[at-l] History: Willey Slide

[rickboudrie@hotmail.com (rick boudrie)]

>Spill your guts!  Lets have it all and no holding back.  Ancient >history, 
>recent history, strange biological conditions which exist no

OK, You asked for it.  One of the most famous incidents in the Whites is the 
story of the Willey Slide.  After hiking north over the spectacular 
Franconia ridge, the trial drops to Crawford Notch before rising one again 
over the Presidentials and Mount Washington.  When you get to the Notch, 
there is a small restaraunt and gift center at the site of the Willey house 
about a mile north.  Good spot for a touristy ice cream, but resupply is in 
the other direction.  The AMC is building its huge $6.5 million dollar 
center up the road a few miles farther north. Anyway, as I understand it, 
the tragedy that took place there was a very, very big deal in its day, was 
much written about and talked about for generations.  Tourists travelled 
from all over just to visit the legendary spot.  Here is part of the story 
that I copied from a NH Parks web site:

"During the fall of 1825 Samuel Willey, Jr. of Bartlett moved into a small 
house in the heart of Crawford Notch with his wife, five children, and two 
hired men. The first year the three men enlarged and improved the house 
which the family operated as an inn to accommodate travelers through the 
mountains on the desolate notch road. The little cluster of buildings was 
situated in the shadow of what is now called Mount Willey. In June, 
following a heavy rain, the Willeys were terrified when they witnessed a 
great mass of soil and vegetation, torn loose from the mountainside across 
the river, slide in a path of destruction to the valley floor. As a result, 
Mr. Willey built a cave-like shelter a short distance above the house to 
which the family could flee if a slide threatened their side of the valley. 
During the night of August 28, 1826, after a long drought which had dried 
the mountain soil to an unusual depth, came one of the most violent and 
destructive rain storms ever known in the White Mountains. The Saco River 
rose twenty feet overnight. Livestock was carried off, farms set afloat, and 
great gorges were cut in the mountains. Two days after the storm, anxious 
friends and relatives penetrated the debris-strewn valley to learn the fate 
of the Willey family. They found the house unharmed, but the surrounding 
fields were covered with debris. Huge boulders, trees, and masses of soil 
had been swept from Mt. Willey's newly bared slopes. The house had escaped 
damage because it was apparently situated just below a ledge that divided 
the major slide into two streams. The split caused the slide to pass by the 
house on both sides leaving it untouched. Inside, beds appeared to have been 
left hurriedly, a Bible lay on the table, and the dog howled mournfully. Mr. 
and Mrs. Willey, two children, and both hired men were found nearby, crushed 
in the wreckage of the slide. The bodies were buried near the house and 
later moved to Conway. Three children were never found. The true story of 
the tragedy will never be known. Poets and writers have conjectured many 
possibilities. Perhaps the family, awakened by a threatening rumble, fled 
from the house to their cave, and were caught in one stream of the slide. It 
seems more likely the Willeys started to climb the slope of the mountain to 
escape the rising floods and were caught in the landslide. Whatever the 
circumstances of the tragedy, it has endowed this part of the White 
Mountains with a legend enhanced by the awesome crags which rise guardians 
over the site of the former Willey home. Following the tragedy, an addition 
was built onto the house which was operated as an inn until it burned in 
1898."

Rick B







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