The Wolleboro Road

Walking the straight, easy trail that runs from the top of Wolfeboro Road in Hanover Center through a col between the north and south peaks of Moose Mountain and gently down into Canaan, a hiker would have no reason to imagine that this way was once a nearly impassable track. Neither would one suppose die route to be a former highway. But both were once true—simultaneously.

For the first years of Dartmouth's life getting to hanover was an ordeal. Well into the 1800s roads in New Hampshire were characterized by immovable tree stumps, perilous log bridges, and year-round mud that was so deep in spring it could halt travel for six to eight weeks. The road that was supposed to make the College accessible, the Dartmouth College Road or "Wolfeboro Road," was cut by 1773. It ran from Hanover east to "Winipisioket Pond" (Lake Winnipesaukee) and along the lake's northern shore to colonial Governor John Wentworth's estate at Wolfeboro. Though it was hailed as an east-west byway that would open western New Hampshire to the coast, the route would not have been laid out if it hadn't been for Wentworth's insistence on a way for him to more easily visit the fledgling College.

The American Revolution, which unseated Wentworth, may have caused the demise of the road. Within 16 years of its cutting, travllers reported that portions of the road could not be passed. Within a few decades, much of the road had disappeared. Today parts of the missing highway can be found as a section of NH Route3, Wolfeboro Road in Haiover Center, and various trailsincluding One at Dartmouth's crossCountry ski area on Oak Hill in Hanover.

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