Editing Crawford Notch (section)

==History==
[[File:Crawford Notch Summit.jpg|thumb|left|The summit of Crawford Notch in January]]
Originally called White Mountain Notch, it became known to European settlers when found by Timothy Nash in 1771.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Julyan |first1=Robert Hixson |last2=Julyan |first2=Mary |title=Place Names of the White Mountains |year=1993 |publisher=University Press of New England |location=Hanover, NH |isbn=978-0-87451-638-8 |pages=34–36 |edition=Revised |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkKBhQVyid8C&pg=PA34}}</ref> The 1772 boundaries of Hart's Grant reflected its shape.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} It was named for the [[Crawford family of the White Mountains|Crawford family]], who were trail-builders and hostelers there in the 19th century. The Tenth New Hampshire Turnpike from [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire|Portsmouth]] was extended through the notch to [[Lancaster, New Hampshire|Lancaster]] in 1803.<ref>{{cite book |title=This Grand & Magnificent Place: The Wilderness Heritage of the White Mountains |first=Christopher |last=Johnson |publisher=UPNE |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-58465-461-2 |pages=49–51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzBIKlqDu74C&pg=PA49}}</ref><ref>* {{cite book |title=This Vast Book of Nature: Writing the Landscape of New Hampshire's White Mountains, 1784–1911 |first=Pavel |last=Cenkl |publisher=University of Iowa Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-58729-714-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FuYKSB_iv3gC&pg=PA25 |page=25}}</ref> The turnpike and later [[Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad]] through Crawford Notch opened a new route through the White Mountains for settlers of the area to the northwest to reach [[Conway, New Hampshire|Conway]] on the way to the trading ports on the coast.<ref>Johnson, Ron ''Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division'' p.9</ref>{{qn|date=June 2018}}

[[Image:-18 Hill, T., Crawford Notch, 1916.15TN.jpg|250px|thumb|right|''Crawford Notch'' (1867), by [[Thomas Hill (American painter)|Thomas Hill]] (1829–1908), looking north, collection of the [[New Hampshire Historical Society]]]]
A well-documented historic event within the notch was a [[rockslide]] that killed the entire Samuel Willey family in August 1826. The family fled their home during the storm to a prepared shelter but were buried by the slide and died in a mass of stone and rubble. Their home was untouched. [[Mount Willey]], on the west side of the notch, is named in their memory.<ref name="johnson"/> The event in part inspired a short story by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] titled ''[[The Ambitious Guest]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sears|first=John F.|title=Hawthorne's "The Ambitious Guest" and the Significance of the Willey Disaster|journal=American Literature |volume=54|issue=3 |date=October 1982|pages=354–367 |jstor = 2925848 |doi=10.2307/2925848}}</ref> Further down the notch, Nancy Brook and [[Mount Nancy]] are named for an earlier tragedy.<ref name="johnson">{{cite book |title=This Grand & Magnificent Place: The Wilderness Heritage of the White Mountains |first=Christopher |last=Johnson |publisher=UPNE |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-58465-461-2 |pages=55–56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzBIKlqDu74C&pg=PA55}}</ref>

In the Carroll portion of the notch, the [[Appalachian Mountain Club]] has built and operates the Highland Center Lodge and Conference Center (on the site of the Crawford House Hotel, a 19th-century grand hotel that burned in 1972), and has renovated the [[Queen Anne style architecture in the United States|Queen Anne style]] Victorian-era Crawford Notch [[Maine Central Railroad|Maine Central]] [[Crawford Depot (Carroll, New Hampshire)|train depot]] as a bookstore. The depot remains a stop on the scenic "Notch Train" of the [[Conway Scenic Railroad]], operated seasonally from [[North Conway, New Hampshire|North Conway]].