NH Secrets Legends and Lore

Here Comes the Sun

Daniel Weeks, Revision Energy and the Fight for a Livable World

A 12th-generation Granite Stater, Dan Weeks is well steeped in New Hampshire history but he is also a citizen of the world. Dan left New Hampshire after high school to serve with AmeriCorps and attend Yale and Oxford on scholarships. He lived and worked on four continents before returning to NH with his South African wife Dr. Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, a human rights lawyer and academic. Dan and Sindiso are the proud parents of three young children.

Most folks in New Hampshire have read or heard about "Chief" Chocorua. The story of Chocorua and the family of Cornelius Campbell is said to have taken place in the 1720s. This was approximately 40-50 years after the formation of the Wabanaki (People of the Dawnland) Confederation or Confederacy, formed in response to the growing threat from the two main colonial powers, England and France, as well as territorial threats from the Iroquois.

According to the legend, Chocorua was already an adult with a young son, he is said to have lost his wife to disease shortly after his son's birth. According to the legend. Chocorua befriended Cornelius Campbell, an immigrant from Scotland, who had settled in the area around what was known first as Burton, then as Albany and is today called Tamworth.

Today, Chocorua is spoken of in reference to both a man and the mountain which ostensibly bears his name. But did Chocorua actually exist or does his story represent 3 centuries of "fake news"?

Journalist and Author: “Water Connections” What fresh water means to us; What we mean to water

Jim Rousmaniere is a soft spoken fellow, but these still waters run deep as the saying goes. He has the curiosity and insight of an oracle to many of his admirers.  He is also straight out of central casting when it comes to the role of an editor, glasses at just the right level on his nose so he can look over them at you and make you feel like his BS meter is always on full alert.

After a stint in the Peace corps, he began his career in journalism  at The Baltimore Sun in Baltimore and Washington DC, where he covered national economics, and in the early 1980s he took over the editorship of the daily Keene (NH) Sentinel. He retired from newspaper management in 2013, at which time he began researching the subject of his book: "Water Connections."

While he clearly has a deep respect for the natural environment, it is the intimate and immediate connection with people and their stories that feed his imagination and enthusiasm and allow him to take what might seem a simple story and weave it together with the artistry of a symphonic composer. Art, history, science, and business all figure into the story that Jim tells.

Over the course of 42 years Mark Okrant has evolved from academic to tourism research guru to murder mystery author.

Mark Okrant has spent the past 42 years in New Hampshire teaching Tourism Management and establishing and then maintaining the mantle of "Tourism Research Guru" for the State of New Hampshire.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Mark came to New Hampshire in 1979 when he was hired by Plymouth State in response to a search for an individual to help establish the state of New Hampshire's first academic tourism program.

One of the grand benefits of all this was that many, perhaps all of the most interesting and majestic tourist attractions in the State of New Hampshire would roll out the red carpet for him and share with him the comfort of their accommodations and - now and then - a secret or two.

At some point Mark began to craft the idea of writing a murder mystery and staging it at one of the famous resorts in New Hampshire. Then a conversation with Steve Barba, an icon in New Hampshire tourism and owner of the Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch unleashed the dam. Mark had asked if Steve would be open to having him write a murder mystery about a crime at the Balsams. Not only did Steve say yes, he opened his doors and staff to the project. That conversation sparked a life-long friendship and Okrant's first novel "A Last Resort".

Nine mysteries, and one non-fiction book later, Okrant is still going strong and continues to write, though he is winding up his teaching career.

I caught up with Mark recently to talk about coming to New Hampshire, his academic and research career and writing novels.

Rob Wipfler - Director Kingswood

 Laketarletoncoalition.org

 Zack Porter, 

Standing Trees, [email protected]

In 2000 a coalition of people including elected officials, volunteers and environmental organizations rallied to save an especially unique area in the Moosilauke region that was threatened by development and logging. Lake Tarleton is the largest lake in the White Mountain National Forest today and one of the few that has never had problems with invasive species. 

Today the area is once again under threat, this time from the very agency that was charged with caring for it when $7.5 million in public and private funds secured its preservation. This is not the first time that the forest service has been charged with acting like a man with an ax whose only solution to a problem is to cut. Furthermore, it is not at all clear that the forest service would have been chosen to manage the property had the organizations and citizens who rallied to save the lake and its surroundings known that it would thoughtlessly place this gem in the box of rocks that is the lowest level of protection offered within the White Mountain National Forest.

With fewer than two weeks before final submissions are due proponents of a plan to give greater “Scenic” protection to the Lake Tarleton Watershed area are making a final push buoyed by an Earthday Executive Order from President Biden encouraging the development of Old Growth Forests that on the face of it runs contrary to the actions of the White Mountain National Forest administration.

I spoke with Zack Porter of St. Johnsbury-based Standing Trees organization as well as Rob Wipfler, Co-director of Kingswood Camp for Boys on Lake Tarleton who is also the Director of a newly formed Lake Tarleton Coalition.

“Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops

Sail over the canyons and up to the stars

And reach for the heavens and hope for the future

And all that we can be and not what we are.”

~ John Denver

It may seem to some nearly heretical to use the lyrics of a song to highlight the poetic and beautiful writing of Sy Montgomery but I suspect that she of all folks would understand that expressions of the beauty and joy that the animal kingdom brings to us all serve to complement one another and give more strength to the final message, not dissonance.

Researching articles, films, and her 31 books for adults and children, nationally bestselling author Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Rwanda, hunted by a tiger in India, and swum with piranhas, electric eels and pink dolphins in the Amazon. Her work has taken her from the cloud forest of Papua New Guinea (for a book on tree kangaroos) to the Altai Mountains of the Gobi (for another on snow leopards.) 

For THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS (a National Book Award finalist) she befriended octopuses at the New England aquarium and scuba-dived and snorkeled with wild octopuses in Mexico and French Polynesia; next, she drew on her scuba skills to cage dive with great white sharks. 

Her latest book, out May 3, 2022, is “The Hawk’s Way” in which she becomes “the junior partner” to this extraordinary ruler of the sky. 

Sy lives in New Hampshire with her husband, the writer Howard Mansfield, and their border collie Thurber.

For more than 40 years, since he left his teaching position at the University of London, Michael Kitch has interwoven his own life in the fabric of New Hampshire. Historian, journalist, political strategist, economic guru are all labels that attach themselves easily to him. One of the few political strategists to have ever served under both Republican and Democrat Senate Presidents . . . You might call him the David Gergin of New Hampshire politicos; like Gergin attracting a retinue of ardent supporters, skeptics and detractors. Always interesting and with a razor sharp intellect he is never dull and a keen observer of the body politic.

Steve Taylor is best known for his 25 years of service to the State of New Hampshire as the innovative and energetic Commissioner of Agriculture who transformed an obscure state agency into a vibrant and relevant voice for agriculture in an age of environmental consciousness. Yet, his contributions to journalism, and to his beloved community of Plainfield are equally important hallmarks of a life well-lived.

50 Years ago, Dudley Dudley, with a small dedicated group of women, led the fight to stop the development of the largest proposed Oil Refinery in America from destroying the Seacoast of NH, Maine and Massachusetts. . . and they won; Sending Ari Onassis back to his Yacht on the Mediterranean.

The words attributed to Margaret Mead come to mind when I think of Dudley Dudley:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Attributed to Margaret Mead.

When Michael Fischler retired in 2017 after 50 years of dedicated service to the Plymouth State College Community he was at the height of his career, when a firestorm erupted over allegations against a former graduate student for whom he (along with dozens of other former teachers and mentors) had written glowing recommendations. He did nothing wrong but the toxic atmosphere on campus and a timid board of trustees allowed a 

What followed was a three-year struggle to assert his academic freedom and civil rights - with help from nationally acclaimed civil rights attorney John Meyer. Just when life should have become simpler. Mike Fischler was faced with the challenge of a lifetime. Today, with the worst of it behind, he reflects on his life and - for the first time - on the trauma that almost derailed his legacy. 

Michael L. Fischler lives in Holderness and is professor emeritus in the Department of Counselor Education and School Psychology at Plymouth State University, where he taught for 50 years.

Fischler has made numerous contributions to PSU, PSU students, and the PSU community over the course of his long and distinguished career. He has served on PSU’s Homophobia Task Force, on the President’s Commission on Diversity, and as an advisor to the Black Student Union and Tau Omega sorority. His research interests include cultural diversity, intercultural communication, social behavior, psychological counseling, multicultural education, and prejudice reduction.

The plaque credits Fischler for the Center’s founding and for the inspirational lessons he taught during his 50-year teaching career.