Mount Kearsarge (Merrimack County, New Hampshire)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the mountain in Wilmot and Warner, New Hampshire. For the mountain of the same name near North Conway, New Hampshire, see Mount Kearsarge (Carroll County, New Hampshire).

For other uses, see Kearsarge.

Mount Kearsarge
Elevation	895 metres (2,937 feet)
Location	New Hampshire, USA
Prominence	640 m (2,100 ft)
Coordinates	43°22.99′N 71°51.44′W / 43.38317, -71.85733Coordinates: 43°22.99′N 71°51.44′W / 43.38317, -71.85733
Topo map	USGS Andover (NH)

Mount Kearsarge is the name of a 2,937 foot (895 m) mountain located in Wilmot, New Hampshire, and Warner, New Hampshire, the United States. Two state parks are located on the mountain: Winslow State Park and Rollins State Park. On a very clear day, skyscrapers in the city of Boston, Massachusetts 80 miles (130 km) away are visible from the fire tower on the summit. The summit has remained bare since a 1796 forest fire.

The name of the mountain evolved from a 1652 rendering of the indigenous name for the mountain, Carasarga, which it is surmised means "notch-pointed-mountain of pines."

Kearsarge is a monadnock, and although of only moderate elevation, its isolation gives it 2,100 ft of relative height above the low ground separating it from the higher mountains farther north. That makes Kearsarge one of twelve mountains in New Hampshire with a prominence over 2,000 ft.[1]

Mount Kearsarge stands within the watershed of the Merrimack River, which drains into the Gulf of Maine. The western slopes of the mountain drain into Cascade Brook, which flows north to the Blackwater River, a stream which flows around the northern and eastern base of Kearsarge, eventually draining into the Contoocook River, a tributary of the Merrimack. The northern and eastern slopes of the mountain drain more directly into the Blackwater River. The southern face of Mount Kearsarge drains into Meadow Brook, a tributary of the Warner River, which flows southeast to the Contoocook River.

Kearsarge is a popular hiking destination. The summit is the high point along the 75-mile Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway hiking trail which links 10 towns and encircles the Lake Sunapee region of western New Hampshire. The quickest route to the top is from the Rollins State Park Picnic Area.

The Winslow Trail and the state park on the Wilmot side are named after Captain John Winslow, the commander of the USS Kearsarge, which in June 1864 sank the CSS Alabama in the English Channel in a famous Civil War sea battle.

[edit] Others

Mount Kearsarge is also the name of a 3,268 ft. peak in the White Mountains, east of Bartlett, New Hampshire. The mountain's Abenaki name is "Pequawket". On topographic maps, the mountain is referred to as "Kearsarge North".