What's that jumble of rocks on Lafayette

Just poking around in my old pictures and came up with this one I thought might be of interest to you. The horse in the center appears to be fitted with a side saddle which would be appropriate considering the ladies' dress style. Note the gent with the stove pipe hat.

Yes; according to Steve Smith's and Mike Dickerman's The 4000-Footers of the White Mountains, there used to be a "crude structure" atop Mount Lafayette, circa 1855, called the Mt. Lafayette Summit House.

Apparently, though, the building fell into disrepair within a decade of being built/opened.

Neat photograph!

....and, thankfully the initial idea of running a cog train to the top of Lafayette was abandoned in favor of Washington....

Choo Choo

I was a bit surprised to discover that Franconia Notch, at least the Profile House was once served by rail.

Hillwalker said:

I was a bit surprised to discover that Franconia Notch, at least the Profile House was once served by rail.

Click to expand...

If you check out the Smith/Dickerman book (referenced in my above post), you'll find out that rail served a number of areas like Franconia and Crawford Notches in the latter 19th century.

Curious, I took a look at some of the antique Bartlett and Sprague engravings of the White Mountains I have from the 1840s-50s and they show only dirt roads with carriages.

Reading a bit more in Smith/Dickerman, it looks like within 25 years of the time of the engravings, though, railroads had come to the area and so began the "golden age" of tourism in the Whites.

Dr. Dasypodidae said:

....and, thankfully the initial idea of running a cog train to the top of Lafayette was abandoned in favor of Washington....

Click to expand...

Wow, never heard of that! Where were they planning to run it?

rocket21 said:

Wow, never heard of that! Where were they planning to run it?

Click to expand...

I am not sure on the routing, perhaps following the path of the Greenleaf Trail from near Profile Lake? Here is an article about Sylvester Marsh.

http://www.cog-railway.com/03smarsh.htm

Hillwalker said:

I was a bit surprised to discover that Franconia Notch, at least the Profile House was once served by rail.

Click to expand...

There is a previous note about how Rte. 3 follows much of the old rail grade to Twin Mtn, the line did not connect to the S

At one time nearly every town in NH had rail service somewhere, often the present center of town moved to trackside from a previous location higher up

In the Catskills, at least one of the major hotels had competing spurs from 2 railroads