Sugar Mountain and the
Crescent Range. Jericho Mountain is within the city limits of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, the settled part of which lies to the east, where many views of the mountain can be obtained.
History
The
Abenaki
The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...
people called the mountain ''Miccasadenauk'', meaning "mountain with a black summit", which gave way to its original
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
name, "Black Mountain". The Abenaki name, and ultimately the English one, may have came about due to the mountain's long history of
forest fires
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...
, the trees being destroyed leaving a rocky summit blackened by ash. The last of these great fires occurred in 1903.
In 1935, the
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
requested the
United States Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...
to rename the mountain to distinguish it from six other "Black Mountains" in the
White Mountain National Forest
The White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) is a federally managed forest contained within the White Mountains in the northeastern United States. It was established in 1918 as a result of the Weeks Act of 1911; federal acquisition of land had alrea ...
. The name suggested was "Jericho Mountain", after Jericho Brook near the base of the mountain. Despite the new name being officially approved by the BGN on April 25, 1936, many locals still refer to the mountain by its former name.
In 2006, Jericho Mountain became the site of the first
wind farm
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...
in the state, when Loranger Power Generation constructed three
wind turbines
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
near the summit. The turbines were soon after vandalized and were decommissioned, and the site was sold to Jericho Mountain Wind Company. Jericho Power, LLC, later leased the land and erected five turbines in 2014.
See also
*
Jericho Mountain State Park, located north and west of the mountain
*
List of mountains of New Hampshire
List of Mountains in New Hampshire is a general list of mountains in New Hampshire, with elevation. This list includes many mountains in the White Mountains range that covers about a quarter of the state, as well as mountains outside of that rang ...
References
{{Mountains of New Hampshire
Mountains of New Hampshire
Mountains of Coös County, New Hampshire