The Goodrich of Waterville Valley trail fame
By Mike Dickerman
reprinted from the Plymouth Record Enterprise
It probably goes without saying that the most famous father-son tandem in White Mountains annals is that of Abel Crawford and Ethan Allen Crawford, pioneer settlers and innkeepers whose names live on in the famous mountain pass to which they were so closely associated.
The Crawford, who at various times owned inns and taverns from one end of Crawford Notch to the other, played a huge role in the development of the early tourist trade in the region, not only providing places for travelers to stay, but also developing some of the first walking trails and bridle paths up Mount Washington and the southern reaches of Presidential Range.
Over the years plenty has been written about the Crawford, so I won’t take up space this week re-hashing what’s already been penned many times over in the course of the past 150 years. Instead, I want to take a look back this week and next at another father-son team with longtime ties to the Whites, but whose legacy pales in comparison to that of the Crawford, even though these two men did far more for today’ hikers than the Crawford.
Arthur L. Goodrich and Nathan Lewis Goodrich never lived in the White Mountains, per se, but for many summers were closely associated with the Waterville Valley area. Arthur, the father, began summering in the Valley in the mid-to-late 1870s and over the course of the next 30 to 40 years was an instrumental figure in the development of the fine trail system that pretty much exists intact today in Waterville, more than a century later.
Arthur’s son, Nathaniel, whose ties to the Valley go back to his days as an infant, closely followed his footsteps, at least in terms of his dedication to trail-building in the Whites. Nathaniel, along with fellow Appalachian Mountain Club members Charles Blood and Paul Jenks, are considered the “fathers” of the modern day White Mountain trail system, for it was the three of them working together as a team who pieced together over a period of two decades the interconnected trail network that has long been enjoyed by area trampers.
Not a lot has been written about Arthur L. Goodrich, so his private life away from the Whites remains somewhat of a mystery, at least to me. As mentioned above, we do know that his visits to the Waterville Valley area began sometime in the late 1870s and that his interest in mountain climbing and exploring existed then as he was part of a contingent of volunteers, some of them AMC members, who helped construct the first footpaths up Mount Tecumseh and Sandwich Mountain (or Sandwich Dome) back in the summer of 1879. Goodrich himself is listed in Appalachia as an AMC member in the May 1882 edition of the club’s journal, and within a decade was serving as the club’s Councillor of Exploration (a post which by then was on its way to being phased out since most of the White Mountains region had been extensively explored by club members by the mid-1890s).
In addition to working on the first Sandwich Mt. and Mt. Tecumseh paths, Arthur Goodrich is credited with building several other paths in the Valley. As a member of the fledgling Waterville Athletic and Improvement Association, formed in 1888, in part, to improve trails in and around the Valley, Goodrich put through the Scar Trail, probably in the late 1880s, and the Kettles Path (1890). Then, in perhaps his most ambitious Waterville Valley project, he cut the long abandoned Ravine Path up Mount Osceola in 1900, which climbed the steep headwall of the ravine in the col between the main and east summits of the well-known local landmark.
His rambles around the Valley also led to one interesting discovery, that being the huge boulder on the east slope of Osceola ever since known as Goodrich Rock. The boulder, which measures approximately 60 by 50 by 50 ft. is one of the largest glacial erratics in New Hampshire and is appropriately named for its discoverers, Arthur and Charles Goodrich.
In 1892, Goodrich penned an article about the Valley in Appalachia, noting that at that point in time the Waterville trail system exceeded 30 miles. The article included a sketch map of the area and its trails, an item Goodrich that felt was much needed at the time. “The details of the topography of this region are almost wholly unknown and are absurdly wrong, at least in many particulars, as figured on our best maps,” wrote Goodrich. “If the recent sketch map will add a little towards final accuracy, the maker is content; and if this description of the place brings other good Appalachians to the valley, so much the better for those already there.”
That same year (1892), A. L. Goodrich also published the first edition of his popular and useful little guidebook to the area, The Waterville Valley: A History, Description and Guide. Later, updated editions appeared in 1904 and 1916.