Passaconaway’s Realm

Captain John Evans and the Exploration of Mount Washington

Russell M. Lawson

Russell M. Lawson

Now that New Hampshire’s dominant White Mountain peak can be climbed relatively easily in a long day, or more comfortably ascended by car or cog railway, it is easy to forget that it was once considered by Native Americans and most European settlers to be too sacred and formidable to attempt. In fact, mountain climbing was relatively rare until recent times, making the fifteen ascents of Mount Washington between 1632 and 1804 all the more remarkable. Passaconaway’s Realm is a concise, historically and scientifically correct, and very dramatic story of Mount Washington’s earliest climbs and the men who made them in pursuit of botanical specimens; meteorologic, geographic, and geological data; and personal adventure. Incorporating sources that have never been utilized, Russell M. Lawson highlights the interaction of the wilderness landscape and the native peoples with such British-American newcomers and invaders as Walter Neale, Darby Field, John Josselyn, Captain Wells, Robert Rogers, Nicholas Austin, Governor John Wentworth, Jeremy Belknap, and Manasseh Cutler. He focuses on rustic frontiersman Captain John Evans, a founder of Fryeburg, Maine, an axe-man and hunter, but also the wilderness guide for the men of science during the 1784 Belknap-Cutler expedition. Lawson describes in close and intriguing detail the personal relations and aspirations, the logistics and difficulties, and the scientific aspirations and outcomes of this key early ascent.

Paper: $15.95

ISBN-13: 9781584653967

Pages: 252 | Size: 6 in. x 9 in.

Date Published: April 1, 2004

Imprint:

University Press of New England

History |
New England

Reviews

For local history buffs and White Mountain-ophiles who take the venue’s scenic beauty and easy access for granted, the book is fascinating, informative, an eye opener, and, though detailed, the perfect length for a brief respite from today’s frenetic pace.

Foster’s Daily Democrat
Russell Lawson merits praise for his conscientious and detailed scholarship and for a text distinguished by a superb literary style and an intimate knowledge of White Mountain topography, climate, natural life, and history.

The New England Quarterly
...the historian will find this book pointers to much source material , and the general reader will enjoy a vivid rendering of the story of mountain exploration in the eighteenth century.

Historical New Hampshire
And extraordinary adventurer, writer, and visionary, Captain John Smith deserves an account of his exploits as vivd as this one. Russell Lawson has left his mark with The Sea Mark, and readers of maritime history are the better for it.

W. Jeffrey Bolster
author of The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail
Lawson's retelling of Smith's New England voyage as a cruise along the coast is simply brilliant. I think this book will have a lasting impact by reinstating Smith's voyage in its rightful place in American exploration. Other people came before him, but his methodical survey was the first and best of its kind for many years.

Karen Alexander
University of Massachusetts

About the Author

Russell M. Lawson

Russell M. Lawson is the author of almost two dozen books and many more articles and essays. He has taught at schools in New England, Oklahoma, and Ontario. Dr. Lawson teaches and writes on scientists, explorers, and missionaries; the history of America, Europe, and the world; and the history of ideas, particularly Christian ideas. He has taught at the Pastoral Studies Institute at the Diocese of Oklahoma, and currently volunteers as a social studies teacher for adults seeking the GED at …

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