Mt. Moosilauke (1934) - Aerial Tramway
". . . Sixty years ago this winter [1998] construction was well underway on the Cannon Mountain aerial tramway. The history of the tramway is fairly well-documented, but a story that few remember is that Cannon was not the only site under consideration for the tramway in the early 1930's. In the fall of 1933, no ski lifts had yet been built in the eastern United States.
Two sites, Cannon Mountain and Mt. Blue, were considered likely enough that serious cost estimates were done; based on these, the costs of the other sites were estimated at $200,000 per mile of cable length. Topography would modify these rough estimates in that steep, concave slopes were the cheapest because linear distance and towers were minimized.
Mt. Moosilauke was well-known to skiers at the time due to its ownership by Dartmouth College, whose Outing Club had been instrumental in the popularization of skiing. The Carriage Road on Moosilauke had been the site of the first downhill race in the country in 1927. One of the big attractions of running a tramway to the Mt. Blue summit would be the open snowfields at Moosilauke's summit, swept by bitter winds in winter storms but able to provide acres of skiing in spring conditions.
A shirtless Charles N. Proctor warms up in 20 degree temperatures for the 3rd Annual DOC Down Mountain Ski Race at Moosilauke, March 3, 1929. A DOC group had spent the previous night in the Winter Cabin shown here and in the morning skied on the summit snow fields before the race. Proctor won the race in 11 minutes, 59 seconds. The proposed Mt. Blue tramway would have made this area easily accessible to lift riders. - Photo by H.H. Leich
Released in July, 1934, Alexander Bright's report on the Moosilauke location read in full:
"Cost carefully estimated by the American Steel & Wire Company totals $ 180,000.00, on an East Northwest location. Vertical descent 2470 ft. Snow cover at the summit, 4810 ft. is estimated at 270", and 160" at the base. The Tramway's top station would be 8/10 of a mile from the summit of Mt. Moosilauke, necessitating a descent of 200 ft. then a climb of 500 ft. to reach the summit of Mt. Moosilauke. The area amply supplies every winter requirement, although the summit of Mt. Moosilauke is above treeline and considerable (sic) windswept. There is not much variety of Summer climbing activities for hikers.
Good contour of slope is a factor to consider for selecting an effective location for a Tramway. Traffic is average on the Lost River Road according to the New Hampshire Foundation which estimates 1600 persons per day for the period from July 17 to October 16, 1931. It is relatively not dense as compared to many main arteries. The proposed site is not too well concealed from the highway." In contrast, the cost estimate for the Cannon Mt. project was $ 152,000.00 for a vertical drop of 1820 feet and skiing on north and eastern exposures. Unlike the Mt. Blue site, sufficient electric power was already in place in Franconia Notch."
A map accompanying a 1935 report from the American Steel & Wire Company shows the valley station of the Moosilauke tram located at the southern end of Beaver Pond in Kinsman Notch, with the mountain station on the summit of Mt. Blue. With this alignment the cable would pass almost directly over the cascades of Beaver Brook and the Beaver Brook Trail, then as now a segment of the Appalachian Trail. . . ."
From "The Mount Moosilauke Aerial Tramway Proposal" by Jeff Leich, in The New England Ski Museum Newsletter, Winter, 1998.
Hechenberger, c. 1938
This print (24 x 39 inches) is available from the New England Ski Museum, Franconia, N.H.
