Mount Monadnock: "A blue true dream of sky"
Last Saturday night I fell asleep with one wish: that the next day’s weather would be as predicted—a first taste of spring. Sunday morning I awoke to not only an accurate forecast, but, also, a random poem sent to my email aptly titled, “Monadnock in Early Spring”, by Amy Lowell, and thus a Tankful Travels destination was set in motion.
A mountain provides two perspectives: the one looking up at it, and the other looking down from it. What makes Mount Monadnock both intriguing and remarkable is its bald summit and views of all six New England states (on a very clear day). The Mountain lies within the two New Hampshire towns of Dublin and Jaffrey. It stands 3,165-ft tall, and is one of the most hiked mountains in the United States (100,000 ascents annually), due in part, to its dozens of trails offering varying levels of challenge, from novice to advanced climbers.
The lore encompassing Monadnock is as ancient as the hills that surround it. According to Dr. Robert Goodby, a professor from nearby Franklin Pierce College, it was 11,000 years ago when the first humans beheld its two perspectives. From below, the ascending alpine line would have covered its summit, and from its summit there would have been views of enormous lakes that eventually, over time, became just mere rivers and ponds. Herds of caribou could be seen in the thousands migrating along its slopes and across the valley floor.
(Photo: looking out from the summit of Mount Monadnock, Google Images, source unknown)
Another 5,000 years later, people saw combinations of woodlands and cleared lands from atop the mountain, with smoke drifting up across the distant landscape indicative of native settlements. Somewhere between these two time periods it is speculated that the indigenous people, the Abenaki, referred to it as “menadena”, meaning “mountain that stands alone”. The first European settlers to the area retained a form of that word, which evolved into Monadnock. Modern geologists utilize the word as a noun to designate an inselberg or lone mountain.
(Photo: the southern side of Monadnock taken from Cathedral of the Pines, in nearby Rindge, NH)
The mountain’s denuded summit adds to its mythology. Some say it is due to fires that were intentionally set centuries ago, first by the Abenaki to propagate undergrowth that would, in turn, encourage the deer population, and then later by the English settlers in an attempt to clear its slopes for pasture. Apparently, one of the latter fires blazed out of control, spreading and burning for weeks. The damaged topsoil was further eroded by winds and rain, leaving the summit as it has appeared henceforth, whereby nothing can take root.
Today, with miles of unobstructed views, we can identify landmarks such as the Prudential Tower in Boston, Newburyport Harbor, and parts of the Berkshires including Mount Greylock, Mount Washington in New Hampshire, as well as Stratton and the Green Mountains in Vermont—a combination of “natural and cultural geography”, observed Monadnock author, Craig Brandon.
(Photo: the Boston skyline at sunrise, viewed from Mount Monadnock. From the Monadnock State Park archives. Date and photographer unknown.)
But whatever the actual reason(s) for its appearance, Monadnock owes its storied past also to the great thinkers and artists who were moved by its uniqueness, and sought to convey its essence in poetry and paintings. Many (such as me, upon reading Amy Lowell’s poem) felt compelled to seek out this mountain described on canvas and in copy, hoping to be moved likewise.
(Photo: looking south from the Monadnock--in the center, on the horizon, is a faint glimpse of Wachusett Mountain, Princeton, MA)
Henry David Thoureau, who walked the 50+ miles from Concord to climb Monadnock four times sought to not only see the views from the mountain, but more importantly to, “see the mountain”. His notebooks on the subject are considered the earliest comprehensive assessment of its flora and fauna. Thoreau wrote in his 1842 poem “With Frontier Strength Ye Stand Your Guard”:
Monadnock—firm argument that never stirs, Outcircling the philosophers,— Like some vast fleet, Sailing through rain and sleet, Through winter's cold and summer's heat; Still holding on upon your high emprise, Until ye find a shore amid the skies Ralph Waldo Emerson, too, visited Monadnock in 1845 and penned one of his most famous works, “Monadnock”. He waxes rhapsodic throughout the long form poem:
On the summit as I stood, O'er the wide floor of plain and flood, Seemed to me, the towering hill Was not altogether still This rune branded the mountain a must-see among the literati—Mark Twain, E.A. Robinson, H.P. Lovecraft, Willa Cather, Rudyard Kipling are just some of the intellectual elite who made their way to pay homage to Monadnock, leading the poet, Robert Lowell (a relative of Amy), to write that Monadnock was the Country’s “most literary mountain”.
(Photo: taken from Cathedral of the Pines)
Artists, too, were drawn to Monadnock, important artists like American painters Rockwell Kent and Abbott Thayer, who, mesmerized by its allure, painted the mountain again and again, almost obsessively, hoping to capture its aspect.
(Painting: Mt. Monadnock, Rockwell Kent, 1903, oil on canvas, Portland Museum of Art, ME)
In 1888, Thayer moved to Dublin and founded the Dublin Art Colony, which eventually led Kent there to study under him. Upon Thayer’s death, his ashes were scattered on Monadnock’s summit in 1921. Their work and the work of Emerson and Thoreau (and several other American literary and artistic titans) helped establish Monadnock as a major American monument.
(Painting: Mount Monadnock, Abbott Thayer, 1911, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art—Corcoran Collection)
Most importantly, this all culminated in an increased awareness of the mountain that expanded beyond its local limits. Designated a national National Natural Landmark in 1987, the mountain and its trails are currently managed by the New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation, a state agency. Across the nation, both near and far, countless, everyday people have journeyed to the iconic Monadnock, seeking that fabled inspiration—their stories evolving into treasured family memories that persist for generations.
(Photo: courtesy of John Burk)
This posting is dedicated to my dad, Guy Careau (1921-2011), whose lifelong love affair with the mountain led me to “Monadnock in early spring”.
(Photo: Guy Careau on the summit of Mount Monadnock, c. 1951)
Monadnock in Early Spring
~Amy Lowell
Cloud-topped and splendid, dominating all The little lesser hills which compass thee, Thou standest, bright with April’s buoyancy, Yet holding Winter in some shaded wall Of stern, steep rock; and startled by the call Of Spring, thy trees flush with expectancy And cast a cloud of crimson, silently, Above thy snowy crevices where fall Pale shrivelled oak leaves, while the snow beneath Melts at their phantom touch. Another year Is quick with import. Such each year has been. Unmoved thou watchest all, and all bequeath Some jewel to thy diadem of power, Thou pledge of greater majesty unseen.
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