Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

White Mountains (New Hampshire)

Encyclopedia : W : WH : WHI : White Mountains (New Hampshire)


This article is about the White Mountains of New Hampshire. For other White Mountains, please see White Mountains (disambiguation).

Looking south on the Franconia Ridge Trail. Near peaks are Mount Flume (left) and Mount Lincoln (right).
Enlarge
Looking south on the Franconia Ridge Trail. Near peaks are Mount Flume (left) and Mount Lincoln (right).

The White Mountains are a mountain range that covers about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States, and are the most rugged mountains in New England. The range is heavily visited due to its proximity to Boston and New York City.

Most of the area is public land, including the White Mountain National Forest as well as a number of state parks. Its most famous peak is Mount Washington, which at 6,288 feet (1916 m) is the highest mountain in the Northeastern U.S. and home to the fastest winds (231 mph or 372 km/h, over 100 m/s, in 1934) measured on the surface of the earth. Mount Washington is one of a group called the Presidential Range, many of which are named after U.S. presidents and other prominent Americans.

The range included the Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation on Cannon Mountain that resembled the craggy profile of a man until it fell in May 2003. It remains the state symbol of New Hampshire. The range also includes a natural feature dubbed "The Basin." The Basin area consists of a granite bowl, twenty feet in diameter, fed by a waterfall, worn smooth by the Pemigewasset River.

The range is known for the system of huts for hikers, operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The Appalachian Trail crosses the area from southwest to northeast.

The range is crossed by two north-south highway routes (U.S. Highway 3 and Interstate 93 through Franconia Notch, and Route 16 through Pinkham Notch), and two east-west roads (the Kancamagus Highway through Kancamagus Pass, and Highway 302 through Crawford Notch). The White Mountains includes several smaller groups including the Presidential Range, Franconia Range, Sandwich Range, Carter Range, Kinsman Range and Pilot Range.

Peaks of the Franconia Range of the White Mountains as viewed from Loon Mountain resort after an October snowfall, looking to the North. From left to right, the named peaks are Big Coolidge Mountain, Hardwood Ridge, Whaleback Mountain, Potash Knob.
Enlarge
Peaks of the Franconia Range of the White Mountains as viewed from Loon Mountain resort after an October snowfall, looking to the North. From left to right, the named peaks are Big Coolidge Mountain, Hardwood Ridge, Whaleback Mountain, Potash Knob.


Art

Main article: White Mountain art
As the most ruggedly picturesque area in the northeast U.S., the White Mountains drew hundreds of painters during the 19th century who painted within the region. This group of painters is sometimes referred to by some as belonging to the White Mountain school of art. Others dispute the notion that these painters were a "school," since they did not all paint in the same style as, for example, those artists of the Hudson River school.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[media]

External links

State of New Hampshire

Constitution | General Court | Executive Council | Governors | Supreme Court
Regions: Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee | Golden Triangle | Great North Woods | Lakes Region | Merrimack Valley | Monadnock | Seacoast | White Mountains
Counties:

Belknap | Carroll | Cheshire | Coos | Grafton | Hillsborough | Merrimack | Rockingham | Strafford | Sullivan
Cities: Berlin | Claremont | Concord | Dover | Franklin | Keene | Laconia | Lebanon | Manchester | Nashua | Portsmouth | Rochester | Somersworth
Towns:

Acworth | Albany | Alexandria | Allenstown | Alstead | Alton | Amherst | Andover | Antrim | Ashland | Atkinson | Auburn | Barnstead | Barrington | Bartlett | Bath | Bedford | Belmont | Bennington | Benton | Bethlehem | Boscawen | Bow | Bradford | Brentwood | Bridgewater | Bristol | Brookfield | Brookline | Campton | Canaan | Candia | Canterbury | Carroll | Center Harbor | Charlestown | Chatham | Chester | Chesterfield | Chichester | Clarksville | Colebrook | Columbia | Conway | Cornish | Croydon | Dalton | Danbury | Danville | Deerfield | Deering | Derry | Dorchester | Dublin | Dummer | Dunbarton | Durham | East Kingston | Easton | Eaton | Effingham | Ellsworth | Enfield | Epping | Epsom | Errol | Exeter | Farmington | Fitzwilliam | Francestown | Franconia | Freedom | Fremont | Gilford | Gilmanton | Gilsum | Goffstown | Gorham | Goshen | Grafton | Grantham | Greenfield | Greenland | Greenville | Groton | Hampstead | Hampton | Hampton Falls | Hancock | Hanover | Harrisville | Hart's Location | Haverhill | Hebron | Henniker | Hill | Hillsborough | Hinsdale | Holderness | Hollis | Hooksett | Hopkinton | Hudson | Jackson | Jaffrey | Jefferson | Kensington | Kingston | Lancaster | Landaff | Langdon | Lee | Lempster | Lincoln | Lisbon | Litchfield | Littleton | Londonderry | Loudon | Lyman | Lyme | Lyndeborough | Madbury | Madison | Marlborough | Marlow | Mason | Meredith | Merrimack | Middleton | Milan | Milford | Milton | Monroe | Mont Vernon | Moultonborough | Nelson | New Boston | New Castle | New Durham | New Hampton | New Ipswich | New London | Newbury | Newfields | Newington | Newmarket | Newport | Newton | North Hampton | Northfield | Northumberland | Northwood | Nottingham | Orange | Orford | Ossipee | Pelham | Pembroke | Peterborough | Piermont | Pittsburg | Pittsfield | Plainfield | Plaistow | Plymouth | Randolph | Raymond | Richmond | Rindge | Rollinsford | Roxbury | Rumney | Rye | Salem | Salisbury | Sanbornton | Sandown | Sandwich | Seabrook | Sharon | Shelburne | South Hampton | Springfield | Stark | Stewartstown | Stoddard | Strafford | Stratford | Stratham | Sugar Hill | Sullivan | Sunapee | Surry | Sutton | Swanzey | Tamworth | Temple | Thornton | Tilton | Troy | Tuftonboro | Unity | Wakefield | Walpole | Warner | Warren | Washington | Waterville Valley | Weare | Webster | Wentworth | Westmoreland | Whitefield | Wilmot | Wilton | Winchester | Windham | Windsor | Wolfeboro | Woodstock
Unincorporated: Atkinson and Gilmanton Academy Grant | Bean's Grant | Bean's Purchase | Cambridge | Chandler's Purchase | Crawford's Purchase | Cutt's Grant | Dix's Grant | Dixville | Erving's Location | Green's Grant | Hadley's Purchase | Hale's Location | Kilkenny | Livermore | Low and Burbank's Grant | Martin's Location | Millsfield | Odell | Pinkham's Grant | Sargent's Purchase | Second College Grant | Success | Thompson and Meserve's Purchase | Wentworth's Location

 


From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: