Bean's Purchase is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in Coös County,

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders 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 purchase lies entirely within 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 alre ...

. The population was zero as of the 2020 census. In New Hampshire, locations, grants, townships (which are different from towns), and purchases are unincorporated portions of a county which are not part of any town and have limited self-government (if any, as many are uninhabited).

History

In 1851 the New Hampshire state legislature authorized the governor and council to appoint a land commissioner to sell the public lands, and James Willey of

Conway Conway may refer to: Places United States * Conway, Arkansas * Conway County, Arkansas * Lake Conway, Arkansas * Conway, Florida * Conway, Iowa * Conway, Kansas * Conway, Louisiana * Conway, Massachusetts * Conway, Michigan * Conway Townshi ...

was appointed to that office. Bean's Purchase was made by Commissioner Willey to Alpheus Bean of Bartlett in 1812 for $1,025 and contained about . In 1927, Beth McKenzie (née Richardson) was born in Bean's Purchase, making her the first

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

child born in the

, which was established in 1918. Betty Brook in the nearby town of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

is named in her honor."Obituary: Beth McKenzie"
''The Berlin Sun''. Published October 31, 2018. Accessed August 2, 2023.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the purchase has a total area of , of which , or 0.16%, are water. The center of the purchase is within the valley of the Wild River, with a large portion of it within the Wild River Wilderness. The western side of the purchase is dominated by the ridgeline of Wildcat Mountain, the Carter mountains, and Mount Moriah. The highest point in Bean's Purchase is the summit of Carter Dome, at above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tra ...

crosses the purchase, following the crest of the Wildcat-Carter-Moriah ridge. The west side of the ridgeline drains to the

Peabody River The Peabody River is a river in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Androscoggin River, which flows south and east into Maine, joining the Kennebec River near the Atlantic Ocean. The Peabody Rive ...

. The Peabody and Wild rivers are both northeast-flowing tributaries of the

Androscoggin River The Androscoggin River (Abenaki: ''Ammoscongon'') 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 data''The National Map'', a ...

. The summits of North Baldface, Mount Meader, and West Royce form a line along the eastern edge of Bean's Purchase, and the eastern slopes of those mountains are part of the Saco River watershed.

Adjacent municipalities

* Shelburne (north) * South Oxford, Maine (east) * Chatham (southeast) * Jackson (south) * Pinkham's Grant (west) * Green's Grant (west) * Martin's Location (west) * Gorham (northwest)

Demographics

As of the 2020 census, the population of the township was zero. Bean's Purchase is part of the

, NH-VT Micropolitan Statistical Area.

References

{{authority control Townships in Coös County, New Hampshire Berlin, New Hampshire micropolitan area Townships in New Hampshire

History

Geography

Adjacent municipalities

Demographics

See also

References