Mt. Moosilauke (1859) - Early Trips
". . . Half a mile further on and we are at the Prospect House on the bald summit of the mountain. The most sensible thing that we can do is to hitch our horses under the ledge on the eastern side, out of the way of the wind, and go in and get a good cup of tea, or something of the sort. We are out now on top of the mountain, well wrapped up in shawls and quilts.
It is a glorious day, but a little colder than when the Indian chief, Waternomee, sat on this summit, yet not so cold as when a century ago one of Robert Rogers' rangers died here. Chase Whitcher, the first white settler who came up here, thought it a cold place.
But Mrs. Daniel Patch, the first white woman who ever stood upon this summit, thought it quite pleasant. She brought her tea-pot with her, and made herself a good cup of tea over a fire kindled from the hackmatacks, bleached white, so many of which you see standing like skeletons down on the shoulders of the mountain, just as though a great grave-yard had been shaken open by an earthquake.
Mrs. Susan C. Little, wife of Dr. Jesse Little, was the first woman who rode a horse on to the mountain, and that was in 1859. . . ."
From "Moosehillock - What Can Be Seen There, Weather Permitting" by William Little, pp. 79-92, The Moosilaukee Reader (Vol.1). ©1999.
