Original subtitles

(wind whistling)

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

- Our journey across New Hampshire

begins in the Isles of Shoals,

a mysterious string of islands on the Atlantic coast

that were once a refuge to pirates.

Heading west, we find the former home of Robert Frost.

One of America's greatest poets.

Turning north, we explore the birthplace of Franklin Pierce,

the 14th president of the United States.

To the west, we reach the spectacular Connecticut River,

the longest in New England,

which has shaped the course of New Hampshire's history.

Traveling north, we discover the Fort At Number Four.

A reminder of this region's rugged past

as a colonial frontier.

Continuing upstream, we reach Dartmouth College,

an elite Ivy League university

and one of the world's top academic institutions.

And in the fall, it's surrounded by the glorious colors

of the New England trees.

(light music)

On the east coast of America, six miles out to sea,

are the extraordinary Isles of Shoals.

These rocky wind-swept islands were once used

by Native Americans as outposts for fishing.

They have since been home to pirates, settlers,

and more recently, holidaymakers.

Most of the nine small islands of the Shoals

are in the state of Maine,

but this, Star Island, is in New Hampshire.

Star Island is famous for its oceanic hotel.

Built in 1873, it's known for its large veranda

giving spectacular views across the Atlantic.

It also has one of the largest gravestones in New Hampshire.

A 14-meter-tall granite obelisk

commemorating the reverend John Tuck.

He arrived on Star Island in 1731

and stayed for 40 years, becoming an island institution.

Nearby is Lunging Island.

Legend has it that the pirate Blackbeard

buried treasure here and left it along with his 13th wife.

If he did, it has never been found, and sadly,

we can't stop to search for it.

As we leave behind the Isles of Shoals,

we cross the coast of New Hampshire.

At just 29 kilometers long, New Hampshire has

the shortest coastline of any seaboard state.

Though short, its rugged coastline is

a very popular holiday destination.

It can be reached by interstate 95,

one of the oldest roads of the interstate system

and the longest north-south route

running from Florida to Maine.

Heading west, we find near the town of Derry,

the Robert Frost farm.

(light music)

This simple clapboard farmhouse was once home

to one of America's most famous poets; Robert Frost.

He lived here from 1900 to 1911.

He later said that, "There was something about

"the experience of Derry which stayed in my mind

"and was tapped for poetry in the years that came after."

Many of Frost's poems were written about

the people and the landscapes of rural New England.

He was awarded four Pulitzer Prizes

and the Congressional Gold Medal for poetry.

When Frost was in residence, the farm was a peaceful place,

but today it's next to the busy Highway 28.

And, like much of America,

the state of New Hampshire has been transformed by roads

which carve through the landscape.

(light music)

This is Interstate 93.

Running 300 kilometers from Boston in the south

to Vermont in the north.

The road was built in 1956 as part of the interstate network

established by President Eisenhower.

Accidents aside, the interstate system

is a vital part of the American transport network.

Nearby we find another transport link;

Manchester Municipal Airport.

Here we see the ghostly outlines of aircraft.

Shaded frost left behind in the sun

by planes parked here overnight.

The airport serves the largest city

of New Hampshire; Manchester.

(light music)

Manchester was named after the English city.

It was hoped that it would grow, like its namesake,

into a powerhouse of industry and textiles.

By 1846 it was home to the largest cotton mill in the world.

Today, it has left behind cotton to become

the regional center for business and commerce.

But the city's past remains.

These are the Amoskeag Mills.

Once one of the largest textile factories in the world.

At its peak during World War One

it employed 17,000 workers with 30 mills

weaving 80 kilometers of cloth each hour.

The mills closed in 1935 during the Great Depression.

Today they have been converted into offices,

restaurants, art galleries, and a visitor's museum.

We now continue to the west

and the new Boston Air Force Station

of the 23rd Space Operation Squadron.

This is one of eight Air Force satellite

remote tracking stations providing

the United States strategic command

with critical satellite control capability.

New Boston can perform intelligence,

weather, navigation, early warning,

and communications operations.

We travel on westwards,

passing some of New Hampshire's extensive forests.

Over 80% of the land is woodland,

making it the second most heavily forested state in America.

This is the town of Peterborough.

It was the model for Thornton Wilder's

Pulitzer Prize winning play "Our Town."

The play touches on the role of tradition in town life,

and today we find the people of Peterborough

in the midst of an important tradition; local elections.

(light music)

The United States is a democratic federation.

Citizens elect officials at the local,

state, and national level.

There are estimated to be well over 500,000

elected officials in the country.

From school board members, right up to the president.

It is, as Abraham Lincoln said at the end

of his famous Gettysburg Address in 1862,

"And that the government of the people,

"by the people, for the people,

"Shall not perish from the earth."

(birds chirping)

We continue to the north,

passing trees in spectacular autumnal reds

to find the small town of Hancock.

(upbeat music)

Founded in 1779, much of the village remains little changed.

Almost every building on Main Street

is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Local historian William Hayward said,

"No pleasanter homes can be found anywhere than here.

"No truer hearts, no better men and women.

"They make good citizens and good members of society."

The town is named after John Hancock,

one of the signatories of

the American Declaration of Independence.

And the town's connection to the American Revolution

is maintained here at the Hancock Meeting House.

Its tower holds the bell built by Paul Revere.

Bell number 236.

Revere was an American patriot who rode through

the night to warn the colonists

that the English were coming.

He later became a businessman

and made many hundreds of church bells.

This one still rings on the hour, every hour,

day and night, in Hancock.

(church bell dinging)

We continue to the north,

passing the Franklin Pierce Lake,

before reaching the Franklin Pierce homestead.

(birds chirping) (light music)

This was once home to the 14th president

of the United States; Franklin Pierce.

Pierce grew up here, the seventh of nine children.

He became a lawyer and later a soldier in the Mexican War.

He rose from private to brigadier general.

And, in 1852 at the age of 48,

became at the time the youngest president ever elected.

Today, his house is open to visitors as a museum.

(birds chirping)

This president's house is only a couple

of miles from the town of Hillsborough

and it's old stone river crossing; the Sawyer Bridge.

New Hampshire is known as the granite state,

and this granite bridge was built in 1866

and was a solution to the weakness of timber bridges

and withstanding frequent flooding.

Once home to a dozen stone bridges,

Hillsborough still has five left.

Four of which are still in use today,

though this one no longer carries traffic.

All five bridges are now national historic landmarks.

From a stone bridge, we reach Stonewall Farm.

(light music)

This traditional working dairy farm

has been in operation for over 250 years.

New Hampshire is known for its manufacturing,

but despite stony soils and mountainous terrain,

agriculture is vital to the state

contributing almost a quarter of a billion dollars

to its economy each year.

There are around 130 dairy farms in New Hampshire.

(birds chirping)

Stonewall Farm's rich history goes back to the mid 1700s.

Since then, it has changed ownership several times.

In 1989, it was bought with the aim of preserving

a traditional way of farming, and in 1994,

becoming a nonprofit organization open to the public.

Today, it offers education programs for schools

and the public, as well as serving as a venue

for children's camps, conferences, and weddings.

Our journey continues to the west,

reaching the mighty Connecticut River.

It's the longest in New England,

and the border between the states

of New Hampshire and Vermont.

On the Vermont side, we find a village of Bellows Falls.

With its steep waterfalls capable

of driving paper and textile mills,

the town was once a hub for manufacturing.

Today, it's a center for heritage tourism.

(birds chirping)

We move northwards, upstream along the Connecticut River.

(upbeat music)

On the New Hampshire side, we find the extraordinary

Fort At Number Four.

A reconstructed 18th century frontier outpost.

Today, this is on the outskirts of

the town of Charleston, but in 1735,

this was Frontierland owned by the Massachusetts Bay Colony

designated as Plantation Number Four.

The northernmost British settlement

on the Connecticut River,

it was regularly attacked by French and Native Americans.

To protect themselves, the colonists dragged

six houses together, linked them and surrounded them

with a three-and-a-half-meter-tall log fence.

By the end of the 18th century,

it had fallen into disuse and disrepair

until the 1960s when it was reconstructed.

Today, it serves as a museum of living history,

giving visitors a chance to glimpse frontier life

and watch reenactments of American Revolutionary battles.

Turning east from the river,

we reach the magnificent Lake Sunapee.

(light music)

This glacial lake is 13 kilometers long

and four kilometers wide,

and the sixth largest in New Hampshire.

And at 330 meters above sea level,

the highest of its size in America.

With its exceptionally clear waters,

it's a favorite for water sports,

particularly for sailors and fishermen.

The resort town of Sunapee is built around the lake.

In the 19th century, the hydraulic power

of the waters drew manufacturers.

The lake discharges 7,000 liters a second.

And, by the end of the 19th century,

it became a destination for vacationing city dwellers

from New York and New Jersey.

And today, it still brings holidaymakers

to enjoy its harbor and lakeside walks.

We now travel back to the west,

passing mist-covered hills to rejoin the Connecticut River.

The river flows, roughly, north to south for 600 kilometers,

and runs through four U.S. states.

And crossing the river here, at the town of Windsor,

we find a piece of New Hampshire history.

The Cornish Windsor Covered Bridge.

(light music)

The bridge was built in 1866 after three previous bridges

on the site had collapsed.

Until 2008, this was the longest wooden-covered bridge

in the United States and the longest

two-span covered bridge in the world.

Built before motorcars were around,

the bridge was constructed well enough

to carry today's modern traffic.

Though the bridge connects New Hampshire and Vermont,

it's actually owned and maintained by New Hampshire

as the state border runs along the west side of the river.

(light music)

(birds chirping)

Manufacturing in the 18th and 19th centuries

polluted the Connecticut River,

but in the last few decades,

the water quality has improved, and in 2015,

wild salmon were discovered swimming once more in the river.

(light music)

We now reach the spectacular

Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site.

These were the studios of Augustus Saint-Gaudens,

one of America's former sculptors.

Saint-Gaudens works include a famous statue of Diana

made in 1981 for the tower of Madison Square Gardens,

once an iconic part of the New York skyline.

Saint-Gaudens bought this house in 1885.

He built a studio and worked here in the summers

before moving to live here year-round

until his death in 1907.

It was declared a national historic landmark in 1962.

And today, it's open to the public.

And each year hosts a sculptor in-residence.

We travel onto the north, reaching Lebanon Regional Airport

where we land to refuel.

(engine rumbling)

The sharp sunlight casts a shadow of the helicopter

and gives a sort of selfie view of the camera system

mounted on the nose.

Refueled, we head for the picturesque Enfield Shaker Museum.

This historic district is dedicated

to the history of the shakers,

a Protestant religious group who lived here

from 1793 to 1923.

They were known as Shaking Quakers

because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services.

As pacifists, the shakers did not believe

that it was acceptable to kill or harm others.

During the Civil War of the 1860s,

President Lincoln exempted shakers from military service.

Like other shaker communities,

the village declined throughout

the second half of the 19th century

which was partly due to their vow of celibacy.

In 1923 the Enfield shaker village was closed

and sold to a Catholic missionary group

who built the neoclassical chapel.

In 1986, the Enfield Shaker Museum

opened to preserve their heritage.

The village has 13 historic houses and gardens

and the great stone dwelling,

once America's largest residential building north of Boston.

Visitors can explore the village on foot

with a self-guided tour.

We continue onwards to find Dartmouth College,

an Ivy League university.

The town refers to eight private universities

on the east side of America,

including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell.

All of which regularly appear in America's top 15 colleges.

Average fees at Dartmouth are around $23,000 a year,

which is a far cry from the Christian minister,

Eleazar Wheelock, who began Dartmouth as a school

for Native American children in 1755.

One of his first students, Samson Occom,

a Mohegan Indian, helped raise the funds

to turn it into a college.

And, in 1769, it became the ninth university

chartered in America.

The college football team, known as Big Green,

has won the national championship,

as well as a record 17 Ivy League championships.

And the college is renown for

its sports prowess, including hockey.

It was only in 1972 that women

were admitted for the first time,

and the school's song had to be changed from,

"Men of Dartmouth," to "Dear Old Dartmouth".

Students began rowing at Dartmouth in 1833.

It has grown to be the college's most popular sport.

Using the Connecticut River,

running along the western edge of the campus,

as a training ground.

Dartmouth rowers have gone on to represent

the country in both the Olympics

and the national championships.

The fierce competition seen here on the river

has translated into accomplishments in later life.

With careers in politics, business, and literature.

One of the many alumni who have gone on

to achieve success was the Pulitzer Prize winning poet

Robert Frost whose farm we saw

at the beginning of our journey.

In fact, over the years, Dartmouth College

has produced 12 Pulitzer Prize winners.

(light music)

Finally, we reach the northern forests of New Hampshire.

New Hampshire's autumnal, or fall, foliage

is the stuff of legends.

And visitors, known locally as leaf peepers,

travel from across the United States

to witness this extraordinary carnival of colors.

Webcams alert the peepers to

the beginning of the fall season.

(birds chirping) (upbeat music)

Mixed forests here include birch, ash,

scarlet sugar maples, dogwood, oak, and sassafras.

All contributing to form a spectacular kaleidoscope

of hues and shades.

Even historic villages come alive in this riot of colors.

(birds chirping)

This breathtaking natural beauty,

a symbol of New Hampshire and New England,

makes this the perfect place to end this journey.

(upbeat music)