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Franconia -Towns of the White Mountains

Franconia is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 924 at the 2000 census. Set in the White Mountains, Franconia is home to Franconia Notch State Park. Parts of the White Mountain National Forest are in the east and south. The Appalachian Trail crosses the southern part.

First granted in 1764 by Colonial Governor Benning Wentworth as Indian Head, the town’s settlers were unable to meet the terms of charter, and it was regranted in 1772 by his nephew, Governor John Wentworth, as Morristown. In 1782, the town was renamed Franconia due to the terrain’s resemblance to the Frankish Alb in Germany. The town sits on a rich iron deposit, and the region once produced pig iron and bar iron for farm tools and cast iron ware.

The town is home to the Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway, which rises to the 4,100-foot summit of Cannon Mountain. Built in 1938, it was the first passenger aerial tramway in North America.

The town was home to Franconia College in the 1960s and 1970s.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 66.0 square miles (171 km²), of which 65.9 sq mi (171 km²) is land and 0.1 sq mi (0.26 km²) is water, comprising 0.12% of the town. Franconia is drained by the Pemigewasset River, the Gale River, and the Ham Branch of the Gale River, in addition to Lafayette Brook. The north-western two-thirds of Franconia lies within the Connecticut River watershed, while the south-eastern corner lies in the Merrimack River watershed.^[1]

The area of Franconia Notch is well-known for its natural features, including Profile and Echo lakes, the Basin, Mount Lafayette, Mount Lincoln, and Cannon Mountain. Mount Lafayette, at 5,260 feet (1,600 m) above sea level, is the highest peak in Franconia. The Old Man of the Mountain, a profile-like cliff which inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write The Great Stone Face, collapsed on May 3, 2003.

In addition to the mountains around Franconia Notch, there are several other four-thousand footers within the town limits: Mount Garfield, Galehead Mountain, South Twin Mountain, and Owl’s Head.

Notable residents:

Samuel Bode Miller (born October 12, 1977, in Easton, New Hampshire) is a champion alpine ski racer.

Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet.

Ernest Poole (1880 - 1950) was a U.S. novelist.

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