Pictorial of a Wedding at the Wentworth Country Club Resort, New Hampshire

Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

In Summer 2016 we were wedding guests for two nights in the Wentworth Country Club Resort in the mountain town Jackson Village adjacent to Jackson, New Hampshire
Jackson is a historic tourist town along the Wildcat River in the heart of the White Mountains near Crawford Notch and Pinkham Notch
Many years ago logging gave way to tourism for mountain climbing, hiking, fishing, hunting, boating, golfing, sight seeing, and getting away from summer heat
The various nearby outstanding downhill skiing resorts dominate winter sporting along with cross-country skiing and snow mobiling

Jackson, New Hampshire --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson,_New_Hampshire

Jackson is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 816 at the 2010 census.[1] Jackson is an elegant resort area in the White Mountains. Parts of the White Mountain National Forest are in the west, north and east.

Once consisting of several large land grants by Colonial Governor John Wentworth, the town was first named New Madbury, after the seacoast town of Madbury. In 1772, a road was built through Pinkham Notch, and the area was first settled in 1778 by Benjamin Copp and his family. In 1800, the community was renamed in honor of President John Adams, who was then in office. The name Adams stuck until the town was incorporated in 1829, when Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, was inaugurated president. Governor Benjamin Pierce, a staunch backer of President Jackson, was influential in changing the name to Jackson. Only one vote was cast against the switch.

In 1847, artists of the White Mountain School began arriving in Jackson to paint the scenic beauty of the White Mountains. Others would follow, and in 1858, Joshua B. Trickey opened the Jackson Falls House. The Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad began service to Glen station at nearby Bartlett in the early 1870s, and several hotels were built to accommodate a growing infusion of tourists. Thorn Mountain House, built by Trickey in 1869, would evolve during the 1880s into Wentworth Hall, still in business today. Designed as a grouping of cottages around a main service building, the hotel included such amenities as a casino, built in 1886, and a hydroelectric plant, built in the 1890s. By the 1920s, 40 trains a day delivered passengers to Jackson.

The increasing use of automobiles, however, reduced travel by train, as vacationers could venture beyond the limits of rail service. Consequently, some grand 19th century hotels lost patrons and closed, although the town itself would never lose popularity. Jackson is one of the region's most picturesque villages, famous in part for Jackson Falls and Jackson X-C, a 150+ kilometer cross-country skiing trail system, rated one of the best in the world. Wildcat Mountain, with an unsurpassed view of Mount Washington, is a favorite alpine skiing destination. Jackson is perhaps best known for its red covered bridge (the Honeymoon Bridge), built in 1876, one of the most photographed in the state.

Continued in article

The Wentworth Country Club Resort is a somewhat different historic resort
Most of the New England resorts this old had a huge hotel and some surrounding cottages
The historic Wentworth CC has a smaller main lodge and quite a number of two story buildings with each having 8-10 excellent guest rooms
The Wentworth CC Resort is also like new in terms of maintenance, decor, air conditioning, landscaping, and flower boxes everywhere
It was expensively renovated and modernized unlike most of the historic resorts that survived since the 1800s in New Hampshire

The Wentworth Country Club Resort in Jackson should not be confused with New Hampshire's Wentworth by the Sea
Before 1776 the British King's Governor in New Hampshire was  Benning Wentworth
Banning Wentworth controlled New Hampshire's land grants before there was a USA

After crossing Crawford Notch from the north it is only a short distance to the one-lane Honeymoon Bridge gateway o Jackson

The main Wentworth CC lodge is relatively small although it houses two upper floors of guest rooms
This is a first rate resort
My main criterion for being "first rate" apart from location is silent heating and cooling controlled by a room thermostat
Lesser resorts have silent heating but guests must endure the sounds of mechanical air conditioning compressors and fans in the summer
Even lesser resorts have mechanical fan noises for heating and cooling
Primitive resorts have silent heating and no air conditioning
Since the White Mountains average about 60F degrees or less on summer nights having air conditioning is a bit of unnecessary luxury
I really  liked the silent "unnecessary" air conditioned luxury of the Wentworth CC Resort

Our room was in one of the many outer buildings having guest rooms scattered about the property
Our particular building was adjacent to the main lodge and connected with a covered boardwalk
Most of the Wentworth CC Resort rooms have propane fireplaces providing an added warm corner on a frequent below-zero night
Our room also had an enormous bathroom with a double heart-shaped Jacuzzi and separate shower room

Part of the Wentworth CC land borders the Wildcat River just down from the famous Wildcat River Falls
The river is strewn with enormous boulders that are good for splashing water sounds but not boating
The first bit of memorabilia I encountered on the bank of the river was a n antique horse-drawn snow roller
Before the era of automobiles roads were packed rather than plowed to make it easier for horse-drawn slow sleds

This is an early grist mill stone along the bank of the Wildcat River

Alongside the Wildcat River is the wedding gazebo strewn with flower petals

A violinist provided the music along the bank of the Wildcat River

The lovely bride and handsome groom are from Brookline, Mass. where Erika had six of her sixteen spine surgeries
The groom is a Massachusetts State Trooper --- a dangerous career these days

The bride's immigrant grandparents lived not far from our cottage near Franconia Notch
Her grandmother passed away two months ago
Her grandfather named Helmut Gottwick survived four years as an engineer on a German U-boat during World War II
Helmut is now 93 years young

After the 3:30 pm wedding we moved to the open bar, a fabulous dinner, and a great dance band
A terrific time was had by all until the hangovers set in for some (not me) on Sunday morning

Up Carter Notch Road about three miles along the Wildcat River is an-old style historic resort and golf course
The main hotel is called Eagle Mountain House
http://www.eaglemt.com/?&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Eagle Mountain House Brand&utm_content=Brand | Exact&utm_keyword=jackson eagle mountain house
 

In the late 1800s guests at this and historic resorts in Jackson arrived by train and then horse carriages
Before there were air conditioners living in big cities like Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and elsewhere was like living ovens
Families would book resort accommodations in the cool mountains for the summer
The children often attended nearby summer camps, and husbands commuted by train on weekends

Interestingly these big resorts had farms for vegetables, milk cows, hens' fresh eggs, and butcherings of deer, hogs, cattle, and chickens
Remember that refrigeration in the 1800s was limited to ice boxes that used ice cut from ponds in the winter and stored in ice houses

We were told that this old Eagle Mountain House may be closed down for a couple years for major renovations (rumor only perhaps)
The hotel does not appear to be as modernized as the Wentworth CC Resort dpwn the road
Perhaps almost 100 of these grand old hotels were torn down in the White Mountains after air conditioning was invented
City folks no longer had to travel to the mountains to cool off in summertime
Also new roads in the mountains made it possible for people to build second homes for summer and winter vacations

In our own village of Sugar Hill near Franconia Notch four of these magnificent 1800s resort hotels were torn down
Our house is one of three summer cottages of the Sunset Hill House Resort
The big SSH hotel was torn down along with the casino and bowling alley and barns
Only the golf club house (not great), three cottages, and an Annex were saved
Our house is one of the three original summer cottages alongside a golf course
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/pictures.htm

Wildcat Mountain Ski Resort --- http://skiwildcat.com/snow-report.html
Summit Camera Live --- http://skiwildcat.com/live-summit-cam.html
Bob Jensen's Pectoral of Pinkham Notch ---
 http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Mountains/HistoryWhiteMountains/05/WhiteMountains05-PinkhamNotch.htm  

Wildcat Mountain is located on Route 16, halfway between the towns of Jackson and Gorham, in Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire and across from Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the New England. Please enter the following commonly used latitude (North) and longitude (West) coordinates to locate the Wildcat Mountain main parking lot entrance.

Mt. Washington as viewed from Wildcat Mountain

Pictorial of Other Jackson Hotels and Nearby Ski Resorts ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Hotels/Jackson/Jackson01.htm

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

WhiteMountainHistory.org --- http://whitemountainhistory.org/
Over 70 Historical Photographs --- http://photos.whitemountainhistory.org/AlbumHomeView.aspx

Blogs of White Mountain Hikers (many great photographs) ---
http://www.blogger.com/profile/02242409292439585691

Especially note the archive of John Compton's blogs at the bottom of the page at
http://1happyhiker.blogspot.com/

Question
Are there trails in our White Mountains of New Hampshire that have ice in summer as well as winter?
See "The Ice Gulch, Would I do it Again" by John Compton, August 5, 2011 ---
http://1happyhiker.blogspot.com/2011_08_05_archive.html

Okay, you might ask, is there really ice in the Ice Gulch, even in August? Yes, there is! The next photo shows one small patch of ice. There were many larger patches, but they were at the bottom of some of those deep gaps that I mentioned above. I took some photos, but none of them really turned out, even with using a flash to illuminate these dark, dank, deep spots.

 White Mountain News --- http://www.whitemtnews.com/

On May 14, 2006 I retired from Trinity University after a long and wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm

Bob Jensen's Blogs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Our address is 190 Sunset Hill Road, Sugar Hill, New Hampshire
Our cottage was known as the Brayton Cottage in the early 1900s
Sunset Hill is a ridge overlooking with New Hampshire's White Mountains to the East
and Vermont's Green Mountains to the West

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/