| Mount Chocorua | |
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Mount Chocorua from Fowler's Mill Road |
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| Elevation | 3,478 ft (1,060 m) [1] |
| Prominence | 1,270 ft (387 m) |
| Location | |
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Mount Chocorua
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| Location | Albany, New Hampshire, USA |
| Range | Sandwich Range, White Mountains |
| Coordinates | [1] |
| Topo map | USGS Mount Chocorua |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Piper Trail Champney Falls Trail Liberty Trail |
Mount Chocorua (generally pronounced, "shuh-cor'-wuh") is a summit in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. At an elevation of 3,490 feet (1,064 m) it is the easternmost peak of the Sandwich Range.
The Sandwich Range extends east-west about 30 miles from Conway, New Hampshire on the Saco River to Campton on the Pemigewasset. Although the range is not outstanding for its elevation, it is very rugged and has excellent views of the surrounding lakes, mountains, and forests. Mount Chocorua's bare summit can be seen from almost every direction and can be identified from many points throughout central New Hampshire and western Maine.
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Mount Chocorua is located in the town of Albany and is the easternmost peak of the Sandwich Range in New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest. The Sandwich Range is located north of the Lakes Region and south of the Kancamagus Highway. The Sandwich Range extends about 30 miles (50 km) east-west from Conway to Campton. Chocorua's summit is a picturesque rocky cone, and the mountain is purported to be one of the most photographed in the world (AMC Guide, page 310). One of the most photographed sites is from Chocorua Lake, which often casts a perfect reflection of the mountain top.
Mount Chocorua is a popular destination for hikers. Although it is under 3,500 feet in elevation, its bare and rocky summit commands excellent views in all directions. Since most trails begin at much lower elevations, a hike to the summit is a strenuous exercise. There are many trails up the mountain, and they can be quite crowded during the summer months. Especially popular are the Piper Trail (4.5 miles each way from the east), the Champney Falls Trail (from the north), and the Liberty Trail (from the southwest).
It is believed that Chocorua was the name of a Native American man in the 18th Century, although no authentic records of his life exist. The usual story is that in about 1720 Chocorua was on friendly terms with settlers and in particular the Campbell family that had a home in the valley now called Tamworth. Chocorua was called away and left his son in the care of the Campbell family. The boy found and drank a poison that Mr. Campbell had made to eliminate troublesome foxes, and Chocorua returned to find his son had died. Chocorua, distraught with grief, pledged revenge on the family. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Campbell returned home one afternoon to find his wife and children had been slain. Campbell suspected Chocorua and pursued him up the mountain that today bears his name. Chocorua was wounded by a shot from Campbell's rifle. Before Campbell could reach Chocorua, he uttered a curse upon the white settlers and their homes, livestock, and crops, and leapt from the summit to his death.
There are at least three other versions of the legend of Chocorua. One is that Chocorua simply fell from a high rock on the mountain while hunting. A second is the white settlers pursued Chocorua up the mountain after an Indian massacre, and he was not shot at all but simply leapt to his death. The third is that all the white settlers pursued him with guns, pitchforks, and torches. They collapsed of exhaustion as Chocorua reached the top, and the settlers decided to torch the remaining trees up to the summit, and in doing so they burned and exposed the topsoil of the last 1270 feet. As the flames drew closer and closer to Chocorua, he cursed the white men and leapt to his death.
Although no one can know the exact words of Chocorua's curse (or even if there was a curse), it has been reported (Mudge, page 34) to be as follows.
Another version appears in the story "Chocorua's Curse", by Lydia Maria Child, contained in The Token (1830):
The American composer Alan Hovhaness (1911–2000), who often climbed the White Mountains during his childhood, composed a piano sonata named after Mount Chocorua ("Mt. Chocorua," Op. 335) in 1982. [1]
Mount Chocorua features prominently in songs by New Hampshire native rock band Scissorfight, including Mount Chocorua Woman from the 1996 album Guaranteed Kill.
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) mentions Mount Chocorua in stanza XXI of his poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar". It is also the subject of his poem "Chocorua To Its Neighbor."
Among the most notable artists who have painted in the White Mountains was John Frederick Kensett (1816–1872). A painter of the Hudson River School, his Mount Chocorua (1864–66) typifies American Luminism. This important art movement, containing a transcendental realism of the sublime, incorporates an inner illumination of an almost spiritual light (color), expressive geometric effects of composition (space), and the isolation of the American wilderness setting (silence).