page_title: Crawford family of the White Mountains
section_title: Further development
hierarchical_section_title: Crawford family of the White Mountains / Life in the White Mountains / Further development
context_page_description: The Crawford family of the White Mountains were a family who moved to New Hampshire's White Mountains in the 1790s from Guildhall, Vermont, and were pioneers in establishing a tourist industry in that area. Abel Crawford and his father-in-law, Eleazar Rosebrook, began the effort, and one of Abel's sons, Ethan Allen Crawford, made significant contributions. Another son, Thomas Jefferson Crawford, continued the work; and Ethan's wife, Lucy, also contributed. Their work was in the area then known as White Mountain Notch, subsequently called Crawford Notch.
  Numerous geographical features in the White Mountains are now named after the family.
context_section_description: Until 1811, when Ethan left to join the army, father and son worked, hunted and fished together in the environs of the Notch. After leaving the army, Ethan was engaged in various jobs in New York state, including road-building and river transportation. He intended to settle in Louisville before deciding to return to the Notch at the request of the ailing Eleazar in 1816. Eleazar had developed cancer of the lip and was too feeble to run his farm and inn without assistance; in return for Ethan's help, Eleazar offered ownership of the property to Ethan. Thus, when Eleazar died in September 1817, Ethan inherited the property and also the mortgage on it, which he increased to develop the business further. He married his cousin, Lucy Howe, in November of the same year, having become close to her when she arrived at Giant's Grave to look after Eleazar, their mutual grandfather. On the night of July 18, 1818, being the same day that Lucy gave birth to their first child, the Old Moosehorn Tavern was destroyed by a fire caused by an unattended candle. There were uninsured losses of US$3000, made worse because payments were still due on the mortgage, but Ethan nonetheless managed to build a smaller replacement building. This cramped replacement may not have been entirely new but in fact one already standing some 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Giant's Grave, from whence it was moved with the aid of family and friends.
  It was as a consequence of the fire that Ethan sought new opportunities to repair his ravaged finances. The area was beginning to attract tourists desirous of reaching the mountain peaks, and in 1819 Abel had already guided a couple of groups up the hills. Ethan was also approached and noted the difficulties that they experienced in negotiating the thickly-wooded terrain. Later that year, he and Abel together eased those problems by clearing woodland and grading a route for the first path to the summit of Mount Washington. Covering a distance of over 8 miles (13 km), beginning at the top of what was then called White Mountain Notch, the path cut through forest past the tree line to reach a ridge near the peak of Bald Mountain, then traversed a bleak ridge and negotiated various other peaks before reaching its goal. It is today known as the Crawford Path, still mostly follows the original route and is considered to be the oldest White Mountains trail in continuous use. It may not, however, have been the first path to the summit: the mineralogist George Gibbs probably commissioned the creation of a crude path, now lost, on the eastern slopes in 1809.
  Ethan, who has been described as "prodigiously strong", appears to have been the major worker on the original Crawford Path. The first travelers, guided by Abel, included Samuel Joseph May, who wrote an account of it. Ethan developed other trails in the area, including one initiated in 1821 whose route was closely followed later by the Mount Washington Cog Railway and which soon became more popular than the original path. His brother, Thomas Jefferson Crawford, together with guide Joseph Hall, who worked for him, improved the original path by converting it into a bridleway around 1840, allowing Abel, then in his 70s, to become the first person to ride a horse to the summit of the mountain. This change to the path was in response to increased competition from facilities by now being developed at Pinkham Notch.
  Ethan constructed a shelter for travelers at the summit in 1821 and in 1823 built three stone huts there. At least one of the huts was fitted out with a stove, vegetation for bedding and a sheet of lead on which visitors could write their names with a nail, but they proved too uncomfortable and so he erected a tent capable of holding 18 people. The tent did not survive for long because of the high winds that are a feature of the mountain. Also in 1823, despite his precarious financial position, Ethan expanded his provision of accommodation by renting the Old Notch House, which had been built in 1793 and lay close to Abel's home, and by extending the Giant's Grave building.
  Eth
caption: A stereoscopic slide of the Willey House by Kilburn Brothers, ca. 1872. The original building had been significantly extended by that date.
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