Hart's Location, New Hampshire

History

Hart's Location was named after Colonel John Hart of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1772, the land was granted to Thomas Chadbourne, also of Portsmouth. Native Americans used a trail up the Saco River valley through Crawford Notch, and during the French and Indian Wars, many English captives were taken to Canada that way. Despite this, the pass through the White Mountains was otherwise unknown until 1771, when Timothy Nash discovered it hunting moose, and told Governor John Wentworth.

The obscure Indian trail transformed into the Coös Road, on which was built a small public house in 1793. It was abandoned, but in 1825 Samuel Willey Jr. occupied it with his wife, five children, and two hired hands. During a violent storm on August 28, 1826, they all died in a landslide known as Willey's Slide. They fled their home and took refuge in a shelter, but it was destroyed while the house remained unscathed.

A rock outcrop uphill divided the slide, which flowed around the home and reunited below it. The door was found gaping, a bible open on the table. Their tragedy inspired the short story "The Ambitious Guest" (1835) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mount Willey was named in their memory. The house became part of a larger inn, then burned in 1898. Today, the location is a state historic site.

In 1875, the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad completed its line up through Crawford Notch. Passengers thrilled to traverse the Frankenstein Trestle, 520 ft long and 85 ft above the ravine floor, and then the Willey Brook Bridge, 400 ft long and 94 ft high. Later part of the Mountain Division of the Maine Central Railroad, the route is still traveled by the Conway Scenic Railroad.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 48.6 sqkm, of which 48.4 sqkm are land and 0.3 sqkm, or 0.56%, are water.

The shape of Hart's Location is unusual: about 11 mi long and 1.5 mi wide, with crooked boundaries that echo the confines of Crawford Notch, threaded by the upper Saco River and U.S. Route 302 near the centerline of the town, and pinched from both sides between steep mountains and in some areas sheer cliffs above. This anomaly is heightened on maps that show county lines: Coos County lies immediately to the east and Grafton County to the west, but Hart's Location is part of Carroll County, though barely connected to it.

The highest point in Hart's Location is 3900 ft above sea level along the town's western boundary, beneath the summit of 4285 ft Mount Willey. Arethusa Falls, New Hampshire's highest waterfall, located in the neighboring township of Livermore, is a popular hiking destination with access from U.S. Route 302 in Hart's Location. The town lies fully within the Saco River watershed.

The town is a popular ice climbing destination in the winter months.

Demographics

In the 2000 census, there were 37 people, 15 households, and 10 families living there. The population density was 2.0 PD/sqmi. There were 50 housing units at an average density of 2.7 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the location was 97.30% (36 people) White, with 2.70% (one person) citing themselves as from two or more races.

There were 15 households, out of which 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.7% were married couples living together, and 33.3% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.10.

24.3% of residents were under the age of 18, 5.4% were from 18 to 24, 35.1% were from 25 to 44, 8.1% were from 45 to 64, and 27.0% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.0 males.

The median household income was $41,250, and the median income for a family was $70,833. Males had a median income of $26,250 versus $28,750 for females. The per capita income for the town was $19,609. None of the population and none of the families were below the poverty line.

Politics

Federal elections

Main article: New Hampshire midnight voting

New Hampshire law allows towns with fewer than 100 residents to open the polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots. Hart's Location is one of the New Hampshire communities where the first votes are cast in the Democratic and Republican New Hampshire primaries, the first presidential primaries in the United States during each presidential election year. The tradition of first-in-the-nation voting in Hart's Location dates back to 1948 when residents initially voted at 7 AM. In 1952, the town shifted to midnight to facilitate greater access to the polls for railroad workers.

In 1964, Hart's Location discontinued the practice of midnight voting. In 1996 the tradition was revived, thanks to new owners of a local inn who aimed to garner more media attention for the small town. In 2024, it was announced that the town would once again abandon the practice. Local officials cited reasons such as the increasing length of ballots, the time required for vote tallying, and new stringent voting requirements that complicate the process.

Election results

Boldfaced names indicate the ultimate nationwide winner of each contest:

1996

2000

2004

2008

2012

2016

2020

In popular culture

The community's voting tradition received a nod in the 2002 third-season episode of US television program The West Wing, in an episode entitled "Hartsfield's Landing", named after a town modeled on either Hart's Location, or its companion, Dixville Notch.

References

References

1. "2021 U.S. Gazetteer Files – New Hampshire". United States Census Bureau.
2. "Hart's Location town, Carroll County, New Hampshire: 2020 DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171)". U.S. Census Bureau.
3. "Hart's Location Town Services".
4. "New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau Profile".
5. [https://books.google.com/books?id=OcoMAAAAYAAJ&dq=coolidge%20mansfield%20history%20description%20new%20england%201859&pg=PA685 Austin J. Coolidge & John B. Mansfield, ''A History and Description of New England;'' Boston, Massachusetts 1859]
6. "RootsWeb.com Home Page".
7. (August 2025). "New Hampshire Division of Parks & Recreation — Story of the Willey Family".
8. "New Hampshire Division of Parks & Recreation — Story of the Willey Family".
9. "Crawford Notch".
10. Foster, Debra H.. (1995). "Water Use in New Hampshire: An Activities Guide for Teachers". U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Geological Survey.
11. "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov.
12. "U.S. Census website". [[United States Census Bureau]].
13. Canfield, Clarke. (January 8, 2008). "McCain, Obama, get early votes in N.H. villages". The Boston Globe.
14. (January 4, 2024). "Hart's Location will skip midnight voting for 2024 presidential primary".
15. (November 4, 2008). "Obama wins in early-voting towns".
16. "Hart's Location, New Hampshire".
17. (November 6, 2012). "First Election Day voters, in two tiny N.H. locations, give Obama lead". CBS News.
18. "2016 Election Results - Hart's Location". Town of Hart's Location.
19. (February 11, 2020). "First results of 2020 New Hampshire Primary are in after midnight voting".
20. "2020 Election Results".