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| READ OUR MAIL March 2000 Mailbag SeacoastNH.com |
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March 30 CAN'T WAIT FOR VACATION INFO? I recently called the chamber of commerce to get information about vacationing, two weeks ago and still have not received anything. I am married and have a 15 month old daughter am looking to get information about hotels/motels on the beach and any kind of information about the boardwalk, activities, etc.....Can you please help???!!! Thank YOU!!!!! LaurieMessiJessi@aol.com EDITOR'S REPLY: Help is our middle name here at the #1 independent web site for the seacoast. We have no printed guides, but have put everything on the web. Now you can contact 16 local chambers of commerce, or go directly to about 200 LODGING listings for the region. When you click directly, since we provide all links for free, please tell the people you spoke to that the friendly guys at SeacoastSearch.com led you to them in a matter of seconds. Ain't the web great? And feel free to write and tell us of your online experience searching the coast. http://www.seacoastsearch.com/ March 30 TRI-LIGHTHOUSE TOUR We are planning to visit this area to sightsee. Specific on our itinerary are the grave sites of the Christensen sisters from the Smuttynose Island murders and lighthouses along the shore of N.H. Is there a light house that we can approach via land in your area or perhaps charter a small boat is it is on an island. Lynn Waedekin lwaede@execpc.com EDITOR'S REPLY: All three NH lights are easy to see, one by car at New Castle (our logo), Whaleback is in the middle of the harbor and White Island light requires a trip out on the Thomas Laighton to the Isles of Shoals. In fact, one tour on the Laighton will take you close by all three. The graves are in the South Cemetery and, to date, unmolested by tourists. http://www.seacoastnh.com/smuttynose/graves.html http://www.islesofshoals.com/ March 29 PORT CITY HOTELS How do I find what hotels are in Portsmouth? Charles in Rochester, NH krebs@ttlc.net EDITOR'S REPLY: You can go directly to SeacoastSearch and look under LODGING or type in - Portsmouth hotel - to get a quick look at the ones with web sites. You can also see a complete list of those in the Portsmouth Chamber, check Port City's web site and check the lodging listing on the Portsmouth Herald web site (which is the most complete, but not clickable). Or you can try an online phone book like Switchboard.com and search on town and the word "hotel." Since only our site links all the local online info, we'll give you that easy-to-remember web address. http://www.seacoastsearch.com/ March 28 HUNTING FOR HUNTRESSES I have a link to your page from my page on people named Huntress. Will this be O.K.? Sincerely, Paul Huntres huntresp@gte.net http://home1.gte.net/huntresp/huntress_people.htm#Past EDITOR'S REPLY: Glad to help, but your current link misses a key page on our site that actually contains many fascinating excerpts from the whaling diary of Leander Huntress who sailed from Portsmouth, NH. In the mid 1800s. http://www.seacoastnh.com/whaling/hunt.html http://www.seacoastnh.com/whaling/ March 25 OOPS ANITA? You probably already know about this, but there is a significant error (?) on p. 159 of Anita Shreve's Weight of Water. It is in Maren Hontvet's "journal": "She [Karen C.] then proceeded to preside, in her rather silly fashion, over the entire Sunday dinner, speaking of the personages who had been to visit Celia Thaxter, who was Eliza Laighton's mother and a poetess of some repute . . . " In the novel, Karen Christensen is a domestic servant to Eliza Laighton. Eliza L. is Celia's mother, not vice-versa, correct? Emily in Mont Vernon, NH earcher@jlc.net EDITOR'S REPLY: We see it more as fiction and not an error. "Weight of Water" is a novel, after all. Shakespeare did it with some success, truncating decades of history into a single imaginary character. Still a number of locals have taken umbrage at seeing Seacoast history rewritten in a number of Anita Shreve novels. We discussed this with her a few years back out on the Shoals before "Pilot's Wife" was released. We're taking a neutral position on this one, but purists may want to read a lengthy letter to the Portsmouth Herald (March 24, 2000, page A7). UNH associate professor C. Laurence Robertson has a number of issues with Ms. Shreve's mix of fact and fiction. We also met with Laurence who choreographed the recent Smuttynose Murder Ballet. Stay tuned to our Smuttynose web site as the movie version comes to the silver screen tentatively this fall. http://www.seacoastnh.com/smuttynose/index.html March 24 SEEKING MINI-LIGHTHOUSES OF NH I'm looking for a New Hampshire lighthouse for my collection. Gift shops have them from all the New England states, except New Hampshire. Can you suggest where I might find one? Eleanor K Kenmare@endor.com EDITOR'S REPLY: We checked our sister site SeacoastSearch.com and one listing popped to the top. One store in Wells, ME nearby has it all. Check out the site for Lighthouse Depot. NH has three seaside lighthouses - White Island, Fort Constitution in New Castle and Whaleback in the harbor. We'll bet you plenty they have models of all three. http://www.lhdepot.com/ http://www.seacoastsearch.com March 22 FLOWERS ON MY MIND I heard on the radio something about a seacoast flower and garden show and I thought it said this weekend? Can you help me out?? Thank You. Lori B lorene@together.net EDITOR'S REPLY: We heard it to and it's under special events in the attached web site for the Whittemore Center, also on SeacoastSearch.com. (OK, we just added it five minutes ago - but we meant to.) http://www.whit-center.com/ http://www.seacoastsearch.com/ March 22 SEEKING AEGEAN Could you send us a brochure or any information on the Aegean Motel in Hampton Beach, NH? We are looking to book a long weekend in July. Thanks! AJKClub@aol.com EDITOR'S REPLY: We couldn't find a linked listing on the Hampton sites we checked, but we called the Aegean and they do, in fact, have a web site. You can now contact them directly re: your booking and we've just added them to SeacoastSearch.com for future reference. That site today has 180 lodging links - all free to you and the listers. http://www.aegean.homepage.com/ http://www.seacoastsearch.com March 21 NEW SPEED RECORD! NH TAKES ONLY SIX MONTHS TO NOT RESPOND TO STUDENTS In October 1999 my son and a classmate sent a letter to the state of New Hampshire for information about being 1 of the 13 colonies. The boys never received any information. If there is a way that you would be able to send any information to them at school that would be greatly appreciated. I've enclosed the address: Wendy T, Sourthwood Elementary, Enumclaw, WA LuvWendy@aol.com EDITOR'S REPLY: The kids are learning a great lesson in American democracy - never expect a reply from the government, especially in a state like NH. No taxes, no services. We've added a link for you to check out the state web site, a nonprofit historical society and the state library. The state library web site is very responsive and even has a place to email history questions. In all fairness, a lot of this info is online already and the kids might have been luckier if they limited the scope of their search to a very specific question and directed it to a very specific agency or individual. Knowing WHO to ask and HOW to ask in the era of Information Overload is as important as WHAT to ask. Although we are not funded by anyone, especially the state, we're happy to send along a free copy of our booklet on the history of Portsmouth, NH as a consolation prize. we'll mail that out today. In the meantime, check out these email addresses. Thanks to the Internet, info can be gotten instantly without the need for printed matter. http://www.state.nh.us/nhsl/index.html http://www.state.nh.us/ http://www.nhhistory.org/ http://www.seacoastnh.com/portsmouth/book.html March 20 SHOUTING ABOUT HAMPTON GREETINGS FROM CONNECTICUT..THE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND CAN'T GET HERE FAST ENOUGH FOR US, SO WE CAN RETURN TO HAMTON BEACH FOR THE START OF MANY TRIPS IN THE SUMMER..YOUR BEACHES AND FRIENDLY PEOPLE HAVE MORE TO OFFER THAN FLORIDA COULD EVER HAVE..IF I COULD MOVE MY ENTIRE FAMILY THERE, IT WOULD BE ASAP. THANKS FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY AND WE WOULD NEVER STOP GOING TO YOUR LOVELY SEACOAST... Mr. & Mrs. F. Norton, Niantic, CT jrj03@snet.net March 17 HOW COLD IS NH SEA IN SUMMER? If I walked into the water just outside Ashworth Inn in Hampton Beach in mid-July, what would the water temperature be? Thanks for any info. Ann Nelson llman@mail.utexas.edu METEOROLOGIST KEN MITCHELL RESPONDS: NOAA analysis of the average July sea surface temp off the coast of New England for the period 1961-1990 shows the upper 50s is the average surface temp. But we must bear in mind the behavior of those readings right at the shoreline where most ankles test the waters. On days when the winds are strong from land to sea (a land breeze), upwelling of colder water from the near-shore ocean bottom occurs causing water temps to be colder than that, at least several degrees colder When we have a strong wind from sea to land (a sea breeze), however, those winds blow warmer surface water into the shore and the water temps can jump a good ten degrees, into the mid to upper 60s! Sooo...the best time to walk the waters in with a good sea breeze..but alas, it's also the worst time, as the air temperature in a sea breeze is considerably colder than it otherwise would have been. In short, if you want warmer ankles, you must put up with colder calves (and everything above). Hope that's clear! http://www.seacoastnh.com/weather/index.html March 15 SEEKING CELIA'S PHONE NUMBER For a reference in an appendix for a New England gardening book I'm doing, I need the phone number for the Celia Thaxter Garden--is there one, and would it be possible for you to supply it? Karan Davis Cutler Kdcutler@aol.com EDITOR'S REPLY: This is an often-asked questions and there is, at last, an answer. The Shoals Maine Lab at Cornell has just redesigned its web site. On the home page (click first link below) you will find a section dedicated to info on visiting Celia's garden. This is the most authoritative data on the topic and you can write to the webmaster for a friendly quick response. We've added, by the way, a new Isles of Shoals links section to SeacoastSearch.com. Look under ATTRACTIONS for an instant links page. http://www.sml.cornell.edu/ http://www.seacoastnh.com/celia/index.html http://www.seacoastnh.com/shoals/appletour1.html http://www.seacoastnh.com/shoaler/index.html March 14 MURDER LETTERS NOT REAL Are the Maren Hontvedt journals in Shreve's The Weight of Water actual, historical documents in translation? How much of them are Shreve's fictional interpretation? Did Shreve (as did her protagonist Jean) research Maren Hontvedt's journals at the Athenaeum? Emily of Mont Vernon, NH earcher@jlc.net EDITOR'S REPLY: There are no letters from Maren, translated or otherwise in the Athenaeum or anywhere. They are fictional. Yes Anita Shreve did some research at the Athenaeum as does her character in the novel. The idea for connecting Maren, one of the victims, with the murders comes, we understand from an unsubstantiated rumor that the actual Maren made a deathbed confession back in Norway where she died. This idea appears in an early "crime story" analysis of the murder, but is apparently imaginary. There is zero evidence of that very unlikely concept and lots of evidence to condemn Louis Wagner for the crime. The conspiracy theory, however, will never die thanks to the novel and will hopefully make for good fiction in film version too later this year when conspiracy theory king Oliver Stone released "Weight of Water", the movie. http://www.seacoastnh.com/smuttynose March 14 COUNTING ON THE BLACK HISTORY TRAIL I'm looking for more information about the sites selected for markers for the PBH Trail in Portsmouth. Thank you. Judy S VALERIE CUNNINGHAM REPLIES: We have 27 sites on the Trail. Our current goal is to place markers at 24 sites--doubling up on a couple. Although occupants of some sites are donating the funds to cover costs of erecting a sign at their location, all donations go into the Site Markers Fund to benefit the entire Trail. Donors will be acknowledged in our publications. A guide to the walking tour is available for $2.00 at Stroudwater Books, Little Professor, and Dunnaway Store, or I'll send you one if you want to give me your mailing address. The complete PBHT Resource Book also is available for $45.00 and you can see both online at SeacoastNH.com by clicking below: http://www.seacoastnh.com/blackhistory/pbht.html March 13 GEORGE, THE POSTER I'm a exchange student from Sweden that is going to school at Iredell I.S.D. in Iredell, Texas. I try to find a poster of Washington Crossing The Delaware made by Emanuel Leutze. If you sell those can you send me a email then? Thank you very much for your time. Ingebrikt Sjovik inge@surfguiden.com EDITOR'S REPLY: That picture is owned lock stock and barrel by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so we'd suggest searching their gift shop first. When we wanted to show the picture online to see if, indeed, Portsmouth resident Prince Whipple was in the boat with Washington, we were told the reprint fee was $250. That's a lot of scratch for what has been called the most well known painting of an American historical event. http://www.seacoastnh.com/blackhistory/prince.html http://www.seacoastnh.com/tobiaslear/index.html http://www.metmuseum.org/ March 13 BIKES ONLINE Can you inform me about bike trails/paths in the area? I have a toddler who rides in a trailer, so the paths I am interested in need to be safe in terms of traffic, accessibility, and smoothness. Thanks. Margaret S of Dover, NH schneids@mediaone.net TODD ELSWORTH REPLIES: We at Seacoast Area Bicycle Routes (SABR) are currently updating our resource sections for maps and trails in the area for cyclists. For general information check out our site below. We will be updating the site in the coming months to offer the information that you have requested. http://www.seacoastbikes.org/ March 10 MURDER VERSE Your site has provided a wealth of information on Celia Thaxter and the Smuttynose murders; thank you for putting this all up on the Web.We have a library patron who is looking for a poem by Celia Thaxter about the murders on Smuttynose. I have looked everywhere I could, and cannot find such a poem. Thanks to your site I have found "Celia's Letter" and "A Memorable Murder". Is there a poem by Celia about the Smuttynose murders? Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Francesca , Amherst Town Library, NH library@amherst.lib.nh.us EDITOR'S REPLY: We're going to go out on a limb and say there is no poem by Celia about the murder, just the essay we have online. Perhaps it is being confused with the popular ballad by John Perrault, which is also on our Smuttynose section. That would be our guess. http://www.seacoastnh.com/smuttynose March 10 UPPSALA, IT'S THE OTHER ENGLAND!!! I need some information on the development of England!!!!! Ivana in Uppsala, Uppland, Sweden martinez666burgos@hotmail.com EDITOR'S REPLY: Sorry Sweden, this is NEW England, The one you want is much closer. But check the top link, as a gift from us, for a beginning British history resource. Meanwhile, we got all interested in your area. Looks fascinating on the web the next two links will show our readers where YOU live. http://www.britannia.com/history/ http://www.tukler.com/domkyrkan.html http://www.uppsala.se/english/index.htm March 09 SEEKING DESCENDANTS OF BLACK PATRIOTS I was led to your web site by a link from the Riverside Chapter, California Society, Sons of the American Revolution (http://www.americanrevolution.org/blk.html) . I would like your permission to link to it from the Florida Society, SAR. (click below) If you have any information about Blacks in the American Revolution, I would be very interested in finding out more about that. One of the most disturbing and disgraceful things I have learned has been the CONCERTED EFFORT after the American Revolution to downplay and even destroy any last vestige of information about Black Patriots and their contribution to the American Revolution. We know there were at least 5,000 Blacks who served in the American Revolution and have no way of recognizing or even knowing who many of them were. We encourage any of the male descendants of these Patriots to apply to join the Sons of the American Revolution.
I am on a committee of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution to complete a new Patriot Roster to include as many American Revolution Patriots as possible (see http://www.sar.org/sarmag/Roster.html ). If there is any way we can find out about any of these great Patriots, we will include them. You might be interested in looking at the Florida Society Web Pages and particularly the St. Augustine Chapter Web Page .
Revolution
March 08 SLAVERY, WASHINGTON, HERONS & GOPHERS? Thanks for the interesting quiz question! I enjoyed reading the history of one of Washington's slaves. I have blue herons in my yard, I live by a lake in CA. The herons are in my yard to get gophers - I guess they get tired of fish. Madlyn Creekmore, Lake Elsinore, CA madcreek@cosmoaccess.net http://www.seacoastnh.com/contests/index.html March 07 PRESERVING THE MURDER STORY My question is, how is the heritage of the Smuttynose murders, preserved today in the Portsmouth area? What evidence is there that this heritage will continue to be preserved? Charles in Durham, NH csf@hopper.unh.edu EDITOR's REPLY: An intriguing question, though we're not sure a brutal ax murder has a "heritage. The ax is in the archive at the Portsmouth Athenaeum. The graves of the victims are in South Cemetery. Smuttynose Island is privately owned and the Hontvet House burned down a few years after the event in 1873 when souvenir hunters reportedly ravaged the building. We are extremely concerned about preserving the authenticity of the historical fact and following the evolution of the legend. That is what our web site is about. As soon as the fictionalized film version of Weight of Water is released, likely later this year, it will be even more important to continue to separate the facts from the imaginary version in the film. That's why we intend to stay online, documenting the details, and reporting as much of the actual story as possible. Do we fear a wave of weirdo movie-warped souvenir collecting tourists heading this way? Yes, so we continue to explain the facts and work to not exploit the tale as we explain it. http://www.seacoastnh.com/smuttynose/index.html March 07 "THE DANE" LOVES SEACOAST, NH Greetings from a Dane, that just spend three weeks in Portsmouth. I really miss your beautiful country, and nice people. Maybe i´ll be back sometime. I would love to be in NH. in the summertime. I think i lost my heart to the seacoast, so i have to visit you again. I saw, that there are plenty of work to get anywhere, so maybe i should come and stay for good. I wunder if thats a possibility ? (Greencard etc.) Love to WHEB.. Keep it rolling. And love to Comfort Inn at Yokens. Our stay was a pleasure. With real love from "the Dane". Frank from Rødovre, Copenhagen, Denmark Muddyriver@mail.tele.dk March 06 JAPANESE TREATY OF PORTSMOUTH Hi, I'm Japanese having interest in Treaty of Russia and Japan. I heard there is a kind of museum in Portsmouth displaying pictures and something relating to Russo-Japan Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905. I'm planing to visit to Portsmouth this coming Tuesday and really want to visit this museum. Do you know this museum? And do you have much more information relating to this treaty? I'd like to know everything having relations to this treaty in Portsmouth. Aki in Boston, MA aky@bu.edu EDITOR'S REPLY: Hope thus reaches you in time. There are two places to look. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has a museum in Kittery, Maine (at the gate of the base on Kittery Point) that has a number of Treary items. The base is not open to the public, but the museum is open for limited hours. Also, contact the Portsmouth Athenaeum (open Tuesday 1-4 pm) in downtown Portsmouth (across from the big church in Market Square). The phone number is 1-603-431-2538. The Portsmouth Public Library also has a lot of files on the topic that you can see and a book by Peter Randall called "There are No Victors Here" which, we hear, will eventually be published in Japanese. You might also contact Charles Doleac who is the local person in charge of the Japan-American Society of NH. Also check with the Portsmouth Herald and the Portsmouth City Hall about a conference on the Treaty that was held, Sunday, March 5. I'm sure someone at City Hall will be happy to help you find these materials and sites to visit. Tell the mayor SeacoastNH.com sent you. March 02 THEY KNOW GUNDALOWS Do you have information about gundalows? Missy from Conway, NH missy965@hotmail.com EDITOR'S REPLY: We've never had the chance to get any good gundalow data online. They were the flat-bottomed barge-like sailing boats that carried supplies up and down the Piscataqua rivers before trucks and train made them obsolete. Besides the reconstructed one built by the Piscataqua Gundalow Project in Durham, there are two good sources. Start with a superb tiny book by John P. Adams called "The Piscataqua River Gundalow". It has great photos and drawings and is only 36 pages. The other key resource is Richard Winslow's complete book by the same name printed by Portsmouth Marine Society. Your library is bound to have one of them. We've only got the one picture below. http://www.seacoastnh.com/woodman/hale/9.html March 01 EL LETTER FROM COLUMBIA Cordial saludo. Antes de plantear la pregunta, primero agradesco la posibilidad del servicio y ofresco mis disculpas por presentar esta solicitud en español. Soy Ingeniero geólogo, con residencia en Cartagena Colombia y necesito realizar algunas charlas en el tema de geomorfología, sin embargo quisiera ampliar el tema: geomorfología de rios (de ser posible con material gráfico ilustrativo). Felicitaciones por el servicio y pongo mis conocimientos a su disposición Hasta una nueva oportunidad JOSE VICENTE FRANCO SERNA vicente-francos@usa.net EDITOR'S REPLY: We don't speak a word of Spanish here, so we submitted this letter to "FreeTranslation.com". It took about 20 seconds to come up with this computerized, um, translation. We're still uncertain as to how to reply. Anyone want to help? Cordial greeting. Before presenting the question, first agradesco the possibility of the service and ofresco my you excuse by presenting this request in Spaniard. I am Engineer geologist, with residence in Cartagena Colombia and I need to carry out some you chat in the theme of geomorfología, however wanted to expand the theme: geomorfología of rios (of being possible with material graphic ilustrativo). Congratulations by the service and put my knowledge at your service Until a new opportunity JOSE VICENTE FRANK S. Ing. Geologist Here is the computerized translation we sent back: Nosotros no hablamos el español, así que escribimos esta carta y lo tradujo usar un sitio de telaraña llamó "freetranslation. com". Espero que usted pueda leer esto. Traté a traduce su carta, pero todavía no era posible a leyó. Somos un sitio de telaraña en Hampshire Nuevo, los Estados Unidos de América. Nosotros no sabemos nada acerca del español o la Geología. Arrepentido. J. Dennis
Robinson SeacoastNH. com, el redactor
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