Mount Liberty (New Hampshire)
Mount Liberty is a 4,459-foot-high mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Overlooking Franconia Notch, it is part of Franconia Ridge, the second highest mountain group in the Whites after the Presidential Range, it lies southwest of Mount Lafayette, the highest summit along the ridge, is listed among the Appalachian Mountain Club's "four-thousand footers". Flume Gorge
Interstate 93
Interstate 93 is an Interstate Highway in the New England region of the United States. It begins in Canton, Massachusetts, in the Boston metropolitan area, at I-95, it is one of three mainline Interstate highways located in New England, the other two being I-89 and I-91. The largest cities along its route are New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts, it passes through the New Hampshire state capital of Concord. For most of its length, I-93 indirectly parallels U. S. Route 3. In New Hampshire, the two highways have several interchanges with each other, as well as a concurrency through Franconia Notch State Park. I-93 follows the Southeast Expressway south of downtown Boston, the Central Artery through Boston, the Northern Expressway from Boston to the New Hampshire state line. Interstate 93's southern terminus is at exit 12 of I-95 in Canton, co-signed with U. S. Route 1 North. At this junction, I-95 North heads to the northwest, to serve as the beltway around Boston, while I-95 South runs by itself southwest through Boston's southwestern suburbs toward Rhode Island.
This violates the numbering plan for the highway system of the United States, which dictates that the signed number for odd-numbered interstates increase from west to east, therefore I-95 should be farther east than I-93. The southernmost 3 miles of I-93 run east through Boston's southern suburbs, passing through Canton and Randolph. In Randolph, I-93 meets the northern end of Route 24 at Exit 4. I-93 continues east into Braintree, interchanging with Route 3, the major freeway linking Boston to Cape Cod, at Exit 7. Route 3 North joins I-93 and US-1, the highway turns north toward Boston; these first 7 miles of I-93 follows what was part of Massachusetts Route 128 before it was truncated at the current I-95/I-93 junction and many locals still refer to this section of roadway as part of Route 128. Upon turning northward, the highway is known as the Southeast Expressway passing through Quincy and Milton before crossing into the city of Boston over the Neponset River. After the Massachusetts Avenue connector exit, the highway becomes the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway, known as the Central Artery, passes beneath downtown Boston.
A major intersection with the Massachusetts Turnpike/Interstate 90 takes place just south of downtown Boston. After the massive interchange, motorists use the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Tunnel to travel underneath the city and use Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge to cross the Charles River. Two exits are located in the tunnel. Route 3 leaves the Artery just before the Zakim bridge via Exit 26, U. S. Route 1 leaves the Artery just after the bridge, via Exit 27. From Boston through the rest of Massachusetts, Concord, NH appears as the control city on northbound overhead signs; the Artery ends. I-93 continues through the northern suburbs of Boston, coming in Woburn to a second intersection with Interstate 95 and Route 128, which run in a concurrency. Travelers going north can either change over to I-95 north to reach Maine, or remain on I-93 toward New Hampshire. Farther north, in Andover, I-93 meets I-495, providing access to Worcester to the southwest and New Hampshire's seacoast region to the northeast. Just south of the state line, I-93 crosses the Merrimack River into Methuen, where it interchanges with Routes 110 and 113 at exit 46 just north of the river crossing.
Prior to August 2016, the Route 110 and 113 junction beneath I-93 was a rotary, but current construction routes the highways straight under I-93. While two new ramps are being built at the interchange to complete the new partial cloverleaf format, there are temporary signals and inlets at the end of two existing ramps to serve traffic that will soon be using the new loop ramps. Work began in July 2014 on the project, with the rotary now closed, demolition of the rotary will be underway in late 2016; the full project is scheduled for completion in June 2018. I-93 interchanges with the western end of Route 213, a connector between I-93 and I-495. I-93 crosses into New Hampshire after about 1 mile. In all, I-93 has 48 numbered exits in Massachusetts, although several numbers are skipped in and near Boston. One noteworthy reason that some exits were removed from I-93 is to further address traffic problems in addition to converting the Central Artery from six to eight to ten lanes, by reducing the combined number of on- and off-ramps from 27 to 14.
Exit 48 in Methuen, just before the New Hampshire state line, is the highest-numbered exit along the entire route. I-93 once had only 22 exits prior to the re-routing of I-95 onto MA 128. Due to the highway being one of the two major Interstates that enter Boston directly, nearly the entire length of the highway in Massachusetts carries four lanes in each direction. Average daily traffic volumes on I-93 in the state range from 100,000 vehicles at the New Hampshire border and 150,000 vehicles at the southern end at I-95 to over 200,000 vehicles through Braintree and Quincy. Interstate 93 travels just over 131 miles in the Granite State, around two-thirds of the highway's total distance. Serving as the main interstate route in New Hampshire, it connects the state capital and its largest city, Manchester. Beyond Concord are the towns of Tilton and Littleton. I-93 is designated as the Alan B. Shepard Highway, from the Massachusetts line to Hooksett (just north of Ma
Hydropower
Hydropower or water power is power derived from the energy of falling water or fast running water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Since ancient times, hydropower from many kinds of watermills has been used as a renewable energy source for irrigation and the operation of various mechanical devices, such as gristmills, textile mills, trip hammers, dock cranes, domestic lifts, ore mills. A trompe, which produces compressed air from falling water, is sometimes used to power other machinery at a distance. In the late 19th century, hydropower became a source for generating electricity. Cragside in Northumberland was the first house powered by hydroelectricity in 1878 and the first commercial hydroelectric power plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1879. In 1881, street lamps in the city of Niagara Falls were powered by hydropower. Since the early 20th century, the term has been used exclusively in conjunction with the modern development of hydroelectric power. International institutions such as the World Bank view hydropower as a means for economic development without adding substantial amounts of carbon to the atmosphere, but dams can have significant negative social and environmental impacts.
In India, water wheels and watermills were built as early as the 4th century BC, although records of that era are spotty at best. In the Roman Empire, water-powered mills produced flour from grain, were used for sawing timber and stone. In China and the rest of the Far East, hydraulically operated "pot wheel" pumps raised water into crop or irrigation canals; the power of a wave of water released from a tank was used for extraction of metal ores in a method known as hushing. The method was first used at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines in Wales from 75 AD onwards, but had been developed in Spain at such mines as Las Médulas. Hushing was widely used in Britain in the Medieval and periods to extract lead and tin ores, it evolved into hydraulic mining when used during the California Gold Rush. In the Middle Ages, Islamic mechanical engineer Al-Jazari described designs for 50 devices, many of them water powered, in his book, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, including clocks, a device to serve wine, five devices to lift water from rivers or pools, though three are animal-powered and one can be powered by animal or water.
These include an endless belt with jugs attached, a cow-powered shadoof, a reciprocating device with hinged valves. In 1753, French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published Architecture Hydraulique which described vertical- and horizontal-axis hydraulic machines. By the late nineteenth century, the electric generator was developed by a team led by project managers and prominent pioneers of renewable energy Jacob S. Gibbs and Brinsley Coleberd and could now be coupled with hydraulics; the growing demand for the Industrial Revolution would drive development as well. Hydraulic power networks used pipes to carry pressurized water and transmit mechanical power from the source to end users; the power source was a head of water, which could be assisted by a pump. These were extensive in Victorian cities in the United Kingdom. A hydraulic power network was developed in Geneva, Switzerland; the world-famous Jet d'Eau was designed as the over-pressure relief valve for the network. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, water was the main source of power for new inventions such as Richard Arkwright's water frame.
Although the use of water power gave way to steam power in many of the larger mills and factories, it was still used during the 18th and 19th centuries for many smaller operations, such as driving the bellows in small blast furnaces and gristmills, such as those built at Saint Anthony Falls, which uses the 50-foot drop in the Mississippi River. In the 1830s, at the early peak in the US canal-building, hydropower provided the energy to transport barge traffic up and down steep hills using inclined plane railroads; as railroads overtook canals for transportation, canal systems were modified and developed into hydropower systems. Technological advances had moved the open water wheel into an enclosed water motor. In 1848 James B. Francis, while working as head engineer of Lowell's Locks and Canals company, improved on these designs to create a turbine with 90% efficiency, he applied scientific principles and testing methods to the problem of turbine design. His mathematical and graphical calculation methods allowed the confident design of high-efficiency turbines to match a site's specific flow conditions.
The Francis reaction turbine is still in wide use today. In the 1870s, deriving from uses in the California mining industry, Lester Allan Pelton developed the high efficiency Pelton wheel impulse turbine, which utilized hydropower from the high head streams characteristic of the mountainous California interior. A hydropower resource can be evaluated by its available power. Power is a function of volumetric flow rate; the head is the energy per unit weight of water. The static head is proportional to the difference in height. Dynamic head is related to the velocity of moving water; each unit of water can do an amount of work equal to its weight times the head. The power available from falling water can be calculated from the flow rate and density of water, the height of fall, the local acceleration due to gravity: W ˙ o u t =
Benning Wentworth
Benning Wentworth was the colonial governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766. The eldest child of Lieutenant Governor John Wentworth, he was a great-grandson of "Elder" William Wentworth. Benning was died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Under his father's leadership, the Wentworths had become one of the most prominent political and merchant families in the small colony. Benning Wentworth graduated from Harvard College in 1715, he became a merchant at Portsmouth, represented the town in the provincial assembly. He was appointed as a King's Councillor, 12 October 1734. A series of twists of fate brought Wentworth to the governor's chair in 1741, his father, a relation of Charles Watson-Wentworth, the Marquis of Rockingham, had lobbied colonial officials to establish a separate governorship for New Hampshire. Until it had been under the oversight of the governor of the neighboring Province of Massachusetts Bay. Jonathan Belcher, governor of both provinces during the 1730s and a Massachusetts native, had during his tenure issued many land grants to Massachusetts interests in disputed areas west of the Merrimack River.
There were claims. The dispute reached the highest levels of King George II's government by the late 1730s, the Board of Trade decided to separate the two governorships. At the time, Wentworth was in London dealing with a personal financial crisis, he had delivered a shipment of timber to Spain in 1733, but was not paid by the Spanish because of an episode of difficult diplomatic relations at the time. Wentworth had had to borrow money to pay his own creditors, had lobbied London to secure payment from Spain; the diplomatic moves were unsuccessful, Wentworth was forced into bankruptcy. As part of the bankruptcy, he claimed £11,000 were owed him by the British government due to the Spanish failure to pay, his London creditors agreed to forgo immediate repayment of the debt if the government gave him the governorship of New Hampshire. This was agreed, on the condition. Wentworth's commission as governor of New Hampshire was issued in June 1741. On 13 December 1741 Wentworth assumed the office. Wentworth was authorised by the Crown to grant patents of unoccupied land, in 1749 began making grants in what is now southern Vermont.
He enriched himself by a clever scheme of selling land to developers in spite of jurisdictional claims for this region by the Province of New York. He named the new townships after famous contemporaries in order to gain support for his enterprises. In each of the grants, he stipulated the reservation of a lot for an Anglican church, one for himself; this scheme led to a great deal of contention between New York and the settlers in Vermont. The dispute outlived Wentworth's administration, lasting until Vermont was admitted as a state in 1791. A fact overlooked among those who accuse Wentworth of overweening self-interest is that the charters he issued were intended to establish self-supporting towns based on democratic government and fee simple ownership of land; the Wentworth grants created modern towns in this sense, unlike New Netherland and New York, for example. The grants were all similar: the towns were 6 miles square, containing about 24,000 acres; the charters required set-asides to support the school, the settled minister, the Glebe, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
He issued the charters to groups of investors in southern New England, most of whom never set foot there. They hired surveyors who measured off 100-acre lots, hired middlemen who sold the lots to individuals and families eager to move north out of the already-crowded lower colonies. To prevent runaway speculation, failure to occupy and put the land under cultivation resulted in forfeiture. Wentworth's charters called for settlers to cultivate 5 acres in 5 years for every 50 acres they owned. Proof of cultivation was payment of an ear of Indian corn in Portsmouth once a year at Christmas, for the first 10 years. Thereafter, once the economy was up and running and hard currency was available, the "tax" was 1 shilling per year for every 100 acres owned, in perpetuity; when 50 families had settled the town could have 2 fairs per year. An important and universally missed fact is that the Wentworth charters stipulated the formation of a town government and an annual Town Meeting, to be held the first Tuesday in March.
This town meeting practice still holds today. It is true that Wentworth reserved 500 acres in the contiguous corners of each town, marked on maps with "B. W.", but it still is not clear whether he did so as a private individual or as a representative of the Crown. More study in original documents is needed, he ordered the construction of Fort Wentworth, built in 1755 at Northumberland, New Hampshire and named for him. Wentworth gave important government patronage positions to relatives together with extensive grants of land. Businessmen and residents grew resentful of his administration's corruption and mismanagement and neglect of the crown's timber interests, forcing his resignation in 1767. Afterward, Wentworth donated 500 acres of land to Dartmouth College for construction of its buildings, his nephew John Wentworth succeeded him as governor. New York Province contended for the same land area. Wentworth's charters provided for ownership in fee simple. Ne
Pemigewasset River
The Pemigewasset River, known locally as "The Pemi", is a river in the state of New Hampshire, the United States. It is 65.0 miles in length and drains 1,021 square miles. The name "Pemigewasset" comes from the Abenaki word bemijijoasek, meaning "where side current is"; the Pemigewasset originates in the town of Franconia. It flows south through the White Mountains and merges with the Winnipesaukee River to form the Merrimack River at Franklin; the Merrimack flows through southern New Hampshire, northeastern Massachusetts and into the Atlantic Ocean. The Interstate 93 highway runs parallel with the river between New Hampton; the river passes through the communities of Lincoln, North Woodstock, Thornton, Plymouth, Ashland, Bristol, New Hampton, Hill and Franklin. The river descends over waterfalls in Franconia Notch, including "The Basin", passes cascades in North Woodstock, drops over Livermore Falls north of Plymouth; the remainder of the northern Pemi, from Lincoln to Ashland, passes over copious gravel bars and attracts numerous boaters and fishermen.
Below Ashland, the river is impounded by the Ayers Island Dam, a hydroelectric facility, for over five miles. A short stretch of heavy whitewater is found below the dam, before the river reaches the impoundment zone for the Franklin Falls flood control reservoir; the river crosses one additional hydroelectric dam below Franklin Falls before joining the Winnipesaukee River in the center of Franklin. The Pemigewasset watershed consists of over 1,100 miles of rivers and 17,000 acres of lake and reservoir area; the watershed comprises about 20 percent of the Merrimack's total watershed area. Major tributaries include: East Branch of the Pemigewasset River; the East Branch is longer than the main branch of the river. Lost River Mad River Beebe River Baker River Squam River Newfound River Smith River List of New Hampshire rivers The Columbia Gazetteer of North America Merrimack River Watershed Council EPA report on watershed status U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Pemigewasset River
Franconia Notch State Park
Franconia Notch State Park is located in the White Mountains in northern New Hampshire, United States, straddles 8 miles of Interstate 93 as it passes through Franconia Notch, a mountain pass between the Kinsman Range and Franconia Range. Attractions in the state park include the Flume Gorge and visitor center, the Old Man of the Mountain historical site, fishing in Echo Lake and Profile Lake, miles of hiking and ski trails; the northern part of the park, including Cannon Mountain and Echo and Profile lakes, is in the town of Franconia, the southern part, including Lonesome Lake and the Flume, is in Lincoln. The park is home to a state-owned ski resort started in the 1930s; the mountain is named for a rock formation in the shape of a cannon found on the summit, but the "Old Man of the Mountain" formation was by far the more famous. Cannon is famous for being one of the most challenging hills in New England, it boasts an aerial tram, which runs year-round, ferrying sightseers to the summit in the summer time and skiers in the winter.
At the base of the tramway is the New England Ski Museum, with exhibits on the history of alpine skiing in New England and America. On the west side of the notch, halfway up the side of Cannon Mountain, is Lonesome Lake, an easy day hike up the Lonesome Lake Trail from the state park's Lafayette Place campground; the Lonesome Lake Hut, one of numerous well-kept huts throughout the White Mountains that are maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club, is found at the southwest end of the lake, near its outlet. Huts offer meals and lodging. Opposite Cannon Mountain, on the east side of the notch, are the Eagle Cliffs, so named for the eagles that sometimes roost there; the Greenleaf Trail, a hiking trail, winds around the south side of the cliff and up to Greenleaf Hut, another AMC hut. East of Greenleaf Hut and outside the state park is the 5,249-foot summit of Mount Lafayette and the Franconia Ridge Trail; the Appalachian Trail continues north to Mount Washington and to Mount Katahdin in Maine.
Beneath a waterfall in the Pemigewasset River is a granite pothole about 20 feet across known as "the Basin". It was scrubbed out by stones dragged by the retreating North American ice sheet, since made smooth by 15 millennia of whirling pebbles and grit. Below the Basin is "Old Man's Foot", a distinctively shaped rock formation the natural result of Pemigewasset's erosive energy. List of mountain passes in New Hampshire List of New Hampshire state parks Franconia Notch State Park official website Cannon Mountain Ski Area Paintings of Franconia Notch
Grafton County, New Hampshire
Grafton County is a county in the U. S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2010 census, the population was 89,118, its county seat is a village within the town of Haverhill. Until 1972, the county courthouse and other offices were in downtown Woodsville, a larger village within the town of Haverhill. Grafton County is part of NH -- VT Micropolitan Statistical Area; the county is the home of Plymouth State University. Progressive Farmer rated Grafton County fourth in its list of the "Best Places to Live in Rural America" in 2006, citing low unemployment, a favorable cost of living, the presence of White Mountain National Forest, the state's only national forest. Grafton was one of the five counties identified for New Hampshire in 1769, it was named for Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, a supporter of American causes in Parliament, and, serving as British Prime Minister at the time. The county was organized at Woodsville in 1771, included the entire northern frontier of New Hampshire, including several towns now in Vermont.
In 1803, the northern area was removed for the formation of Coos County. The three counties to the south were Strafford and Cheshire, the eastern edge bordered the "District of Maine". In 1797, the county had 50 townships, 17 locations, a population of 23,093. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,750 square miles, of which 1,709 square miles are land and 41 square miles are water, it is the second-largest county in New Hampshire by area. Grafton County is rural. About half of its area is in the White Mountain National Forest. Squam Lake, featured in the film On Golden Pond, the Old Man of the Mountain landmark are here, as are Dartmouth College and the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Many of the 4,000-foot mountains of New Hampshire are within the county; the Appalachian Trail passes through parts of at least ten towns in the county. White Mountain National Forest As of the census of 2000, 81,743 people, 31,598 households, 20,254 families resided in the county.
The population density was 48 people per square mile. There were 43,729 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile; the county's racial makeup was 95.76% White, 1.73% Asian, 0.53% Black or African American, 0.31% Native American, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.39% from other races, 1.26% from two or more races. 1.12% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 19.0% were of English, 12.9% Irish, 11.1% French, 7.8% American, 7.5% German, 6.8% French Canadian and 5.5% Italian ancestry. 95.1% spoke English, 1.5% French and 1.3% Spanish as their first language. There were 31,598 households, of which 29.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.40% were married couples living together, 8.30% had a female householder with no husband present, 35.90% were non-families. 27.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.50% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.90. In the county, the population was spread out with 21.90% under the age of 18, 13.50% from 18 to 24, 27.00% from 25 to 44, 24.20% from 45 to 64, 13.40% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.30 males. The county's median household income was $41,962, the median family income was $50,424. Males had a median income of $31,874 versus $25,286 for females; the per capita income for the county was $22,227. About 5.10% of families and 8.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.60% of those under age 18 and 7.50% of those age 65 or over. As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 89,118 people, 35,986 households, 22,074 families in the county; the population density was 52.2 inhabitants per square mile. There were 51,120 housing units at an average density of 29.9 per square mile. The county's racial makeup was 93.6% white, 3.0% Asian, 0.9% black or African American, 0.4% American Indian, 0.4% from other races, 1.8% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.8% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 23.6% were English, 18.7% were Irish, 10.9% were German, 6.6% were Italian, 5.8% were Scottish, 5.8% were French Canadian, 5.0% were American.
Of the 35,986 households, 25.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.0% were married couples living together, 8.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 38.7% were non-families, 29.4% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.80. The median age was 41.2 years. The median household income was $53,075 and the median family income was $66,253. Males had a median income of $43,566 versus $33,535 for females; the per capita income for the county was $28,170. About 5.1% of families and 9.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.8% of those under age 18 and 10.6% of those age 65 or over. In the 2000 United States presidential election, Al Gore narrowly defeated George W. Bush, taking 47.31% of the vote to Bush's 46.71%. Other candidates got a combined 5.98%. In 2004 John Kerry defeated George Bush by a wider margin: Kerry received 55.74% of the vote, while Bush received 43.17%. In 2008, Barack Obama carried Grafton by a landslide, receiving 63.03% of the vote to John McCain's 35.45%.
It was Obama's highest percentage by county in New Hampshire. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won this county with 55.7 %. It was Clinton's highest percentage
Lincoln
