Second College Grant (also known as the Dartmouth College Grant) is a
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...
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 ...
,
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 ...
. The area of this township is owned and controlled by
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
. As of the
2020 census, the grant had a population of one.
In New Hampshire, locations, grants, purchases, and townships (which are different from towns) are unincorporated portions of a county which are not part of any town and have limited self-government (if any, as many are uninhabited).
Trails and cabins are available for use by the Dartmouth community, and are maintained by the
Dartmouth Outing Club
The Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) is the oldest and largest collegiate outing club in the United States. Proposed in 1909 by Dartmouth College student Fred Harris to "stimulate interest in out-of-door winter sports", the club soon grew to encompas ...
and Dartmouth's Outdoor Programs Office. The DOC maintains three cabins available for rent by DOC members (Peaks, Alder Brook, and Stoddard), and the OPO maintains seven cabins for use by Dartmouth-affiliated individuals and their guests. Many freshmen spend a few days in the grant as part of their freshmen trips just before freshman orientation. The grant is also used for timber production, but forest-friendly,
sustainable practices are employed.
Geography
The grant is bounded by the
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
border to the east,
Atkinson and Gilmanton Academy Grant to the north,
Dix's Grant to the west, and
Wentworth Location to the south. One of the other contemporaneous "Dartmouth" grants was to the north of
Dixville but was annexed as the eastern end of
Clarksville.
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the grant has a total area of , of which are land and , or 1.21%, are water.
The highest point is a knoll just west of Mount Tucker.
![Man Stands near the confluence of the Swift and Dead Diamond Rivers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Man_Stands_near_the_confluence_of_the_Swift_and_Dead_Diamond_Rivers.jpg)
Two rivers, the
Dead Diamond and the
Swift Diamond, flow through and join together in the Second College Grant. The Dead Diamond then flows into the
Magalloway River
The Magalloway River is a river in northwestern Maine and northern New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Androscoggin River, which flows to the Kennebec River at Merrymeeting Bay in Maine, near the Atlantic Ocean. The total ...
in the southeast corner of the grant. The entire grant is part of the
Androscoggin River
The Androscoggin River ( Abenaki: ''Aləssíkαntekʷ'') is a river in the U.S. states of Maine and New Hampshire, in northern New England. It is U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, ...
watershed.
History
In 1766,
New Hampshire Governor
The governor of New Hampshire is the head of government of New Hampshire.
The governor is elected during the biennial state general election in November of even-numbered years. New Hampshire is one of only two states, along with bordering Verm ...
John Wentworth promised
Eleazar Wheelock
Eleazar Wheelock (April 22, 1711 – April 24, 1779) was an American Congregational minister, orator, and educator in Lebanon, Connecticut, for 35 years before founding Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He had tutored Samson Occom, a Mohe ...
a grant of a township on which to build Dartmouth College. In 1770, a month after Wheelock received the royal charter, the governor granted the college the township of
Landaff (east of present-day
Woodsville, New Hampshire
Woodsville is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest village in the town of Haverhill in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States, along the Connecticut River at the mouth of the Ammonoosuc River. The population was 1,431 at the 2 ...
), but Wheelock, after viewing the land and others under consideration, decided to establish the college in
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
. After the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
the college lost its claim to Landaff in 1791, because of the grant's royal derivation and rival claims by American settlers in Landaff.
While the Landaff case underwent litigation to resolve the rival claims,
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
(then meeting in
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
) came to the aid of the college and granted it the township of
Wheelock (northwest of
St. Johnsbury) in 1785. The college divided the town into lots and leased these to settlers. Over the years the college has sold most of the lots to meet financial needs but still holds title to some properties in the town.
In 1789,
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 ...
, anticipating the college's loss of the Landaff Grant, made good on its original promise of a grant with the town of
Clarksville (in northern New Hampshire). This is considered the First College Grant, as it was intended to replace the loss of the original Landaff Grant. The college sold most of this land in the first two years, and had sold off the rest by 1872.
The sale of the Clarksville Grant properties proved to be inadequate, and the college petitioned the state for an additional grant in 1792. Several proposals were made in the legislature, but it wasn't until 1807 that the state responded with the Second College Grant. The lands of the Second College Grant proved to be unattractive to settlers, but sale of timber provided a small but steady income to the college over the next century and a half.
In 1947, Robert S. Monahan '29 was hired as College Forester to oversee the College Grant, and since that time the multiple use philosophy of forest management has been formalized. As a result, the recreational and education concepts have become a prominent part of the grant's management, with untold opportunities for use by the Dartmouth community.
In 1970, Monahan retired, and cutting operations were suspended while a committee, named by the Trustees of the College in 1968 in anticipation of Monahan's retirement, evaluated the existing policies. The Prentiss & Carlisle Company of
Bangor, Maine
Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121).
Modern Bangor ...
, subsequently prepared a management plan which was transmitted to the college by the committee in early January 1970. This was adopted and referred to as the 10-20 Year Plan, with provisions for an annual sustained yield cut of approximately 4,000 cords per year for the following twenty years. The Seven Islands Land Company of Bangor was retained by the college to oversee forestry management and to implement the Prentiss & Carlisle plan.
It was at this same time that Al Merrill was named Director of Outdoor Affairs and given responsibility for recreational and educational use of the Second College Grant along with oversight of the
Moosilauke Ravine Lodge
The Old Lodge (1938–2016), the former main building of the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge complex
Moosilauke Ravine Lodge is a cabin complex at the base of Mount Moosilauke in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It is owned and operated by Dartmouth ...
and the
Dartmouth Outing Club
The Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) is the oldest and largest collegiate outing club in the United States. Proposed in 1909 by Dartmouth College student Fred Harris to "stimulate interest in out-of-door winter sports", the club soon grew to encompas ...
.
In 1976 evidence of an increase in the
spruce budworm
''Choristoneura'' is a genus of moths in the family Tortricidae. Several species are serious pests of conifers, such as spruce and are known as spruce budworms.
Species
*'' Choristoneura adumbratanus'' (Walsingham, 1900)
*'' Choristoneura afri ...
had already reached epidemic proportions in
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. In response to this blight, the College imposed a two-year moratorium on logging while a plan was developed. In 1978 the College implemented a salvage operation designed to remove the dead
fir while saving as much
spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...
and
hardwood
Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...
as possible. The salvage operation lasted until 1986, at which time the remaining standing dead fir had decayed beyond use.
Once again the harvesting activity was halted while the College took stock of its forest resources and considered its future management options. Seven Islands Land Company conducted a
timber cruise
Forest inventory is the systematic collection of data and forest information for assessment or analysis. An estimate of the value and possible uses of timber is an important part of the broader information required to sustain ecosystems. When taki ...
survey and used the growth and inventory data to prepare a new 10-20 year management plan. A consensus was reached that the college would be better served by having its own forester. A decision was then made to release Seven Islands Land company of its forest management responsibilities on the College Grant and to once again employ a College Forester, Edward Witt.
After carefully analyzing the data prepared by Seven Islands, Witt decided that the annual growth rate of the forest would allow for a sustainable annual cut of 6,000 cords. The forest plan was modified to allow harvesting as much as 10,000 cords for ten years in an effort to remove the poorer quality trees and improve the overall quality of the forest. This would be followed by several years of cutting lesser volumes but higher quality trees. Further, because the forest is managed for the benefit of wildlife, cutting operations were modified to reflect that policy. Since 1987, the forest has been managed accordingly, with the
New Hampshire Fish and Game Department
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHF&G) is a department within the government of New Hampshire in the United States. The Fish and Game Department manages New Hampshire's fish, game, and aquatic plant resources.
Structure
The Department ...
actively involved in the location, design, and methodology of the harvesting activity.
In 2019, Hell Gate Gorge cabin, built in 1974, burned down due to a chimney fire. Former Democratic candidate for New Hampshire governor,
Colin Van Ostern
Colin Van Ostern (born Kevin Colin O’Loughlin; February 14, 1979), is an American businessman and politician who served on the New Hampshire Executive Council from 2013 to 2017, where he represented the state's second district. He is a member o ...
, was staying in the cabin with several other guests during the incident.
Demographics
As of the
2020 census, there was one person recorded living in the grant.
In 1930, there were 17 people living in the grant; the population has been less than 10 since then and zero for the three censuses prior to 2020.
References
{{authority control
Dartmouth College facilities
Townships in Coös County, New Hampshire
Berlin, New Hampshire micropolitan area
Townships in New Hampshire