Hancock

Better than manifestos

Nubanusit Lake, in the towns of Hancock and Nelson, N.H.

Nubanusit Lake, in the towns of Hancock and Nelson, N.H.

Hancock, N.H., Man Street in 1907

Hancock, N.H., Man Street in 1907

“If a community has good walking paths through fields and forests, people will use them. The right environment is a far better teacher than a heap of manifestos.’’

— Howard Mansfield (born 1957) in The Same Ax, Twice: Restoration and Renewal in a Throwaway Age. He lives in Hancock, N.H., with his wife, Sy Montgomery, who is well known for writing about animals.

New Hampshire's first great industry

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"For more than a century, the big business of Gravesend was lumber, which was the first big business of New Hampshire. Although New Hampshire is called the Granite State, granite -- building granite, curbstone granite, tombstone granite -- came after lumber; it was never the booming business that lumber was. You can be sure that when all the trees are gone, there will still be rocks around; but in the case of granite, most of it remains underground.''

-- From the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving