NEW HAMPSHIRE HOLIDAY

[Music] gentlemen this is jack douglas with a brief introduction to tonight's colorful armchair vacation these majestic mountains gave it its nickname the granite state new hampshire a land of beautiful lakes charming seacoast fishing villages and picturesque new england towns john paul jones lived for a time in portsmouth daniel webster called salisbury home and new hampshire was the first of the 13 colonies to declare independence from great britain well this is merely a brief introduction to your new hampshire holiday these dramatic words live free or die were written by one of new hampshire's revolutionary war heroes john stark later they were adopted as the state's motto new hampshire's atlantic coastline is only 18 miles long but in that 18 miles you'll find broad sandy beaches and rock formations reminiscent of maine portsmouth is a city with an illustrious past this flag flying the 13 stars is in prescott park the flagpole was first directed on this spot on july 4 1824 and on that day the flag of the original 13 colonies was unfurled once again the ceremony commemorated the first never to be forgotten july 4th 1776. this old shipbuilding shed is part of new hampshire's rendezvous with historic destiny back in 1777 a dashing young naval captain lived here as a border his name john paul jones on july 4 1777 aboard the american naval vessel ranger a proud group of men and women watched as he raised the american flag for the first time anywhere on the open sea on february fourteen seventeen seventy eight in cui baron bay on the french coast the stars and stripes were given their first recognition by a foreign power the government of france this is a model of the ranger the ship commanded by john paul jones and she was built in this very shed completed in the spring of 1777 the ranger had an overall length of 116 feet weighed 308 tons mounted 18 guns and carried a complement of 140 men in those days portsmouth looked like this it was founded along this section of the piscataqua river today that same part of portsmouth appears as we see it here this area is called strawberry bank and it's the site of numerous historic buildings at chase house we pause for a talk with mr robert mclaughlin who's been active in restoring some of the old homes jack we're standing in the men's smoking room in chase house in strawberry bag strawberry bag because new hampshire was born on a hillside of wild strawberries a sailing ship wandered up the piscataqua river its crew sick of hard tack and cast water and on the banks they found wild strawberries and fresh water the year was 1630. portsmouth has long been aware of the necessity of for restoration and maintaining its great buildings for reinforcements are some of the finest examples of colonial architecture in existence one of these great buildings is the waterhouse the earliest brick house in portsmouth and the earliest mansion in new england to do an authentic restoration there are many things to be considered for instance what color do you paint a room to find out you engage a skills craftsman who layer by layer takes off the paint that is accumulated over the centuries until you are back to the bare wood then very carefully you mix the color for the first coat of paint applied to the room and this is the color that you use to have an authentic restoration you must have an area in which there are houses of either historical or architectural importance historical importance of course must be documented for architectural importance you engage a famous architect like the firm of perry shaw hitman and dean who did colonial williamsburg in this particular area of strawberry bag we will have 27 houses all dating 1830 or earlier all standing on their original foundations the warner house has a widow's walk on top of the roof the walk derives its name from the days of wailing vessels when the wife of a ship's captain would keep her anxious vigil on the widow's walk looking out toward the harbor hoping that her husband would return safely from the sea the governor john langdon house is considered by many architects to be one of the great georgian houses in america built in 1784 this grand old mansion has spacious lovely grounds that attest to the elegant kind of living enjoyed by its owners among the notables entertained here were george washington and the french hero lafayette [Music] this stately old church on chapel street in portsmouth is saint john's inside we can see the bell that was recast by paul revere at his ironworks in 1807. president george washington attended services here on november 1st 1789 and he sat in this chair which had been given to the church by caroline queen consort of george second of england this pew honors daniel webster the great statesman and orator worshipped here with his wife grace fletcher in 1808. [Music] if you find yourself in the vicinity of the lower bow street area around lunchtime you might stop in at the river house tea shop you'll be served by a young lady in an empire costume and after lunch you can browse through the art gallery or the captain's locker gift the man and woman in this row boat are quite at home in the harbor of portsmouth they are margaret and paul stickles and they work the better part of each year fishing for lobster in the coastal waters outside the harbor we accepted their invitation to visit their home and learn more about the elusive shellfish that is the most important source of income for new hampshire's saltwater fishermen while mrs stickles unloaded the day's catch she described lobster fishing as a commercial enterprise mrs tickles i was watching you and your husband coming in with your lobster catch this morning and i was intrigued and i've often wondered how a lobster's caught well as you can see there are two side heads here and a chamber now the lobster crawls in through here he can come in either side the bait is on the hook he will take the bait from here crawl in through here and usually land down here to eat it and he will stay there for a while and sometimes they will crawl out do you lose many lobsters that way well you could if you didn't haul your traps too often but most of the men go out uh in the morning usually around five or six and uh probably get in around noon time they haul their traps every day if the weather is bad they may go out every two days and of course stormy weather don't go out at all because uh the lobsters don't like thunder and lightning and it scares them are they that sensitive yes they will run right into the in around the rocks they'll stay in there maybe for two or three days that's very interesting yes uh the they evidently are very timid things that just don't like the noise they don't look timid they look rather ferocious oh they would be if you got your finger in there they wouldn't let go if you ever got your finger caught that's why most of the fishermen as soon as they catch them they will pack them before they put them into the dummies when you peg them that that means that they put the peg in the claw so that he can open his big claw to get at you uh what are these floats well we call them toggles and they keep the lines from being entangled on the rocks and this is interesting what what do you call this well this is a buoy these are what the um fishermen put on their traps it marks their traps and each fisherman has his own colors these are my husband's colors and the name is usually put on it right here if they're a washed shore most of the fishermen will just leave them there or notify the fishermen that they have seen a buoy laying there that perhaps it's his soul because daniel looks at it and if it says he takes it if not he leaves it there it is against the law to touch another man's another fisherman's trap you're just not supposed to touch them at all other than the fact that you notified them that their trap was laying on the shore somewhere so the yellow and black then is uh your colors for your yes yes this marks where my husband traps up you see when he sees this here why he knows his traps are right there the men standing in line by that large tent have just one thing in mind they're here for an old-fashioned new england lobster bacon what a feast it is this lobster believe it or not weighs 23 pounds enough tender white meat to feed even the hungriest vacationing family the lobsters are steamed cooked in a giant oven for four hours and then away they go to the hungry diners [Music] no we haven't switched our cameras to arizona we're in concord new hampshire for a talk with mr richard morton whose hobby is collecting stage coaches this was a very familiar scene around this area about a hundred years ago these stage coaches connected all the principal cities towns and villages in the state one of the very popular runs was a run from the shaker village at canterbury to the shaker colony at infield they these were both very thriving communities at that time and there was a great deal of great deal of travel between the two of them a stagecoach made a run of a roughly 35 to 40 miles in a day always stopping for a noonday meal and usually a change of horses i've read the daniel webster used to come from boston up to his home in barcelona here a distance of about 80 miles and it took two long days of stage coach travel usually these stage coaches travel along the valleys alongside the rivers and covered some of the most scenic areas in the state these coaches were built here in concord by the abbott and abbott and downing firm who started business in 1837. they gained a wide world reputation for the manufacturer of these cultures because of their sturdiness and their ability to take severe punishment probably the best customer that the abbott endowment firm had was the wells fargo people of the west there is a picture in the historical society showing 37 of these coaches leaving concord together with two box cars heading for north to the wells fargo company in north dakota didn't the stagecoaches play an important part in the development of the west oh yes oh yes the concord coach played a tremendous spot in the development of west 1857 president buchanan authorized john butterfield to set up butterfield stage line running from from st louis missouri to san francisco this was a tremendous task the man who collects stagecoaches a man you'll remember on your new hampshire holiday driving northwest of portsmouth on u.s highway 4 we arrive in about an hour at a little cabin standing beneath the shade of a majestic elm tree and in this rustic house daniel webster was born on january 18 1782 this lovely old tree was planted by daniel's father ebenezer in 1765 more than 200 years [Music] ago we're now at hanover on the banks of the connecticut river it's a quiet sunday morning in this small college town where dartmouth was founded in 1769. [Music] the famous hanover inn is deserted the classrooms and faculty offices along dartmouth row are virtually empty but there are many memories here especially of the young daniel webster who entered dartmouth at the age of 15. at the state house in concord the one prominent statue is of webster the new hampshirite who went on to become a congressman a senator and twice secretary of state [Music] near the town of cornish you'll see this antique bridge that still serves motorists and hikers who want to cross the connecticut river north of the bridge just off state highway 12a is the saint gardens museum the former home and studio of the great american sculptor this bust of saint gardens was done by one of his proteges but the sculptor himself did this classic study of abraham lincoln and this is a smaller version of an heroic statue of lincoln by saint gardens that was unveiled in lincoln park in chicago in 1887. more by saint gardens his longtime friend robert louis stevenson and this bust of general william sherman made from life required 18 sittings what price glory [Music] in newport near the village green is a building which always has the right time of day for this is the newport clock museum one of the finest collections of timepieces in new england many of these are quite ancient this water clock was made in 1629 and this german hourglass requires 90 hours for the sand to run through it as for this well it was a good buy back in 1750 a violin clock made by seth thomas in the early eighteen hundreds many of the treasures are animated this cupid for example swings in time to the clock's inside movement a french alarm clock a sundial with a cannon and a magnifying glass you fill the cannon with powder the sun's rays heat it and it fires at exactly 12 noon now an unusual time clock let's listen [Music] this is a german clock with chinese ivory decorations and a swiss music box it's been playing this song for 60 years [Music] weir's beach is one of the most popular resort centers on the shores of lake winnipesaukee new hampshire's largest lake lying in the foothills of the white mountains it was called the smile of the great spirit by the indians who once camped on its sandy beaches with 283 miles of shoreline and 365 islands the sparkling lake beckons visitors from all over the united states if you find yourself looking for the post office when you're near lakeport new hampshire this large boat leaving the dock solves your problem this is the uncle sam ii the only floating post office in the united states operating on an inland body of water a mail truck delivers the mail to the boat and the letters and packages are sorted on board while she's underway a converted navy pt boat the uncle sam second carries everything from baby food to bathtubs to the people who live on the lakes islands she also carries vacationers and you can take the four-hour trip for 1.75 children 75 cents [Music] in white mountain national forest we stopped for a talk with gordon miller past president of the recreational association mount agassi was named after louis agassi the famous swiss american geologist who evolved the theory that the ice cap covered the northern half of north america the franconia valley which you see before you was gouged to its present depth by the by the ice cap to the east is mount washington which is the highest peak in the presidential range closer at hand is the franconia range which includes mount cleveland in the foreground to the south is franconia notch and cannon mountain which is considered by many to be the cradle of skiing in the united states at franconia notch state park the old man of the mountain also called the great stone face attracts thousands of tourists every year the jutting rocks look like the profile of a man and are formed by five separate granite ledges they're at the top of sheer cliffs twelve hundred feet above profile like [Applause] [Music] if you'd like to go back to the days of steam railroads then come along to the base station of the mount washington cog railway on display is old pepper sass the world's first cog railway engine it was used to build the track that climbs mount washington for a distance of three and a half miles dating back to 1869 the railway has been in continuous operation ever since except for one year during the first war and three years during world war ii the cars seat around 50 passengers and this is the view you see going up the steep grade incidentally three miles of the track are built on trestles the average grade is 25 the steepest is 37 on a section of track called jacob's ladder the specially built steam locomotives have horizontal boilers that are lower in front so that while the engines tackle the steep grade the boilers will always be leveled well during the entire trip you can hear those wonderful sounds of days gone by sounds made by an engine that gets its power from steam [Music] and here's a picture that makes the trip truly worthwhile it looks like a train right out of a storybook at a stop called skyline sighting we meet one of the other trains on its way down the steep grade to the station below then our engine huffs and puffs heading for the top of mount washington new england's highest peak and before long we've reached the summit up here the air is brisk and the view from the 6200 foot mountain is breathtaking we're standing on the highest point of the presidential range in the heart of the majestically beautiful white mountains and when the shadows of evening come drifting across the lake you can pitch your tent and build a campfire the ingredients are plain and simple weenies or marshmallows and of course the comforting fire a simple recipe yes but the result is pure magic in the mountain country of the granite state new hampshire this lad at the telescope is robert merrill from the summit of mount cranmore this is his view of the presidential range with his sister colleen robert is exploring one of the green mountain meadows that is so typical of new hampshire for this is a land of great natural beauty this state that was named for county hampshire in great britain there is the quiet of green forests the lure of 1300 lakes and plenty of room to hike on the high plateaus just a few of the reasons for putting new hampshire high on your list of recommended vacations in america next week more faces and places somewhere in america until then this is jack douglas saying thank you so much and good night ladies and gentlemen boys and girls