From the Foreword

Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire celebrates unique and obscure stories behind many special and lesser-known places you can visit.

Each walk, hike, and exploration adds your own story to the landscape. You always remember a walk or hike not only by the weather and what you saw, but by who accompanied you. The echoes of laughter and falling leaves will help you to create your own personal “storied” landscape of memories that can last a lifetime—if you make the modest effort to get outside and explore these special places.

The Forest Society is particularly proud of a statewide legacy of intentional land conservation. We’ve protected many special places and a treasure trove of stories the landscape contains for future generations. We support connecting residents with a strong sense of place, which, with time, becomes the basis of a land ethic that grows with every hiking experience Learning about local history, legends, and lore—even the creepy, old scary, or bizarre stories you may never have heard before—is a vital aspect of forest preservation.

Three of the Forest Society’s own special permanent forest reservations are included among the Haunted Hikes: Madame Sherri Forest, in Chesterfield; Indian Arrowhead Forest, in Surry; and Monsoon Village, in Milford and Hollis. These sites are open to the public and offer easy hikes or short walks to scenic and historic resources. They are open-air museums, where artifacts and history are preserved in place, protected in our privately-owned forest reservations. Please respect the land and its stories, honor the ghosts of our predecessors, and they in turn will welcome your visit.

I hope that Marianne O’Connor will spark your interest in New Hampshire history by providing natural places for families to explore and learn. Now get out there and enjoy the haunted hikes of New Hampshire!

—Dave Anderson, Senior Director of Education, The Forest Society