New Hampshire

I

Introduction

New Hampshire, one of the six New England states and one of the smaller states of the United States. The state is bordered on the north by the Canadian province of Québec, on the east by Maine and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Massachusetts, and on the west by Vermont. Concord is the capital of New Hampshire. Manchester is the largest city.

Settled only three years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, New Hampshire was one of the original 13 colonies. As the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, New Hampshire cast the decisive vote on June 21, 1788, that put the Constitution into effect.

New Hampshire has within its boundaries the highest mountains in New England, countless lakes, hundreds of streams and brooks, and large areas of unspoiled woodlands. Tourists have flocked to New Hampshire since the late 1800s. Despite its rural appearance, New Hampshire has long been an industrial state. Two of its early industries, the manufacture of shoes and of textiles, started in the homes of the earliest settlers.

New Hampshire is known as the Granite State because of its extensive granite formations and deposits. The state was named by Captain John Mason, who in the early 17th century received one of the first land grants in what was to become New Hampshire. He named the area after the English county of Hampshire, where he had spent time as a youth.

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II

Physical Geography

New Hampshire is the seventh smallest state in the nation, with an area of 24,216 sq km (9,350 sq mi), including 813 sq km (314 sq mi) of inland waters. The state is roughly triangular in shape. Its greatest distance from north to south is 291 km (181 mi) and its largest extent east to west is 151 km (94 mi). New Hampshire’s mean elevation is about 300 m (about 1,000 ft).

New Hampshire was once covered by glaciers, the last of which receded 10,000 years ago. These glaciers greatly affected the landscape by rounding the mountains and creating hundreds of streams and lakes. In addition, much of New Hampshire is covered with rocks, boulders, and clays that were deposited by the glaciers. Although all of the state was covered by the glaciers, there are great differences among its natural regions.

A

Natural Regions

New Hampshire’s land area is divided into three major natural regions: the White Mountains, the New England Upland, and the Seaboard Lowland. All three are sections of the New England physiographic province, which in turn forms part of the Appalachian Region.

The White Mountains occupy most of the northern one-third of the state. This natural region is the most rugged and heavily forested part of New Hampshire and contains some of the most magnificent mountain scenery in the eastern United States. The average elevation of the White Mountains in New Hampshire is from 760 to 1,200 m (2,500 to 4,000 ft). However, Mount Washington, in a part of the White Mountains called the Presidential Range, in north central New Hampshire, rises to 1,917 m (6,288 ft) and is the highest mountain in New England. Eight other mountains in the Presidential Range also have elevations of more than 1,500 m (5,000 ft). Deep glacial valleys, or gorges, are common in the White Mountains. Among the most famous of such valleys are Franconia Notch, Crawford Notch, and Tuckerman Ravine. That part of the White Mountains in the extreme northern New Hampshire is somewhat lower, with a maximum elevation of about 1,100 m (3,600 ft).

The New England Upland occupies most of central and southern New Hampshire. It is a hilly or rolling region with an average elevation of about 370 m (1,200 ft). However, a few isolated mountains rise to more than 900 m (3,000 ft) in the south. These mountains, which consist of rock that has resisted erosion more than the surrounding terrain, are called monadnocks, after Mount Monadnock, which was formed in this way in southern New Hampshire. The western edge of the New England Upland in New Hampshire includes the valley of the Connecticut River, a level plain 8 km (5 m) wide. The upland region in the state is also dotted with hundreds of lakes and streams, most of which were formed by glaciers.

The Seaboard Lowland covers the southeastern corner of the state. In this region the land slopes gently downward to the ocean from about 150 m (500 ft) near the New England Upland. The Seaboard Lowland is mostly level or gently rolling.

B

Rivers and Lakes

The Connecticut and Merrimack river systems drain most of the state. The Connecticut River rises in the Connecticut Lakes of northern New Hampshire and flows southward for 400 km (250 mi) along the Vermont-New Hampshire border before entering the state of Massachusetts. Its main tributaries in New Hampshire are the Israel, Ammonoosuc, Mascoma, Sugar, and Ashuelot rivers.

The Merrimack River is formed in central New Hampshire by the junction of the Pemigewasset and the Winnipesaukee rivers. The Merrimack’s largest tributaries are the Contoocook, Piscataquog, and Souhegan rivers, all of which enter from the west, and the Suncook River, which enters from the east. Other important rivers in New Hampshire are the Androscoggin and the Saco, which rise in northern New Hampshire and flow through Maine, and the Piscataqua and Salmon Falls rivers, which form part of the boundary between Maine and New Hampshire.

New Hampshire has more than 1,300 lakes and ponds. Its largest lake by far is the irregularly shaped Lake Winnipesaukee, in east central New Hampshire, which is 186 sq km (72 sq mi) in size. Other large natural lakes are Squam Lake, Newfound Lake, and Lake Sunapee.

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