| Crawford Notch | |
|---|---|
-1839-Thomas_Cole.jpg) The Notch of the White Mountains (1839), byThomas Cole (1801–1848), looking south past Saco Lake | |
| Elevation | 1,900 ft (579 m) |
| Traversed by |  U.S. Route 302 |
| Location | Carroll /Coos counties,New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Range | White Mountains |
| Coordinates | 44°13′7″N71°24′42″W / 44.21861°N 71.41167°W /44.21861; -71.41167 |
| Topo map | USGS Crawford Notch, Stairs Mountain, Bartlett |
 Interactive map of Crawford Notch | |
Crawford Notch is a majorpass through theWhite Mountains ofNew Hampshire, located inHart's Location. Roughly half of that town is contained inCrawford Notch State Park. The high point of the notch, at approximately 1,900 feet (580 m) above sea level, is at the southern end of the town ofCarroll, near theCrawford Depot train station and Saco Lake, the source of theSaco River, which flows southward through the steep-sided notch. North of the high point of the notch, Crawford Brook flows more gently northwest to theAmmonoosuc River, a tributary of theConnecticut River.
The notch is traversed byU.S. Route 302, which closely follows the Saco River southeast toNorth Conway and less closely follows the Ammonoosuc River northwest toLittleton.
Originally called White Mountain Notch, it became known to European settlers when found by Timothy Nash in 1771.[1] The 1772 boundaries of Hart's Grant reflected its shape.[citation needed] It was named for theCrawford family, who were trail-builders and hostelers there in the 19th century. The Tenth New Hampshire Turnpike fromPortsmouth was extended through the notch toLancaster in 1803.[2][3] The turnpike and laterPortland and Ogdensburg Railroad through Crawford Notch opened a new route through the White Mountains for settlers of the area to the northwest to reachConway on the way to the trading ports on the coast.[4][need quotation to verify]
A well-documented historic event within the notch was arockslide that killed the entire Samuel Willey family in August 1826. The family fled their home during the storm to a prepared shelter but were buried by the slide and died in a mass of stone and rubble. Their home was untouched.Mount Willey, on the west side of the notch, is named in their memory.[5] The event in part inspired a short story byNathaniel Hawthorne titledThe Ambitious Guest.[6] Further down the notch, Nancy Brook andMount Nancy are named for an earlier tragedy.[5]
In the Carroll portion of the notch, theAppalachian Mountain Club has built and operates the Highland Center Lodge and Conference Center (on the site of the Crawford House Hotel, a 19th-century grand hotel that burned in 1972), and has renovated theQueen Anne style Victorian-era Crawford NotchMaine Centraltrain depot as a bookstore. The depot remains a stop on the scenic "Notch Train" of theConway Scenic Railroad, operated seasonally fromNorth Conway.
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