Mount Kearsarge is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

located in

Wilmot, New Hampshire Wilmot is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,407 at the 2020 census. The town includes the communities of Wilmot, Wilmot Flat, and North Wilmot. History Incorporated in 1807 from part of New London, ...

, and

Warner, New Hampshire Warner is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,937 at the 2020 census. The town is home to Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts, Rollins State Park and Mount Kearsarge State Forest. The town's centra ...

. Two state parks are located at the northern and southern bases of the mountain— Winslow State Park and Rollins State Park, respectively—and the entire mountain is within Kearsarge Mountain State Forest. On a very clear day, skyscrapers in the city of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

away are visible from the

fire tower A fire lookout tower, fire tower or lookout tower, provides housing and protection for a person known as a " fire lookout" whose duty it is to search for wildfires in the wilderness. It is a small building, usually on the summit of a mountain or ...

on the summit. The summit has remained bare since a 1796 forest fire. The name of the mountain evolved from a 1652 rendering of the native

Pennacook The Pennacook, also known by the names Penacook and Pennacock, were an Algonquian-speaking Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. They were not a united tribe but a netwo ...

tribal name for the mountain, ''Carasarga'', which it is surmised means "notch-pointed-mountain of pines".

Geography

Kearsarge is a monadnock, and although of only moderate elevation, its isolation gives it of relative height above the low ground separating it from the higher mountains farther north. That makes Kearsarge one of twelve mountains in New Hampshire with a

prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

over . Mount Kearsarge stands within the watershed of the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into M ...

, which drains into the

Gulf of Maine , image = , alt = , caption = , image_bathymetry = GulfofMaine2.jpg , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = Major features of the Gulf of Maine , location = Northeast coast of the ...

. The western slopes of the mountain drain into Cascade Brook, which flows north to the

Blackwater River A blackwater river is a type of river with a slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. As vegetation decays, tannins leach into the water, making a transparent, acidic water that is darkly stained, resembling black tea ...

, a stream which flows around the northern and eastern base of Kearsarge, eventually draining into the

Contoocook River The Contoocook River () is a river in New Hampshire. It flows from Contoocook Lake on the Jaffrey/ Rindge border to Penacook (just north of Concord), where it empties into the Merrimack River. It is one of only a few rivers in New Hampshire that ...

, a tributary of the Merrimack. The northern and eastern slopes of the mountain drain more directly into the Blackwater River. The southern face of Mount Kearsarge drains into Meadow Brook, a tributary of the

Warner River The Warner River is a river located in central New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Contoocook River, part of the Merrimack River watershed. The Warner River begins at the outlet of Todd Lake in Bradford, New Hampshire, ...

, which flows southeast to the Contoocook River. Kearsarge is a popular hiking destination. The summit is the high point along the Sunapee- Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway hiking trail which links 10 towns and encircles the Kearsarge-

Lake Sunapee Lake Sunapee is located within Sullivan County and Merrimack County in western New Hampshire, the United States. It is the fifth-largest lake located entirely in New Hampshire. The lake is approximately long (north-south) and from wide (east- ...

region of western

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a 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 to the nor ...

. The quickest route to the top is from the Rollins State Park picnic area on the mountain's south ridge, accessible via Kearsarge Mountain Road from the town of Warner. Access on the mountain's western side is from the picnic area of Winslow State Park via the Winslow Trail (1.1 mi) or the Barlow Trail (1.6 mi.), built in 1997 by Trailwrights, a volunteer trail group, for the SRK Greenway. The full Greenway section hike on Mt. Kearsarge covers from Winslow picnic area via the Barlow Trail to the summit and via the Rollins and Lincoln trails southwesterly to Kearsarge Valley Road in North Sutton. The Winslow Trail and the state park on the Wilmot side are named after Admiral John Winslow, the commander of the USS ''Kearsarge'', which in June 1864 sank the CSS ''Alabama'' in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

in a famous

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

sea battle. More directly, the park is named after a hotel that stood on the grounds, the Winslow House, site of the current picnic grounds.

References

External links

*
"Rollins State Park"
New Hampshire State Parks.
"Winslow State Park"
New Hampshire State Parks
Trail 11 - Winslow State Park to Kearsarge Valley Road
(SRKG)
Mount Kearsarge - New Hampshire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kearsarge Mountains of New Hampshire Mountains of Merrimack County, New Hampshire Warner, New Hampshire Wilmot, New Hampshire New Hampshire placenames of Native American origin

Geography

See also

References

External links