Mount Passaconaway is a mountain in the

Sandwich Range The Sandwich Range is located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the United States, north of the Lakes Region and south of the Kancamagus Highway. Although the range is not outstanding for its elevation, it is very rugged and has excelle ...

Wilderness of 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 ...

Grafton County, New Hampshire Grafton County is a county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,118. Its county seat is North Haverhill, a village within the town of Haverhill. Until 1972, the county courthouse and other offices ...

, near Waterville Valley. It is named after

Passaconaway Passaconaway was a 17th century sachem and later ''bashaba'' (chief of chiefs) of the Pennacook people in what is now southern New Hampshire in the United States, who was famous for his dealings with the Plimouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies. ...

, a 16th-century

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

of the

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 ...

tribe, whose name was also attached to a small village in Albany, where the northern trailhead is now located. It is ranked 42nd in elevation on the list of 48 White Mountains

four-thousand footers Four-thousand footers (sometimes abbreviated 4ks) are a group of forty-eight mountains in New Hampshire at least above sea level. To qualify for inclusion a peak must also meet the more technical criterion of topographic prominence important in t ...

. On the original 1931 list of 4000-footers, it was ranked 26th, with an elevation of , although the 1931 topographic map shows it as . The 1987 USGS topographic map indicates it is 4,043 feet, while the elevation recorded in the USGS Geographic Names Information System is . The thickly wooded, unmarked summit may be approached from trailheads to the north (on the

Kancamagus Highway Kancamagus (pronounced "cain-ka-MAW-gus", "Fearless One", "Fearless Hunter of Animals"), was the third and final Sagamore of the Penacook Confederacy of Native American tribes. Nephew of Wonalancet and grandson of Passaconaway, Kancamagus rul ...

) or from Wonalancet to the south. Passaconaway was originally named "North Whiteface" by

Arnold Guyot Arnold Henry Guyot ( ) (September 28, 1807February 8, 1884) was a Swiss-American geologist and geographer. Early life Guyot was born on September 28, 1807, at Boudevilliers, near Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was educated at Chaux-de-Fonds, then ...

, who probably was the first white person to ascend it. State geologist

Charles Henry Hitchcock Charles Henry Hitchcock (August 23, 1836 – November 5, 1919) was an American geologist. Life Hitchcock was born August 23, 1836, in Amherst, Massachusetts. His father was Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864) who was a professor of geology and natur ...

gave it its present name in honor of

, a

chieftain. Passaconaway's children, Wonalancet and Nanomocomuck, have their names memorialized by the spurs of the mountain.

History

In the 1700s, Old Mast Road was cut to haul

white pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...

trees for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. In 1890, a landslide scarred much of the northwest face of the mountain. This was converted to the Downes Brook Slide Trail. In 1891, Kate Sleeper opened an inn near the base, and the region grew in popularity. Local residents carved out Dicey's Mill Trail. The "Passaconaway Lodge" was built on the southeast aspect of the mountain. In 1899, the

Appalachian Mountain Club Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is the oldest outdoor group in the United States. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Ma ...

cut the Passaconaway Loop, making possible a loop over the summit. In 1914, the forest in the glacial valley below the mountain, named The Bowl, was added to the WMNF to prevent logging. In 1948, Passaconaway Lodge was renamed Camp Rich. The structure was rebuilt in 1925 and 1953. In 1984, the Sandwich Range Wilderness was established, including most of Passaconaway. In 2000, Camp Rich collapsed and was removed, consistent with Wilderness regulations. In 2006, the Sandwich Range Wilderness was expanded to include all of Passaconaway.

References

* Smith, Stephen; Dickerman, Mike (2001). ''The 4,000 Footers of the White Mountains''. Littleton: Bondcliff Books. . * USGS Topographic map, Chocorua Quadrangle, 1931, northeast segment, viewed a
UNH historic map collection
*

External links

Mt. Passaconaway - FranklinSites.com Hiking Guide

AMC: Mount Passaconway
Mountains of Grafton County, New Hampshire Mountains of New Hampshire New England Four-thousand footers New Hampshire placenames of Native American origin {{NewHampshire-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links