YOUR COMMENTS

New Hampshire is the Granite State, but it could easily have been named the Boulder State. We have a plethora of fascinating boulders, many of which, like the Willey Boulders, have interesting geological and human histories. I, along with my colleague Lee Wilder at the NH Geological Survey, have been cataloging the superlative boulders in NH (as well as those in the rest of New England and New York). We would be interested in hearing of others.
- Ernst H. Kastning, Concord

How does a story like this dare take up newspaper space... when surely there is plenty more to write about Michael Jackson???
- Kenny, Rochester

This story is so very interesting to me! In the late 19040's I spent three summers at the Willey House with my parents, working there. I spent many hours climbing to the RR tracks behind the site but did not know about the boulders. At the time there were cabins where there are now picnic tables. Many happy memories of working there and when I make a trip to my hometown I always manage to get to Crawford Notch and the Willey House.
- Muriel(Roberts)Massey, Wolfeboro(now Alexandria VA)

I was excited to see this story. Growing up in NH I had never heard the story of the Willey family until just last week. My husband and I headed up to the Mount Washington Hotel and we passed the Willey House. I learned all about the area from the tour guide at the hotel. Great piece of NH history!
- M. Smith, Manchester

Scott, Interesting you didn't mention Lynch by name as being the one suggesting we sell off natural resources.
Anyway, it took 1 guy during his lunch hour to find the location, and another 2 or 3 (when the job only required 1) a couple hours to clear a path, but only because of the publicity, or potential for. "Budget cuts" don't keep this kind of labor expenditure from happening. Don't be ridiculous. It just creates a platform for whinning. It is lack of leadership, bad attitudes and sense of entitlement on behalf of many of OUR employees.
- Doug, Dover

I am fairly certain I read something about this years ago written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
- Greg, Nashua

Scott, Do you truly believe those woods grew up in only the last 10 to 20 years? I'll bet they were neglected 120 years before that. go ahead and blame the Republicans, it doesn't bother us when you are being ridiculous.
- M.L., Manchester, NH

Kim, It wasn't lost to those of us who knew where to look. I have visited the boulders several times and know others with an interest in White Mountain history who have done the same. Most people who stop in at the former site of the Willey house probably have no idea of the history there, and the folks managing the site are more interested in selling ice cream and cheap souvenirs from China than preserving the legacy of our pioneer ancestors.

Also, it should be noted that many old postcards can be misleading. For example, after the Flume boulder fell, several postcards were produced appearing to show the fallen boulder in its new home. They were all fakes.
- Jim, Bartlett

The sentence should have read: "The BODIES of Samuel Willey, his wife, etc...were found." There were no survivors.
I guess the bigger question is not why the forest was allowed to grow up around the boulders but why the house itself was not preserved.
- Susan, Bristol

Why can't the Union Leader host larger pictures? As in "click on picture for larger version". I would love to see the picture of the post card. The little pictures accompanying the articles are too hard to see oftentimes.
- Dennis, Manchester

To answer Kim Bennett's question it is easy to see how this piece of history became obscured. First the whole notch is one of our State Parks and not part of the Forrest Service lands. Second in the late 90's under the governorships of Gregg and Merrill the decision to cut off all of the State Parks from funding out of the General Budget and making them self reliant to operate under their own funds raised from fees (Crawford Notch State Park doesn't charge fees as it is a state road going through it), the State Park System has been steadily coming unglued due to a cash shortage. In fact the legislators have blocked the Park System from raising the Park entrance fee rates which has further eroded our Parks. In fact just recently the State powers to be were attempting to sell off, trade or give away some of our Parks. That attempt along with what was done in the 90's is short-sided at best as my grandfather once said, "Good land is something they aren't making anymore of" and to think we are disregarding what we have or blatantly just letting it slip away. What a Legacy. Live Free of Responsibility then Die.
- Scott, Candia

The question that comes to my mind is how could the forest service or whoever could let this signifigant piece of history become overgrown and lost,
- kim bennett, colebrook